Blog / Better Bones AU

The Better Bones AU is an Alternate Universe Fic / rewrite of the Warrior Cats series made by Tumblr user Bonefall, which can be found here, consisting of various posts describing how certain parts of the series will be rewritten. It is still under construction and accepting feedback from other fans, though the ultimate plan is for it to include detailed outlines of every chapter of every rewritten book. The Better Bones AU makes major changes to the characters and plot, but also the ecology and culture of the Clans and other groups they encounter, giving them a material culture higher on the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism and documenting the cats' relationship with many different species of animals and plants found in northern England while trying to avoid Artistic License – Biology with herbal medicines used in the series. It also explores political themes, with even minor characters being given consistent political opinions and the overall narrative of all the arcs centered on the conflict between three political ideologies of the Clans.

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Tropes:

• Abandon the Disabled: As in canon, Clear Sky kicks Jagged Peak out of the group for his leg injury. Unlike in canon the moor group has not split up from the forest group yet, so Jagged Peak is left alone with only Bright Storm to stay with him and try to keep him fed and alive while he is unable to hunt. Despite their efforts Jagged Peak dies as a result. This is followed by his son Thunder Storm being born missing the exact same leg Jagged Peak broke, which causes everyone to think their ancestors are sending him a message about his cruelty. However, Clear Sky refuses to listen and abandons Thunder Storm too. This is what causes the forest group to split up.
• Abel And Cain: Besides the canon examples like Hawkfrost and his siblings or Graystripe and Darkstripe:
  • Deerfoot and his siblings Tangleburr and Runningnose. The latter two are loyal supporters of Brokenstar and later Tigerstar, but Deerfoot heroically rebels against them.
  • Averted with Firestar and Scourge, who are now not related (to avoid the Broken Aesop of Firestar proving lineage doesn't matter and yet being from a "special" lineage), or at least not that either of the two know of, since BloodClan doesn't keep track of fathers.
  • Heathertail has more focus in A Vision of Shadows, leading to her and Darktail's antagonistic sibling relationship being portrayed like this.
  • Gorseclaw with his siblings Ripplestar and Spottedpelt, though it's a case where neither sibling is really evil; Ripplestar, with Spottedpelt's help, is attacking all the other Clans, even going as far so as doing so at a gathering, but only because he wants the territory they refused to give willingly to shelter SkyClan, and Gorseclaw betrays him because he thinks the bloodshed and attacking a gathering is going too far rather than not caring about SkyClan.
  • Hollyleaf and Jayfeather's relationship devolves into this as well, as Hollyleaf increasingly breaks down emotionally and becomes concerned with enacting justice and proving herself as a hero by punishing wrongdoers, leading to her coming into conflict with and eventually trying to kill Jayfeather for his defiance of StarClan.
  • Ferncloud survives Omen of the Stars and gets to confront her brother Ashfur in The Broken Code, taking Graystripe's role as a Light In The Mist.
  • Briarlight rebels against the impostor Bramblestar while both of her siblings Bumblestripe and Blossomfall support him. However, they never turn against Briarlight herself, loving her despite their opposing views. Though earlier on, when Blossomfall was a Dark Forest trainee, she claimed she hated Briarlight and threatened to kill her in the Great Battle, but ultimately couldn't go through with it.
  • Applefur allies with the Dark Forest in part out of jealousy towards her brother Marshwing, and the two end up killing each other in the Great Battle.
  • Thornclaw is a Dark Forest trainee who ultimately sides with the Dark Forest, and his brother, the noble Brackenfur, gets to fight him at the end of the Great Battle when StarClan cats come down to fight.
  • After Sparrow Heart (canon Sparrow Fur) betrays her family by leaving ThunderClan for SkyClan to gain power and ascends to the leader position, she becomes the Cain to her brother Owl Eyes' (who also becomes leader of his own Clan) Abel.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Bramblestar disowns his first litter upon discovering they aren't his, and is emotionally abusive to Alderheart and Sparkpelt.
  • Lionblaze pressures his children Dovewing and Ivypool into respectively using her powers to spy in ThunderClan and being a spy in the Dark Forest, causing them a lot of trauma.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Some of the cats wear accessories, such as Runningnose's acorn necklace he wears to mark his friendship with Brokenstar (that later becomes a way to summon him after his death) or Sorreltail's necklace which serves the practical use of containing valerian to treat her epilepsy.
• Accidental Murder: Ivypool doesn't mean to kill Antpelt's spirit; she deliberately uses killing force against him because in everyone's experience Dark Forest cats always come back when you kill them, but unbeknownst to anyone this only applies when they are killed by another Dark Forest cat. Being killed by a living cat renders them Deader than Dead. Ivypool is thus horrified by her actions.
• The Ace: Marshwing is a talented and respected warrior of ShadowClan whose success leads to his sister Applefur's jealousy.
• Act of True Love: Rowanstar sacrifices all of his remaining lives out of love for his daughter Heartstar, in order to bring her Back from the Dead.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Mousewhisker is given the temporary dishonor title of Stupidhead by Bramblestar to show how, while no malice was intended, he didn't think through the implications of joining the Dark Forest at all. While it's meant to be a punishment and insult, Mousewhisker thinks it's funny and enjoys having the name.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Feathertail is much more relaxed and less angsty in The Tiger in RiverClan (the rewritten equivalent of A Shadow in RiverClan, to align more with her characterization in The New Prophecy.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Reedwhisker in canon is a minor character whose Clan doesn't have a POV, so the narrative doesn't focus on how he feels about his mother being persecuted for being half-Clan and his uncle getting killed as a result, or all his siblings dying (two of these deaths are attributed to Tigerstar here). In the rewrite, Reedwhisker struggles with the trauma of these events, and it's made worse by how many cats in RiverClan still discriminate against and bully him, including his mentor. This is the reason for him being made a warrior so late, while in canon it's just a continuity error. He also gets angst over being captured by Darktail and horribly treated, since he blames himself for eventually swearing loyalty to him rather than being Defiant to the End like Stonefur.
  • To go along with the Feathertail angst downgrade, her brother Stormfur takes her role as cynical and distrusting in The Tiger in RiverClan rather than being happy-go-lucky and unaffected by his trauma, again to fit his characterization in The New Prophecy.
  • Both Stormfur and Feathertail take Graystripe being exiled due to choosing Firestar over his Clan harder and aren't entirely forgiving of Graystripe for it, in particular it contributes to Stormfur's trust issues that the events of TigerClan also added to.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Harry and Sol are separate characters (Sol being a god who possesses Harry, willingly on Harry's part). Harry still tells SkyClan about the backstory he gave in SkyClan and the Stranger, but he is lying about it for sympathy and he was actually the parent of the kits in the story (taking Cinders' role) rather than being one of the abandoned kits.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • The Tribe as a whole is a lot tougher and more capable of handling itself than in canon. Sharptooth is the incarnation of a god, One-Eye who has supernatural power in addition to his physical size being huge, yet the Tribe has killed different incarnations of One-Eye several times in the past and would have been able to do it again if they needed to, though with more death and suffering than they would have had with the journeying cats' help. Nonetheless they still aren't quite as good at fighting at the Clans, so they willingly ask for help to drive out the rogues in Power of Three, knowing that they wouldn't be at risk of total destruction if they did it alone like in canon but having their allies to help would make it easier and have fewer casualties. The Clan cats are very surprised anyone would ask for help they don't absolutely need for their survival rather than go it alone and not admit weakness.
  • Jayfeather is now a fully trained warrior before he becomes a cleric (medicine cat), giving him a skill in fighting that he even uses to fight a StarClan cat to save Hazeltail.
  • A downplayed example with Deadfoot, who was always a warrior capable of fighting, but here it's noted that he's evenly matched with Leopardfur in their battle in the rewritten Fire and Ice, in part due to his skillful use of his foot gauntlet.
  • Shadowsight gets to play a big role in defeating Ashfur rather than just needing to be rescued in the final confrontation.
  • Rosetail gets to do a lot more damage to Blackfoot before he kills her.
  • Stormcloud's fighting skill was never noted in canon, but here he is a great fighter who cats also think s impressive for surviving being hit by a car while he was a kittypet and having a large surgical scar as a result.
  • Done with some of the female cast of ThunderClan during The Prophecies Begin, who in canon were (besides Bluestar and Yellowfang) mostly background characters defined by being mothers while the male warriors had more "badass" moments. Speckletail, for instance goes from a background character who is never noted for any sort of capability to being one of ThunderClan's most formidable warriors who dies taking out a bulldozer. Similarly, Frostfur is now a powerful warrior covered in scars.
  • Neither Thrushpelt nor Moonflower was ever noted for their fighting skills in canon. Here, they were both the best fighters in ThunderClan in their time, which contributes to Bluestar's determination to not let Thistleclaw lead their Clan; he would throw Thrushpelt into battle for his strength and likely lead to him getting killed, just as what happened to Moonflower for the same reasons.
  • Nightcloud in canon is only seen fighting once, where she loses to Squirrelflight (who is never shown to be a particularly strong fighter). In the Better Bones AU, she is one of the strongest fighters in WindClan along with Willowclaw.
  • All of the Clans besides ThunderClan get this in general. ThunderClan no longer wins all of their battles or has all of the cats shown in the narrative to bed the best fighters; every Clan strongly values prowess in battle so every Clan has strong fighters.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • In canon, Squirrelflight and Leafpool leave ThunderClan so they can pass off Leafpool's kits as Squirrelflight's, with it never being explained why no one is suspicious of this even though no other cat ever left the Clan to give birth, or how no one noticed Leafpool is pregnant and Squirrelflight isn't. Here, no one notices the pregnancy situation because they leave too early for it to be obvious in Leafpool, while Squirrelflight actually is pregnant but miscarries due to being infertile. In addition, they have an excuse for why they left; they claim to be on a mission from StarClan, with Shrewpaw helpfully intervening from StarClan to provide them a rare plant, which they claim finding was the purpose of their mission.
  • The canon Dark Forest throws their trainees Ivypool and Antpelt into a fight to the death despite the fact that Antpelt could be (and is) killed Deader than Dead, thus making them lose a loyal ally, for no apparent other reason besides that it's evil. Here, Dark Forest cats regenerate when they are killed by each other, and they simply didn't know that this would not happen if a living cat killed a Dark Forest cat.
  • In canon, there is no explanation for how Dark Forest and StarClan cats are able to enter the living world and physically fight living cats during the Great Battle, but are never capable of helping out in battle at any other time. In the rewrite, they are only capable of doing it during the day of an eclipse, which happens during the Great Battle.
  • It is never made clear in canon whether Mudclaw's death was a result of StarClan killing him or a very convenient coincidence, and if it was StarClan causing it, why they aren't capable of doing it in other cases like with Tigerstar. In this rewrite his death is explicitly a Bolt of Divine Retribution from StarClan, and StarClan doesn't kill cats intentionally but does so as a result of Power Incontinence from strong collective emotion of many cats, so they can't just do it to anyone.
  • Although A Starless Clan hasn't been rewritten since isn't scheduled to be finished until late 2024, an explanation for why Nightheart's stressed out about his legacy is already set up. In canon, Nightheart feeling pressured to live up to Firestar's legacy comes off as strange considering that half his Clan is descended from Firestar by that point and most of them do nothing significant with their life. The rewrite severely reduces the amount of Firestar descendants by making Alderheart, Sparkpelt, Sorrelstripe, and Spotfur (and any descnedents of theirs by extension) no longer related to him. Furthermore, the majority of the cats that are still descended from Firestar in the rewrite have performed extraordinary feats,^{Who and what?}Squirrelflight is Clan deputy, Leafpool discovered the Moonpool, Jayfeather is a cleric who summoned StarClan, Lionblaze is a legendary fighter, Dovewing played a great role in stopping the Dark Forest, Hollyleaf is the vessel of a god, Ivypool was a Light in the Mist, Bristlefrost sacrificed her afterlife to kill the Big Bad of The Broken Code with terrifying powers, Thriftear is a prodigy warrior, and Finchlight played a crucial role in the rebellion against the tyrannical Ashfur. to the point where the exceptions can be counted on one hand: Hollylark died young, Snaptooth and Flywhisker left to become kittypets, and Flipclaw hasn't done much of note.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: Redtail, Hazeltail, Rowanclaw, Tigerheart (who also gets a Gender Flip and is female) and Thunder Storm are transgender now. There is also a third gender that exists in the culture of the Clans, the gib or meewa (in clanmew). Meewa cats include Gray Wing, Pebble Heart, Owl Eyes, Goosefeather, Mumblefoot, Larksong, Snowkit, Cinderheart, Poppyfrost, Dovewing, Hollylark, Blackstar, Ratscar, Runningnose, Feathertail, Pebblefoot, Copperwing, Frostpaw, Tree, Leafpool and Skywatcher, and while Iceheart spends much of his life in a culture that does not have this gender, he connects with it when he joins the Clans. ^note  Most of the cats are referred to by their canon pronouns for simplicity's sake, In-Universe because using a non-gendered pronoun wouldn't be quite accurate to a third gender and clanmew does not use gendered pronouns so the translators tried to approximate, out-of-universe to avoid confusion with the canon books, though "they" or a new pronoun like "xey/xem" is also acceptable. Twigbranch and Finleap don't fit in to any of the three genders; Twigbranch is agender and Finleap is multigender.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • BloodClan is no longer a villainous group but a neutral group that both provides important services and protection to the cats of the city and can be ruthless to those who oppose them. Scourge himself gets to join ThunderClan and become a loyal ally of Firestar.
  • Lizardstripe in canon only existed to be an abusive mother; here, while she still isn't the best mother (though not outright abusive), she has sympathetic qualities and is the ShadowClan member of the forget-me-nots who help create a new model of friendship and respect between the Clans.
  • Blackstar is more definitively redeemed and a good leader after the first arc here, with his leadership being responsible for ShadowClan not having many Dark Forest apprentices. He is very mad when he finds out a ShadowClan patrol watched Berrykit suffer. Likewise Russetfur is no longer part of said patrol but the one to discover them, and is equally angry at their cruelty.
  • StarClan in general gets this for the most part - while they do send some cats like Morningstar, Pinestar, Ravenwing, and Appledusk to the Dark Forest who they didn't in canon due to Deliberate Values Dissonance or "mob justice", they also don't do some of the more cruel and manipulative things they do in canon, like encouraging Leafpool to run away with Crowfeather only to punish her and consider sending her to the Dark Forest for the kits she had as a result. Also, while letting Ashfur into StarClan still turns out to backfire on their part, they do it because of how he was partially motivated by fear the prophecy of the Three could threaten his Clan (and Ashfur also only committed one crime here, the attempt to murder Hollyleaf, Jayfeather and Lionblaze in the fire; he never plotted with Hawkfrost), not like in canon where they let him in because they think Ashfur just "loved too much".
  • Thistleclaw is still a villain but he's no longer a pedophile; his villainy solely lies in his violently xenophobic ideology.
  • A variation with Stumptail where he was inconsistently portrayed in canon both as a loyal Brokenstar supporter who was exiled with him and joined him in the Dark Forest, and a member of the rebellion against him who stayed in ShadowClan. The rewrite sticks with the more heroic interpretation.
  • Gray Wing in canon supported Bumble being not allowed into the group due to her being "useless" and resenting her for taking Turtle Tail from him, and is unrepentant for that (caring even at her death more that it makes her probable murderer Clear Sky look bad), but here Gray Wing, who dies far earlier, shows in xeir StarClan appearance that xey approve of Thunder Storm being up in arms against Bumble's treatment, and xey never make excuses for Clear Sky. Bright Storm, meanwhile, who takes many of Gray Wing's previous roles, does participate in kicking Bumble out but regrets her actions and ultimately teams up with Thunder Storm to save her.
  • Stonewing in canon is a supporter of the bigoted Berryheart, but here he is a strong supporter of Heartstar (the former Tigerheart) and opposes Berryheart, due to the bonds he formed with Dovewing and Strikestone in being deaf cats trying to form a community and create a sign language.
  • Snake Claw (named Snake in canon) still starts out as a vicious supporter of Clear Sky as in canon, and again as in canon he turns against him for letting One Eye take over and abuse Clear Sky's Clan. However, while in canon his motives get retconned so he now just preferred One Eye over Clear Sky all along and ends up joining the Obviously Evil Slash, in this AU he follows through on his defection and joins Thunder's Clan.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Goosefeather is a much more unfriendly character, harshly trying to stop Bluestar from defying fate.
  • Bramblestar's actions are mostly the same in canon except for him being disliked more for them rather than seen by everyone as an amazing cat, but one notable difference is that he explicitly disowns his kits after finding out they aren't his biologically (this is to avoid Tigerheart and Dovewing's relationship being incestuous, as Dovewing would have been considered Bramblestar's adopted granddaughter). He is also a poor parent to Sparkpelt and Alderheart.
• Adaptational Karma:
  • Leopardstar, rather than living out her life until she dies of natural causes while being fully supported by Mistyfoot, is now killed by Mistyfoot when she realizes Leopardstar's ideology won't die unless she does.
  • Rainflower is socially shunned by the rest of RiverClan for her treatment of Crookedstar rather than her actions being mostly ignored.
  • Billystorm is Easily Forgiven by Leafstar and doesn't suffer any consequences for taking their kits away to be raised as kittypets without her permission in canon. In the rewrite, the incident leads to him inadvertently letting Stormkit get sacrificed by Harry.
  • In terms of Dark Forest placements, StarClan is now harsher and no longer lets all but the worst mass murderers in, or anyone who is doing things for the sake of their Clan instead of for ambition. Leopardstar and Mudclaw end up in the Dark Forest, for example, as do Mudclaw's supporters who died on the same day as him like Nightwing. Appledusk, Frecklewish, and Ravenwing also end up there, though out of an impulsive judgment made in anger. Needletail ends up in the Dark Forest as well, though for her it isn't much of a punishment; while she is sentenced there for her genuine crimes, she would have rather ended up there than StarClan anyway.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Jayfeather isn't exactly nice but he isn't as pointlessly mean as in canon, and he is rebellious against StarClan even into the later arcs rather than cruelly enforcing the status quo on others.
  • Moth Flight never criticizes Leafpool and tries to send her to the Dark Forest for breaking the rule she made, in addition to having a more sympathetic reason for making that rule.
  • While Crowfeather can still be a bit rude and hard to get along with, he isn't quite as constantly hostile to the other journeying cats so that he actually gets along with the other five eventually, not just Feathertail.
• Adaptational Nonsapience: Badgers are no longer sapient, talking creatures capable of coming together and strategizing to form coalitions, to avoid canon's implications of them being an Always Chaotic Evil species who the cats are justified in driving out of their homes unprovoked.
• Adaptational Romance Downgrade:
  • Firestar and Sandstorm are no longer a couple - Firestar is aromantic, but they are very close platonically and Firestar is still the father of Sandstorm's children. Similarly there is nothing romantic between him and Spottedleaf, with Spottedleaf acting more as a Cool Big Sis.
  • Lionblaze and Cinderheart are no longer mates, just coming together to raise Ivypool and Dovewing, the biological kits of their respective siblings.
• Adaptational Self-Defense: A rare case where it is not used to make a hero purer but make a villain less pure evil: Mistfeather now attacks Darktail first in revenge for the death of his mate Cloudmist, with Darktail coldly killing him while lamenting how he didn't want to do this but he was forced to.
• Adaptational Sexuality: While canon Warriors never had any officially gay or bisexual cats due to Executive Meddling (though the Ravenpaw/Barley and Tallstar/Jake pairings were stated to be intentional by Word of God), this rewrite features many queer cats who show interest in the same gender (whether exclusively or in addition to the other) like Bluestar, Hollyleaf, Redtail, Runningwind, Stonepelt, Weedwhisker, Ivypool, Heathertail, Russetfur, Reedwhisker, Hawkfrost, Violetshine, Lionblaze, Toadstep, Thriftear, Plumstone, Sunstrike, Furzepelt, Brushblaze, Sedgecreek, Greenflower, Leafstar, Echosong and Smokefall (Smokefoot originally). There are also aromantic cats (Firestar, Blackstar, Rosetail) and both aromantic and asexual cats (Longtail, Rosepetal, Twigbranch).
• Adaptational Sympathy:
  • Canon Brokenstar has no redeeming qualities and is treated by the narrative as being "born evil". This Brokenstar still does all the horrible things the canon one does but is shown to not be inherently that way and is more an extreme product of the Clans' battle-focused culture, where in response to a war that WindClan started he feels he has to retaliate and win the war or all the death and suffering of the war would be for nothing. He kills Raggedstar after serving him loyally for years because he fears Raggedstar making peace would make the war for nothing, rather than killing him immediately because Ambition Is Evil. He later gets to become the benevolent guardian of SkyClan after his death when Firestar takes his spirit along on the quest to rebuild it.
  • Similarly, Hawkfrost maintains his villainous role in the narrative but is shown to have been initially a kinder cat. His descent into villainy being due to the bad influence of a Clan that hasn't put aside Tigerstar's ideology rather than being In the Blood, and he gets a redemption arc in the rewritten Omen of the Stars after he dies.
  • The ShadowClan rebels from A Vision of Shadows are shown to have more sympathetic and heroic reasons for challenging the status quo, though they still end up being caught up in Darktail's cult and Sleekwhisker becomes fully a villain due to her loyalty to his cause while Needletail is still in part selfishly out for power and a sense of purpose in her life with the Kin. Needletail also is an ally of Alderheart due to both believing the separation of Violetkit and Twigkit was wrong, unlike in canon where she was the one to suggest the separation in the first place and shows no sign of regretting it.
  • Moth Flight now has a more sympathetic reason for creating the law of clerics not taking mates or kits. In canon she just thinks because she struggled to take care of her kits while managing her job, no cat can, but here her kits were stolen by the other Clans for their medicine skills, and she makes them take the oath as a rebellion against the Clans who did it, showing they will be loyal to medicine over the ones who stole them.
  • Ripplestar is no longer invading the other clans' territory just for power but to free up territory for SkyClan to return to.
  • While not a villain in canon, Ivypool has a more sympathetic reason for her jealousy of her sister and training in the Dark Forest. Lionblaze and Jayfeather still pay a lot of attention to Dovewing due to her powers, but here Lionblaze is their father rather than Dovewing's mentor who would be expected to pay special attention to his apprentice and not Ivypool. In addition, she goes to the Dark Forest because Lionblaze pressures her into being a spy rather than only becoming a spy later.
  • There is no bridge Mapleshade could have taken to bring her kits safely across the river in the rewrite, so her kits' death is in no way her fault.
  • Darktail is still a ruthless villain, but here he is never violent just because he is sadistically amused, killing Mistfeather in self-defense and rather than initially intending to kill Needletail but offering to free her if she kills Violetpaw just to taunt her with something he knows she wouldn't do, he initially intends to kill Violetpaw but, after Needletail intervenes to save her, decides Needletail is the one who should die because she has corrupted Violetpaw into committing her "crimes".
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Runningnose is now a villain who is fully loyal to Brokenstar and helps him commit some of his worst crimes, as well as purposefully causing the epidemic that kills Nightstar.
  • Canon Heatherstar ended the tradition of tunneling due to legitimate safety concerns and the battles against ShadowClan during her leadership were started by ShadowClan. Here, Heatherstar started the war against ShadowClan and ends tunneling so she can focus her Clan more on fighting.
  • Leopardstar did some horrible things in canon, but here she never tries to atone for her actions. RiverClan as a whole is shown to not have fully moved on from their support of TigerClan and many still retain their bigoted views against half-Clan cats.
  • While Clear Sky was villainous in canon, here he never regrets his actions or tries to redeem himself. In addition, since Bright Stream is merged with Storm and does not die when either of those two characters do in canon, he no longer has the grief for his mate's death motivating his abandonment of his son Thunder Storm, instead being motivated by his ableism (Thunder Storm being born missing a leg) and desire to defy the supernatural forces that are seemingly trying to send him a message about his cruelty. Also, the famine he went through is no longer caused by overpopulation, so he has less of an argument for his social darwinist policies being a necessary evil to prevent more starvation.
  • Likewise, Tom remains as bad as he is in canon but never gets a Redemption Equals Death moment.
  • Leopardfoot is a supporter of Thistle Law (Thistleclaw and Tigerstar's xenophobic ideology) and encourages Tigerstar into it to prove his legacy beyond that of his shameful father, and leaves with Thistleclaw to the Dark Forest out of frustration about Bluestar's acceptance into StarClan.
  • Thornclaw was always xenophobic and in some versions of the continuity trained in the Dark Forest, but here he actually sides with the Dark Forest in the final battle. Likewise Spiderleg sides with them, though he regrets it, and his regret leads to him being a strong supporter of Ashfur whereas in canon he was dead by that point.
  • Ivypool is one of Ashfur's strongest supporters in the rewrite before turning against him after Bristlefrost's death, while in canon she was a background character during that arc who didn't have any meaningful contribution to either side of the conflict.
  • Sharpclaw and Rockshade now try to overthrow Leafstar and join with Darktail to do it.
  • Hollyleaf did villainous things in canon, but this gets accentuated in the rewrite, with her killing Ashfur solely for revenge, taking Lionblaze's role in being violent towards Heathertail, and trying to kill Jayfeather, and then rather than immediately regretting her actions after ending up in the tunnels she remains a villain with her treatment of the ancient lake cats, only getting a Heel–Face Turn after spending a century trapped in the tunnels afterwards.
  • Oakstar is another example of a cat who was already bad (exiling Mapleshade and her kits) becoming worse in the rewrite, with him launching crusades on cats in the human town in the name of StarClan and killing many in the process, as well as trying to steal Reedshine's kits.
  • Canon Ratscar trained in the Dark Forest but betrayed them in the Great Battle, but this Ratscar sides with them until the end and ends up being killed by Blackstar instead of Redwillow. He is also a fervent Brokenstar supporter.
  • Willowpelt in canon is a background character who doesn't do anything particularly good or bad, but here she is responsible for plotting with Fury to kill Claw, so peaceful relations with BloodClan will be stopped, due to not forgiving them for Whitestorm's death.
  • Petal Claw (originally Petal in canon) keeps her villainous qualities from canon as a strong supporter of Clear Sky, but here her taking in Misty's kits isn't presented as a redeeming quality, instead being the predecessor of the kit stealing tradition that plagues the Clans for generations, with her not being very warm to Birch Claw and Alder Claw.
• Adaptational Wimp: Yellowfang is not as strong a fighter as in canon (at least compared to canon The Prophecies Begin, she is stronger than her portrayal in Yellowfang's Secret due to not having an empathy power to interfere with her fighting), only being able to beat Blackfoot due to Rosetail having already done some damage to him, and not killing Brokenstar's spirit in the Great Battle.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • One that is not a cat but a in-universe term, medicine cats are now called clerics to avoid being an insensitive parody of certain indigenous cultures' medicine men.
  • The horrible name that Bluestar gives Brightpaw is no longer Lostface but Swifthound, reflecting how being named after injuries is considered honorable in the clan's battle-focused culture, and the shamefulness of the name comes from the reminder of her friend's death due to their foolishness.
  • Tornear is now Torear (a tor is a small rocky outcrop seen on moorlands).
  • Hickorynose is now Chicorynose due to hickory trees not existing in northern England, which is defined here as the setting of the books (as opposed to canon which is full of Misplaced Wildlife).
  • Hollyleaf changes her name to Fallenleaf after emerging from her century trapped in the tunnels and taking her body back from Sol, reflecting her position as a Composite Character with Fallen Leaves.
  • Similarly, Hollytuft and Larksong are fused into a Composite Character named Hollylark to reflect the change.
  • The cats of Dawn of the Clans now have a name scheme using last names, where the second part of their name is inherited from one of their parents. To keep this consistent, Quiet Rain is now Quiet Wing so as to give her name to Gray Wing, Fluttering Bird is now Fluttering Wing, and Quiet Rain's second mate Stone Song is now Stone Peak to give his name to Jagged Peak (Clear Sky's father is an unnamed cat who died before the arc starts). Thunder is now Thunder Storm after his mother, who is named Bright Storm as a composite character between Bright Stream and Storm. Silver Stripe and White Tail are now Sun Shadow's kits so they are now Silver Shadow and White Shadow. Lightning Tail is now Lightning Cry after his father, likewise Falling Feather is Falling Cry to match with her brother. Shaded Moss is now Shaded Flower to match with his daughter. Acorn Fur is now Acorn Swoop to match with Hawk Swoop. Turtle Tail, Dappled Pelt, and Sparrow Fur are now Turtle Heart, Dappled Heart and Sparrow Heart to match with Pebble Heart (Owl Eyes starts out as Owl Heart but gains his name as an honor title from learning to hunt from an owl).
  • This also applies to cats who in canon were outsiders to the Tribe and thus did not have their naming system, but in the BB AU are Tribe cats. For instance, Frost is now Sunlit Frost (with Shattered Ice, who is Related in the Adaptation to him, thus being renamed Shattered Frost), and Petal, Fox, Snake, Alder and Birch are not in the same family as Red Claw so they all get Claw at the end of their names.
  • The last name system is preserved in the Tribe, and they have changes to their full names to reflect this. Brook Where Small Fish Swim is now Brook Where-it-Swirls, and Crag Where Eagles Nest is in turn Crag Where-It-Swirls.
  • The cast of Riverstar's Heir, all originally cats with typical Clan names from Code of the Clans, have their names changed to reflect how the story takes place before these name traditions had evolved, to two-word Tribe like names (Maplewhisker to Maple Whisker), to Wind Coalition names (Jumpfoot to Jumping Foot) or to River kingdom names (Flowerstem to Flowers Came First, Mothpelt to Dead Moths Pelt, Mossfire to Mossfire Alight).
  • Stumpytail is changed to Stumptail (referring to a tree stump), as he was born with his short tail and would thus not get an honor title for it.
  • Since Sorreltail no longer died in the Great Battle but Dustpelt did, Dead Guy Junior Sorrelstripe is now named Duststripe.
  • Bluestar starts out as Bluefur as in canon, but later gets the honor title of Bluemoon.
  • Honeyfern starts out with her canon warrior name, but gets the honor title of Honeysnake after surviving the adder bite that killed her in canon.
  • Hollowflight is now Hallowflight, with the name being an honor title rather than his original name.
  • Several names get changed due to One-Steve Limit - Tigerheart's leader name is now Heartstar, Cloudberry (the ThunderClan cleric who preceded Goosefeather) is Cloudbelly, Frecklewish (the SkyClan cleric) is Frecklewing, Rainfur (the SkyClan warrior) is Rainbloom, Mudclaw (Lizardstripe's mate in ShadowClan) is now Mudfoot, Applefur from Tigerclaw's Fury is now Appledapple, Darkstar (the originator of the "leader's word is the Code" law is now Dalestar, Molewhisker from Code of the Clans is now Moletooth, Snaketooth from Code of the Clans is now Snakestream, Shimmerpelt the modern-day warrior is now Shimmerbright, Shadepelt who first appears in A Vision of Shadows is now Shademuzzle, Emberdawn from Leopardstar's Honor is now Emberdusk, Mintfur from RiverClan is now Mintflower, the modern ShadowClan Flowerstem is now Flowerscar, Seedpelt from Mapleshade's Vengeance is now Seedwhisker, Seedpelt from Pinestar's Choice is now Seedfall, the ThunderClan, and ThunderClan Beechfur is now Beechfeather.
  • Smokefoot is now named Smokefall to reflect him being a composite character with Smokepaw, who here survived his fall during the Great Journey.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Crowfeather isn't cold and distant after breaking up with Leafpool like in canon, instead remaining emotional and passionate and taking Leafpool's role as the one who is obsessed with their relationship even after they leave each other.
  • Feathertail and Stormfur's personalities are kept consistently like how they were in The New Prophecy with Stormfur being the cynical one and Feathertail being more happy-go-lucky, which constitutes an Adaptation Personality Change from ''A Shadow In RiverClan.
  • Redtail is now given a very serious, harsh and dutiful personality.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Bluestar and Oakheart now know each other better before Bluestar ends up carrying Oakheart's kits, being part of the forget-me-nots friend group which also includes several other cats (Lizardstripe, Ashfoot, Deadfoot and Barley) that were never shown to be close with either in canon.
  • Canon Runningnose doesn't like Brokenstar's leadership and seems to care about Nightstar, being grieved by his death. Here, he is very close to Brokenstar and hates Nightstar for overthrowing him, eventually even getting Nightstar killed by purposefully starting an epidemic.
  • In canon, Longtail assists Brightheart as a temporary mentor to Jayfeather, who hates being saddled with the cats with similar disabilities to him, and Jayfeather switches to being a cleric too quickly for their relationship to change. Here, Jayfeather trains under Longtail for his whole apprenticeship, and while he initially has a disgruntled reaction as in canon they grow very close to each other over time, and Brightheart is not involved. Instead, Brightheart mentors Ivypool, and the two develop a close mentor-apprentice relationship they didn't have in canon.
  • Leafpool and Crowfeather still run away together, but Leafpool isn't obsessed with Crowfeather after their breakup as she is in canon, and never tries to name her kit after him (instead Crowfeater is the obessed one).
  • Rockshade is now Sharpclaw's apprentice instead of Cherrytail.
  • Goldenflower is now Squirrelflight's mentor instead of Dustpelt.
  • Thrushpelt is Redtail's mentor in the rewrite. Redtail himself no longer mentors Mousefur.
  • Thornclaw doesn't get any new apprentices after Spiderleg due to participating in Mouser's stunt of calling a Clan meeting complaining about outsiders being accepted into ThunderClan. Ferncloud is Poppyfrost's mentor instead, and Honeysnake (Honeyfern), who survived being bitten by the adder that killed her in canon, mentors Briarlight, the kit she got injured trying to rescue.
  • Mistystar doesn't remain forgiving of Leopardstar forever as in canon and believing that everything will blow over if she follows the code, eventually turning against her when experience shows her Thistle Law isn't just going to go away and Leopardstar isn't going to change.
  • Lionblaze doesn't hold a grudge against Squirrelflight for lying about his parentage and is consistently her biggest supporter.
  • Needletail and Alderheart aren't as close as they are in canon, being less friends and more allies who both agree it was wrong to separate Violetkit and Twigkit and thus conspire to have the two meet with each other.
  • While in canon Breezepelt and his unknown siblings Lionblaze, Hollyleaf and Jayfeather never liked each other, with Breezepelt always serving as a rival to them, in the BB AU he is close to the three, especially Lionblaze, before The Reveal leads him to dramatically turn against them.
  • Briarlight in canon is not really seen much outside of the medicine den and is never shown to have any friends besides Jayfeather, the cleric who treats her. Here she is very popular and is friends with, and spends a lot of time with, Lionblaze and Hazeltail.
• Adaptation Title Change: Many Super Editions, novellas, and mangas have a changed title to reflect their new plot. These include Firestar's Quietus (Firestar's Quest), Bluestar's Flowers (Bluestar's Prophecy), Tallstar's Collapse (Tallstar's Revenge), Stormpaw's Demon (Crookedstar's Promise), Heartstar's Rise (Tigerheart's Shadow), Brokenstar's Cataclysm (Yellowfang's Secret), Hollyleaf's Century (Hollyleaf's Story), Squirrelflight's Horror (Squirrelflight's Hope), Sol's Game (SkyClan and the Stranger), Ferncloud's Parting (Graystripe's Vow), Tawnypelt's Mountain (Tawnypelt's Clan), The Tiger in RiverClan (A Shadow in RiverClan). The last book of Power of Three (Sunrise in canon) is also changed back to its canon working title of Cruel Season.
• Adapted Out: Zelda, Max and Loki are removed from the rewrite, as are Grasspelt, Pikepaw from ''Battles of the Clans, and Gorseclaw from RiverClan.
• Affably Evil: Silverhawk is a genuinely nice cat, contrasting with the rest of Thistleclaw's clique, but he still ended up in the Dark Forest for a reason and is a willing supporter of Thistleclaw and Tigerstar.
• Against the Grain: Dustpelt, a tom loves tasks like construction which are stereotypically done by mollies and generally does not fit gender stereotypes, leading to his interests being discouraged by his Clanmates. To everyone's surprise, Firestar gets the extremely old construction expert One-eye to come out of retirement to train him, allowing him to pursue his goals.
• Age Lift:
  • Several cats get their ages changed to match up with how old they were initially said to be by the narrative, even if that doesn't line up with the later canon timeline. Yellowfang is now around 12 or 13 years old by Into the Wild to keep with her portrayal as an elderly cat, though her siblings who were littermates in canon are now younger than her and thus get to be closer to their canon ages. One-eye is significantly older than in canon to match with her early portrayal as the oldest cat in ThunderClan. Graypool is now older than Willowbreeze to match with how in The Prophecies Begin she is an elder and even developing dementia.
  • Some of the ThunderClan cast of The Prophecies Begin also get made younger to try to fix how few cats in canon were born in the long time span between Bluestar becoming deputy and Firestar's generation. Goldenflower and Lionheart are now younger, for instance, as well as Willowpelt (no longer a littermate or any sort of sibling of Redtail and Spottedleaf) and Brindleface. Tigerstar gets made slightly younger to match in age with Redtail and Spottedleaf and is no longer older than Whitestorm.
  • Crowfeather is now a full warrior by the beginning of The New Prophecy, which both removes the power imbalance in his relationship with Feathertail and makes it so his father Deadfoot actually would have been alive when he was conceived.
  • Breezepelt is younger than his half-siblings rather than being implied to be older, to avoid an inconsistency where Crowfeather had left Lionblaze, Jayfeather and Hollyleaf's mother Leafpool before he became mates with Breezepelt's mother Nightcloud.
  • Splashheart and Aspentail are now born much later, being in RiverClan around Darkstar's leadership.
  • Lakeheart is older than in canon to make her name has special resonance as one of the first cats born at the lake.
  • Gray Wing is around 7 years old when the Tribe cats leave the mountains, as opposed to the very young warrior he is in canon, to underscore how xey already have a reputation for wisdom.
  • Mosspaw and Volewhisper are now full-grown warriors during the WindClan massacre, with Mossthorn dying in the battle and Volewhisper being injured there instead of by rats.
• All-Loving Hero: Squirrelflight really cares about everyone, even outsiders like the Sisters, to the point that even though she has broken up with Bramblestar by The Broken Code for being abusive, she is still as determined to save him from being trapped as a spirit outside his body during that arc as she is in canon, because that's what she would do for anyone.
• All Work vs. All Play: Brackenfur is the all work to Graystripe's all play, with the two disliking each other for that reason (not to mention Graystripe being a poor mentor to Brackenfur).
• Almost Dead Guy: Ferncloud survives her wounds from Ashfur long enough to say goodbye to her children and grandchildren.
• The Aloner: Hollyleaf takes Fallen Leaves' canon role in being trapped living in the tunnels alone for a century.
• Amazonian Beauty: The Clans consider large and brawny cats attractive, regardless of gender, which automatically makes any molly who is big and/or muscular enough qualify as this trope (especially if she possesses other traits such as colorful markings or prominent scarring).
• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Male members of the Sisters get an object to keep with them that allows them to see ghosts without needing the rest of the group's channeling.
• Androcles' Lion: After helping find the wild hog Marguerite's children, Marguerite rescues Nightcloud by charging an animal that was about to kill her. Downplayed in that it is made ambiguous what Marguerite's motivation is and Bonefall is clear that she is still a wild animal and not able to become Nightcloud's "friend".
• Angsty Surviving Twin:
  • Dove's Wing deeply grieves the death of her littermate Jay's Wing while fighting Hollyleaf, and renames herself Half Moon in part due to feeling split in half by his death.
  • Hillrunner and Downwind are identical twins, and after Downwind is killed in RiverClan and ShadowClan's attempt to drive out WindClan again, Hillrunner is deeply shaken and it leads to her xenophobia and temper.
• Animal Motif: Nightcloud is associated with wild sows, liking the animals a lot and helping to reunite one's babies with their mother in Nightcloud's Pannage. She is one of the largest and strongest warriors in her Clan, and the sow is the largest and most dangerous predator in the forest, and both sows and Nightcloud are maligned for just protecting their children.
• Animal Nemesis: Shredtail was very intense about seeking revenge on the boar who killed his mate and kits, developing many hog-hunting techniques that still get used in modern times to kill it. He eventually used a clanmate as live bait to catch it (which got him sent to the Dark Forest).
• Animals Respect Nature: The cats have some understanding of ecology and try to avoid overhunting certain species, making them less damaging to the environment than real-life feral cats.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Spottedleaf has an attitude that nothing in life matters and everyone will all die and be forgotten anyway, but it's still important for her to save lives in her job as cleric and earn that little bit more time for other cats.
• Archnemesis Dad: Tigerstar serves as this to all of his kits who are the POV character in the second series, and Sharpclaw is this to Hawkwing, supporting Darktail and trying to overthrow Leafstar while trying to get Hawkwing to join him.
• The Artful Dodger: Cranberrysplash was initially a young BloodClan orphan who survived by stealing, with a daring and happy-go-lucky personality, until Pigeonflight adopts her into WindClan to save her from being harshly punished for stealing.
• Artistic License – Biology: Not as much as in the canon books, but there are still some cases that are preserved.
  • The cats, like in canon, are able to see all colors humans can.
  • Like in canon, the characters at times are capable of killing another cat more quickly and easily than a real cat would be able to.
  • Diabetes in the feline characters is portrayed as it works in humans; that is, type 2 diabetes can be treated in medicine and will never progress into type 1 diabetes, which is not the case in cats. This is to allow it to be more relatable to people with diabetes in the audience and not spread the existing misconception that type 2 diabetes in humans can become type 1.
  • Like in canon, the cats' coat colors are not genetically accurate. Justified by how StarClan cats have the power to "design" kittens, and while they can't make kittens with Amazing Technicolor Wildlife fur they might be able to bend the rules of genetic inheritance.
  • Cats like Houndleap have keloid scars in spite of this being impossible for cats in real life. Brightheart's scars are also, as in canon, more striking than they would be in real life, where fur would eventually grow over them.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Cloudberry, Ryewhisker, Morningstar, and Ripplestar are all characters who only appear in one short story in Code of the Clans or Battles of the Clans in canon. Here they are regulars in the Dark Forest cast and Ripplestar gets his own Super Edition.
  • Gorseclaw and Spottedpelt only appear in canon as kits brought into ThunderClan and to be mentioned as ancestors of Tigerstar and Spottedleaf, but in the rewrite they play major roles in Ripplestar's Rot as Ripplestar's adopted siblings.
  • Darkstar in canon is just a RiverClan leader who briefly appears in Mapleshade's Vengeance to not take Mapleshade in, but in the rewrite she is the creator of the queen's rights and the kit protection law, gaining a book from her perspective that details how she created these laws to make up for the injustice done to Mapleshade.
  • Bumble in canon just exists to be a plot point showing Tall Shadow's leadership difficulties and then get killed, but in this rewrite she doesn't die and has an important role as the resident Cunning Linguist, knowing the languages of the park cats, Tribe cats and town cats, and gets to be a god of language in StarClan after her death.
  • A variant with Heathertail, Breezepelt, Ivypool and Cloudtail, where all of these cats were important characters but later Demoted to Extra in canon, but here they remain relevant in later arcs (A Vision of Shadows for the first two and The Broken Code for the last two).
  • Marshkit, now Marshwing, goes from a random kit on the Great Journey who dies to a recurring character who is one of ShadowClan's most respected warriors.
  • Lizardstripe, Deadfoot and Ashfoot are minor characters in canon, with Lizardstripe just existing to be an abusive mother to Brokenstar and the last two just being deputies with little focus. Here they get extra attention by being part of Bluestar's forget-me-not friend group.
  • Reedwhisker is very little focused on in canon despite being his Clan's deputy, but here he gets much more depth as a character and gets focus as a POV character in The Tiger in RiverClan, the rewrite of A Shadow in RiverClan.
  • Harelight gets more focus in The Broken Code with regards to his exile and his siblings' deaths.
  • Graystripe gets the opposite treatment in The Broken Code, but he noticeably isn't so Demoted to Extra in Omen of the Stars that he goes unmentioned in the subplot involving drama with his mate Millie and kits Briarlight and Blossomfall.
  • Dragonfly goes from appearing only on one bonus chapter to being a major supporting character who supports Violetshine in the Kin and later becomes her mate.
  • Shattered Frost (Shattered Ice) gets an expanded role as an inventor and loyal member of ShadowClan.
  • Deerfoot and Tangleburr are very minor characters in canon but here get more focus, in particular with regards to their differing allegiances in ShadowClan's politics.
  • Sedgecreek doesn't even appear in the main series in canon, but here she gets to be Mistystar's first deputy and gets a subplot involving conflict between her and her mate Greenflower.
  • The female ThunderClan warriors of The Prophecies Begin, who in canon were largely out of focus compared to their male counterparts, get expanded roles. Frostfur is an ally of Firestar's who has to reckon with Tigerstar's ideology after he was exiled, Goldenflower is a former supporter of Tigerstar who quickly changes tune after his exile and tries to get others to do the same, and Dappletail, as the Clan educator, has an expanded role as Firestar's original teacher, who teaches him how to speak Clanmew when he previously just knew Townmew.
  • Firestar has more friends from other Clans who show up in the aftergatherings, many who were cats who got next to no focus in the canon books like Wetfoot, Mosspelt, and Cinderfur (though the latter stops attending the meetings as the political situation gets more tense).
• As Lethal as It Needs to Be: As in canon, the cats can fight honorably and non lethally and usually succeed at not killing, but they are capable of killing in a single blow at times. Bonefall has suggested various justifications for it, the most favored one being that they have Absurdly Sharp Claws but said claws are too short to deal killing blows unless they strike certain areas where blood vessels are close to the surface, though ultimately chalks it up to Rule of Cool.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Sol makes an 80-pound Wels' catfish grow to a 300-pound, cat eating monster, which gets named Ripwater by RiverClan and threatens to eat its warriors and apprentices. Downplayed as Wels' catfish are really capable of growing to that size naturally (although that usually happens in warmer climates), speeding up the growth thus allows Sol to cause mayhem without breaking his deal with Midnight.
• The Atoner:
  • Breezepelt is now one of the protagonists of A Vision of Shadows, where he tries to atone for his actions in the previous arcs (getting a more extensive redemption arc than in canon).
  • Blackstar's desire to atone for his action is given more focus than in canon with him genuinely proving himself to be repentant and being a good leader. Nobody in StarClan is initially willing to give him his nine lives because of his previous actions but he refuses lives from the Dark Forest instead, working throughout his life to prove himself to StarClan and earn his lives.
  • Spiderleg feels horrible about siding with the Dark Forest and almost killing his son Toadstep in the Great Battle, leading to him becoming a hardline supporter of traditionalism and the warrior code and personally asking for a punishment from the fake Bramblestar.
  • Fallenleaf (Hollyleaf), who was already this in canon, is even more so here due to the many more evil things she did in the Better Bones AU, much of which happened so long in the past thanks to time travel that no one even remembers it and she bears their burden alone.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • The rewrite of Crookedstar's Promise, Stormpaw's Demon, emphasizes that Mapleshade ultimately succeeds in her goal of ruining the lives of Appledusk's descendants and there's no happy ending, just attempts to find good in even the most tragic life.
  • Sol's Game as well, with Harry succeeding in making the third sacrifice he supposedly needs to become a vessel for Sol.
• Barred from the Afterlife: There is a myth in the Clans that cats who don't believe in StarClan and thus can't achieve that afterlife will be trapped on earth as roe deer.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: When WindClan gets to the lake, they set a controlled burn of their territory to allow it to become the moorland they are accustomed to. Mudclaw and his allies sabotage the burn during their attempted coup, leading to the resulting battle being in the midst of a fire.
• Berserk Button: Sorreltail really doesn't like when other cats eat raw meat, and has a tendency to materialize out of nowhere when it happens to warn them about getting worms.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Ferncloud is a kind teacher and loving mother who prefers following the rules to dramatically breaking them. Unbeknownst to her Clan, though, when Fury got her sister Elderberry killed she secretly killed Fury in revenge and buried her in Elderberry's grave to hide what she did.
• Beyond Redemption: Bright Storm's Character Development has her realizing that her former mate Clear Sky will not change for the better no matter how much she loves him.
• Big Little Brother: Cinderpelt is an older sister to Brightheart but much smaller than her.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The Bluestar's Prophecy rewrite, Bluestar's Flowers ends with Bluestar having successfully defied fate and defeated Thistleclaw and his ideology, but at the cost of Mosskit's life and never being able to see her other kits, and her bonds with the rest of the forget-me-nots are falling apart due to their personal ambitions and duties to their Clans. In the later time-frame of then Framing Device, Bluestar dies, but after a trial is accepted into StarClan as Lizardstripe takes her side and proves the irrationality of Thistleclaw's beliefs, and they are reunited in the afterlife with Lizardstripe revealing she never stopped caring about her.
  • Hollyleaf's Century ends with the cats of the lake defeating the tyrant Hollyleaf, but at the cost of Jay's Wing's life, and due to both Hollyleaf's rule and the manmade environmental devastation around the lake they have to move to the mountains.
• Black Comedy: Tigerstar infamously died by being ripped open by Scourge from head to tail. WindClan makes a pastry known as tunnelbuns where the bread is not designed to be eaten but to protect the meat inside from getting dirty when cats are in the tunnels, with the bread being ripped open in a similar way to get at the food inside. Cue cats baking Tigerstar-themed tunnelbuns, which also serve as a good item to trade with BloodClan and show the Clan cats hate Tigerstar as much as they do.
• Black Shirt:
  • Thornclaw is a ThunderClan warrior who sides with the Dark Forest in Omen of the Stars due to sympathizing with Tigerstar's ideology over Firestar's. His former apprentice Spiderleg follows suit, though he regrets it a lot.
  • Sharpclaw, the deputy of SkyClan, sides with Darktail during his attack on SkyClan due to his dissatisfaction with Leafstar's tolerant politics. Several other SkyClan cats like Rockshade do the same thing.
• Blood Knight: Stormcloud and Cherryfall both love fighting for the sake of it, and their sparring leads to them becoming mates. Thistleclaw, of course, is an example from canon (and he gets Snowfur to be like this too).
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: StarClan explicitly has the power to do that here, leading to Ripplestar and Mudclaw's deaths, rather than it being Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. Darkstar gets hit by one too but survives and works after that to make it up to StarClan.
• Book Ends: While the scene happens later in this AU than it does in canon, Firestar has his collar ripped off by Longtail early on in the rewritten The Prophecies Begin. At the end of that arc, Firestar shows he has defeated Scourge by ripping off his collar, and remembering the feelings he had over his own collar, sees it as something meaningful to Scourge and goes back to return it, starting their diplomacy in the epilogue.
• Boulder Bludgeon: Mistystar kills Leopardstar by bashing her head against a rock, without which she probably wouldn't have been able to kill her due to Leopardstar being such a strong fighter.
• Brains and Brawn: Loyal childhood friends/ambiguously romantically involved Brokenstar and Runningnose have this dynamic, with Brokenstar being an angry and passionate, brutish cat who prefers solving his problems with physical fighting, and Runningnose being a clever Non-Action Guy who comes up with strategies to bolster Brokenstar's conquest and remove enemies within his Clan.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Nightcloud is determined to not be like her mother Hillrunner, both in terms of not being an abusive parent and not going as far as she did with her xenophobia. Unfortunately, though she is nothing but loving towards her child Breezepelt, her mate Crowfeather is cruel to him and her attempts to defend Breezepelt just leads to her being seen as the one in the wrong by her Clan.
• Breather Episode: The rewritten Power of Three is more relaxed and slice-of-life than the other arcs, with the prophecy and thus the greater plot not being revealed until near the end.
• Bring News Back: During the Great Battle, after regrouping from their second attack, Tigerstar announces that if they can't win they will hurt the Clans as much as possible, even killing noncombatants like kits and elders. In order to warn ThunderClan, Lizardtail of RiverClan, one of the Dark Forest trainees who has now turned against his allies, makes a daring journey, swimming across the lake and racing the rest of the way. He is rewarded with the honor title of Hallowflight.
• Broken Bird:
  • Stormfur is cynical and distrusting due to the persecution he went through under TigerClan and the murder of his mentor.
  • Lilyheart is rather distant and cold due to the trauma of losing her father as a kit and her sister dying to save her, but has a soft side she normally hides.
• Broken Hero: Feathertail is an optimistic, laid-back and fun kind of cat, and it might not be immediately obvious that she's a half-Clan cat persecuted by half of her own Clan for her birth.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu:
  • Feathertail manages to kill the Destroyer Deity One-eye's most recent incarnation, but not only does she die in the process but a Clan cat killing him ensued his next incarnation will terrorize the Clans, or at least the forest where they once lived, instead of the Tribe.
  • Speckletail takes down a human's bulldozer but both dies and incurs the humans' wrath as they go out to catch cats.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • Like in canon, Jayfeather, Lionblaze and Dovewing lose their powers after the Great Battle. Here, Dovewing also becomes deaf when she loses her powers.
  • Shadowsight, rather than never having a connection to StarClan, initially has one but sacrifices it to illegally channel Ashfur, holding him down so Bristlefrost can kill him.
• Brutal Honesty: Flowerstar tends to run into issues due to this trait, like admitting that Mossfire Alight is too young to be ready for leadership yet despite trying to promote her claim to power, which just gives ammunition to those who want to promote themselves or their favored candidate for their own reasons.
• Butch Lesbian: Hollyleaf's design for the rewrite is designed to look butch, and she is in fact a lesbian in the rewrite.
• Butt-Monkey: Reedwhisker has a particularly hard life. On top of the trauma of being part ThunderClan during Tigerstar's rule and all of his siblings dying, he has to deal with an abusive, bigoted mentor who constantly fails him on his assessments, bullying by the several TigerClan supporters in RiverClan, and Hawkfrost, his lover and the one cat who defends him, winds up gradually becoming as horrible as those bullies and then getting killed. He also is imprisoned and treated brutally by the Kin in A Vision of Shadows as in canon.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": When lions, tigers, or leopards are mentioned (in legends or as part of a cat's name), they aren't actually lions, tigers and leopards as we would understand them but an In-Universe Translation Convention of somewhat similar-looking legendary beasts of the cats' mythology.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Ashfur transforms into a larger, stronger creature before the final battle against him by killing and absorbing other StarClan cats, some of which have borderline Physical God-like powers, including Clear Sky.
• Central Theme: Ideologies of violence and xenophobia and how they lead to tragedy and cruelty. One goal of the rewrite is to show clearly how these things are bad rather than have a Broken Aesop.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: Bright Storm initially supports Bumble being kicked out of ShadowClan, but Thunder Storm's insistence that it was unjust inspires her to appear just in time to help Thunder Storm save Bumble from Clear Sky.
• Chekhov's Skill: Firestar's tendency to play dead, which already got a Chekhov's Skill moment in canon against Scourge, is also the way he ends up killing Tigerstar's spirit in the Great Battle.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: Maple Whisker acts as a loyal friend and second in command to Flowerstar, being the one that comes up with the clever plans whereas Flowerstar is kind but can be guileless and overly honest.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • Jayfeather and Poppyfrost start out as close childhood friends and wind up having kits with each other.
  • Thunder Storm and Lightning Cry also get this dynamic, as they are no longer adopted siblings.
  • Heathertail, Breezepelt and Harestar are very close childhood friends who end up all getting together with each other romantically after going through a lot.
• Chosen Conception Partner: Cats who want to have kits but don't have a mate can choose to have their kits "honor sired" by another cat in their Clan, usually a respected one.
• Combat Pragmatist: SkyClan cats aren't as culturally focused on honor in battle as the other Clans so they are willing to use "dirty" tactics to win.
• Commonality Connection:
  • Rowanclaw is the son of Brokenstar here, and Tawnypelt and him bond over having an infamous villain for their parent.
  • Ivypool bonds with her mentor, Brightheart over Survivor Guilt (Brightheart for what happened with Swiftpaw and Ivypool for the events of the Dark Forest, accidentally killing Antpelt, and Hawkfrost's death). She also bonds with Hawkfrost over both being used by their fathers.
  • Jayfeather and Poppyfrost bond over their shared curiosity.
• Composite Character:
  • Hollyleaf and Fallen Leaves are changed into the same character, with Hollyleaf taking Jayfeather's time travel plot and traveling a century into the past when she runs away into the tunnels, ending up trapped there until the present day the way Fallen Leaves did, and later renaming herself as Fallenleaf. Hollyleaf also takes some aspects of Lionblaze's character arc; that is, her relationship with Heathertail, secret meetings with her in the tunnels, and eventual violent turning against her during the eclipse battle when she seemingly betrays the secret of the tunnels to Onestar.
  • Hollytuft and Larksong are fused into one character, Hollylark, who has Hollytuft's lineage as a Firestar descendant and Cinderheart's kit, and Larksong's romance with Sparkpelt. This allows Nightheart to be related to Firestar despite Sparkpelt no longer being related to Squirrelflight.
  • Sharptooth is now an incarnation of One-Eye from Dawn of the Clans, who is a god with Resurrective Immortality.
  • Mapleshade's kits are fused with the kits from the Code of the Clans story that details the origin of the law to protect kits whatever their origin. They are now the kits whose deaths are responsible for the law and also get to appear in StarClan as two full-grown warriors and a leader.
  • Bright Stream no longer dies on the Sun Trail and is combined with Storm, being Thunder's mother.
  • Cloudtail and Ferncloud take Graystripe's roles in The Broken Code and are the main characters of the Graystripe's Vow rewrite. Cloudtail takes the role of acting leader while Ferncloud takes Graystripe's role as Light in the Mist.
  • Smokepaw doesn't die and is now the same cat as Smokefoot, and he gets the name Smokefall.
  • Dove's Wing takes Half Moon's role as the first Stoneteller and changes her name to Half Moon to show this, which In-Universe is because of her grief over her brother's death and half of the cats of the lake splitting off from the others when they moved to the mountains leading to her feeling split in half.
  • Bright Stream and Storm are fused into one cat named Bright Storm. She is also a Composite Character with Gray Wing, who died far earlier than in canon, taking his roles of raising Thunder Storm, believing the best of Clear Sky, being known as wise, and developing asthma.
• Shaded Flower (Shaded Moss) also takes some of Gray Wing's canon roles, as a parent/mentor figure to Thunder Storm and potential candidate for leader position.
  • Dragonfly takes Zelda's role as having a friendship with Violetshine.
  • Lizardtail and Hollowflight are fused into one character who shares Lizardtail's family and Hollowflight's position as a former Dark Forest trainee who ultimately sides with the Clans. This character is initially named Lizardtail but gets the honor title Hallowflight for his heroic trip to get reinforcements during the Great Battle.
• Constantly Curious: Poppyfrost is very curious. Jayfeather has some of these traits as well leading to the two bonding.
• Conveniently Timed Distraction: While Squirrelflight revealing she isn't the Three's biological mother doesn't stop Ashfur from trying to kill them as in canon, it does distract him enough that she is able to land a blow against him.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Mossfire Alight in Riverstar's Heir, the good natured and innocent adopted heir of Riverstar who the protagonist Flowers Came First is a Big Sister Mentor to. Being attacked from all sides due to the Succession Crisis leads to her becoming increasingly angry and confrontational ending in her attacking Jumping Foot to kill him, and them both drowning together.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The rewritten A Vision of Shadows is this: the Kin starts off as a small problem but the Clans' isolationism prevents them from taking action against them until it's too late, by the end of the arc they make the "law of the lake" requiring Clans to help each other against major threats in memory of ShadowClan which at the time they think has been destroyed forever.
• The Coup: In addition to canon examples done by Nightstar and Mudclaw, the cleric Pearnose also overthrows his leader Morningstar and becomes leader herself out of frustration about his pacifism.
• Covered with Scars: One of the Clans' main beauty standards thanks to their battle culture are prominent scars, the more the better. Brightheart and Frostfur are considered to be amongst their clan's most beautiful cats because of that.
• Creepy Good: Spottedleaf looks rather creepy and is associated with death with her design motifs of skulls and blighted leafs, and scares Smudge when he first sees her. However, she's a kind-hearted cat who's not evil at all.
• Cruella to Animals: One of One-eye's incarnations was a human who had an intense hatred for the cats living in the area, who convinced other humans to help kill said cats.
• Crusading Widow: Shredtail's mate and kits were killed by a boar, leading to him seeking revenge against it. He went so far as to use a clanmate as live bait to kill the boar, which got him sent to the Dark Forest.
• Curse:
  • Brokenstar is the living embodiment of the fifth oak tree at the current Fortress, a curse created by the suffering of SkyClan to punish the Clans. Unlike in canon, this is followed up with him taking a major part in restoring and protecting SkyClan after his death.
  • Spottedleaf curses Tigerstar with his last life to have a short and bloody reign, which Tigerstar accepts despite knowing her hostility to him because he wants the extra power so badly.
• Crusading Lawyer: Lizardstripe is an example in the afterlife due to participating in Judgment Of The Dead, managing to get her friend Bluestar into StarClan while making Thistleclaw and his supporters look horrible in the process.
• Culture Clash:
  • SkyClan has some cultural differences from the other four Clans due to their long separation. For instance, while the other Clans see scars as desirable traits and will often rename cats after their injuries to emphasize how tough they are for surviving, SkyClan cats are neutral about scars and think it's rude to name a cat like that, leading to the scarred cats from other clans thinking they are being insulted for their names.
  • Tawnypelt, having grown up in ThunderClan, sometimes has trouble understanding ShadowClan cats' dark sense of humor and takes it as aggression towards her.
• Cunning Linguist: Bumble speaks the languages of Tribe cats, town cats, and park cats, so she becomes a valued translator for the Clans.
• Curiosity Causes Conversion:
  • A case where it actually leads a character to join the villains: Heathertail joins the Kin because she is curious about her long-lost brother Darktail and the other side to her father (who she has a complicated relationship with) and his legacy that he represents.
  • Similarly, part of Harespring's motivation to join the Dark Forest is curiosity about his father Mudclaw being there, the other reason is anger at StarClan for pressing his brother Kestrelflight into being a cleric.
• The Cynic: Lizardstripe is the most cynical of her friend group.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: Siblings Stormfur and Feathertail have this dynamic, with Stormfur being cynical and distrusting and Feathertail tending to believe that everything will work out well due to her faith in StarClan.
• Cynicism Catalyst:
  • Goosefeather's attempts to use his ability to see the future to help others failing and causing a famine makes him believe that trying to change what he predicts the future to be will only lead to disaster, as in canon. Here, it leads to him outright trying to make sure the prophecies come true, even if it means other cats suffering and dying, because he feels doing anything else will lead to worse pain.
  • Bluestar being betrayed by Tigerclaw makes her believe that, no matter what she does, the ideology represented by Thistleclaw and Tigerclaw will not disappear, and StarClan wants it to succeed. This only gets worse with further incidents like the forest fire and Snowsuit's death.
  • Hollyleaf gets several of them, such as Heathertail seemingly telling Onestar about the tunnels to allow his invasion and finding out her true parentage, which cause her to be more revenge-minded as she sees her attempts at diplomacy fail.
  • Stormfur has two, his father Graystripe choosing ThunderClan over him and his sister and getting exiled, and the cruelty and persecution he and his family face for being half-Clan under TigerClan.
• Darker and Edgier: Sol's Game compared to the manga series it is an adaptation to SkyClan and the Stranger. While Harry/Sol in SkyClan and the Stranger is a mostly pathetic and unthreatening villain who doesn't do anything worse than try to kidnap Leafstar and Billystorm's kits and is stopped, here he's still a rather pathetic character but working on behalf of a god, for whom he wants to find a kit to sacrifice like he's already done to two others, and he succeeds in killing Stormkit.
• Dark Horse Victory: Crowfeather and Breezepelt compete intensely for the deputy position of WindClan, only for Harespring to end up winning the role thanks to his reliability.
• Deader than Dead: In addition to it being possible to kill a spirit from StarClan or the Dark Forest as in canon, removing them from any afterlife, being killed by One-eye destroys the soul so that you don't go to an afterlife.
• Dead Guy Junior: Some canon examples of this like Molewhisker being named after Molepaw are preserved, but some cats whose names previously just happened to share the same prefix are turned into this, like Rainstorm being named after Rainwhisker or Stonestream being named after Stonefur. Sorrelstripe is renamed to Dustripe to remain a Dead Guy Junior because Dustpelt died in the Great Battle here instead of Sorreltail (Hollylark and Fernsong are not examples of this, as neither Hollyleaf nor Ferncloud died in this version of the Great Battle, though Hollyleaf did change her name to Fallenleaf and Hollylark is named after her original name).
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Brackenfur is killed in the Eclipse battle in Power of Three, though he is still alive in canon.
  • Jagged Peak dies of starvation after being kicked out of Clear Sky's group due to the group having not split yet and no one but Bright Storm being there to stay with him.
  • Thornclaw dies in the Great Battle against the Dark Forest, while fighting on the Dark Forest's side.
  • To "make up" for Marshkit surviving, Toadfoot dies as a kit instead, from a fox trap.
  • Nightsky and Breezeheart die as kits, leading to their mother Icewing seeing their deaths as a punishment from StarClan for becoming a Dark Forest apprentice and bringing her older son Beetlewhisker with her, which lead to his death
  • Thrushwing dies in the WindClan massacre instead of her sister Stoneclaw.
  • Ratscar is killed by Blackstar in the Great Battle, taking Redwillow's place.
  • Fury survives Graystripe's Vow in canon, having been defeated nonlethally, but here Ferncloud and Ashpaw kill her.
• Death by Childbirth: In addition to the canon examples, Onestar's mother died while giving birth to him and no other siblings, which is how he got his name.
• Death by Despair: Larkstripe dies shortly after her son Ripplekit is taken from her as punishment for her stand against SkyClan's exile (with the excuse that she is breaking the cleric code by having a kit), supposedly due to her grief at what happened.
• Death Seeker: Breezepelt feels he needs to die to make up for what he did, and he's the one to come up with the idea of drowning Darktail along with himself. Hearing this makes Onestar feel like he can't constantly be a coward and let the younger generation pay with their lives for his mistake, and he decides to do it instead.
• Decomposite Character:
  • Sol is now a god who possesses Harry rather than being the same character as Harry.
  • Barley is turned into two characters; Barley Sr., who fled BloodClan and is Bluestar's old friend, and his nephew Barley Jr., who is Ravenpaw's mate.
  • White-eye here is the name of One-eye's mate rather than being her original name.
  • Pinenose's kit who was killed by the Dark Forest was variously named Happykit and Weaselkit by Word of God, here both kits exist and are siblings and only Weaselkit dies.
  • Gray Wing dies in place of Shaded Moss, his role in the following plot being divided between Shaded Flower (nee Shaded Moss) and Bright Storm (a Composite Character of Bright Stream and Storm).
• Decoy Protagonist: Needletail is one of the three POV characters of the rewritten A Vision of Shadows, but dies midway through and her POV is replaced with Violetshine.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Firestar defeats Scourge without killing him and he later joins ThunderClan after retiring from leadership, taking the Clan name Iceheart. He is very loyal to Firestar for how he was willing to deal with him honorably, not killing him in battle despite the code permitting it and honoring the deal Tigerstar had made.
• Defecting for Love: Red Claw defects from Sky's Clan and joins Thunder's Clan due to falling in love with Acorn Swoop.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Willowclaw is very aloof and few cats know what's going on with her; however, befriending Nightcloud makes her become noticeably more involved with the other WindClan cats.
• Deity of Human Origin:
  • By taking back her own body after Sol possesses her, Fallenleaf (originally a normal cat) gains Sol's powers and essentially takes his place as one of the four gods of the setting.
  • Some of the more famous StarClan cats gain enough power from being remembered and worshipped to be considered something like gods themselves, although they are not as powerful as the main four and their power, unlike those four, is still dependent on how much they are worshipped. These are largely cats from Dawn of the Clans due to their legendary status as founders, including the five founders (with Clear Sky as a War God and Thunder Storm as a patron of justice), Gray Wing as a god of wisdom, Bumble as a god of language, and Acorn Swoop as a god of prra (a somewhat untranslatable concept, but referring more or less to perfect/fortuitous timing. Daisytail is a well-remembered god, Pearstar (canon Pearnose) is a patron of revolution, and in more modern times Firestar is a god associated with fire, particularly starting a cooking fire, and Speckletail is a patron of disaster prayed to to shield one from it.
  • The four gods themselves were likely once mortals, though so far back no one knows who they once were.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The Clans tend to see battle as necessary and glorious and see outsiders as lesser, which is intended to be carefully written as to not condone this ideology. Even cats who try to change the system are sometimes trapped by its mindset, like how Tallstar is willing to make an unprecedented peace deal with Raggedstar but is unwilling to give back all of the territory his Clan took, despite WindClan starting the war, because it would be dishonorable to give up land that was fought for like that.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • StarClan cats mostly only communicate with cats they know in life, meaning that when the first arc is over and we see the point of view of cats other than Firestar, Spottedleaf stops being a recurring character.
  • Alderheart and Twigbranch no longer get POVs, or even POVs focusing on their Clan, in A Vision of Shadows, making them much more minor characters (though Alderheart still gets focus in a book focusing on Bramblestar's second family with Jessy).
  • While Bristlefrost is still important to the story of The Broken Code and is the one to ultimately kill Ashfur, she doesn't get a POV and her story of initially following the impostor and switching sides is given to Ivypool.
  • Graystripe remains an important character in the earlier arcs but his important roles in The Broken Code and his super edition are taken by Cloudtail and Ferncloud.
  • Averted with a lot of cats, with the rewrite trying to allow older cats to have their spotlight rather than not doing anything despite being in the Clan. For example Ivypool and Cloudtail both have major roles in The Broken Code despite being faceless extras in canon, and Heathertail is a POV character in A Vision of Shadows rather than fading into the background.
• Destroyer Deity: This is One-Eye's role as one of the four gods. He is reincarnated repeatedly to terrorize the Tribe of Rushing Water until he is killed.
• Deus Exit Machina: Fallenleaf (Hollyleaf) leaves before The Broken Code to figure out how the gods' powers work because if she had stayed, she would figure out that Bramblestar was possessed too quickly and her powers would help solve the conflict too easily, drastically altering the plot.
• Devour the Dragon: Clear Sky is an important ally for Ashfur in his plan to possess Bramblestar and take over StarClan to enforce the code, but in the final confrontation Ashfur consumes his spirit to make himself more powerful.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Firestar dies earlier than in canon, being killed by Breezepelt near the end of Power of Three or the beginning of Omen of the Stars.
  • Leopardstar is now killed by Mistystar shortly after the end of The New Prophecy, considerably before she dies in canon.
  • Crookedstar dies by being poisoned by Leopardstar instead of succumbing to greencough.
  • Scourge is not killed by Firestar at the end of The Prophecies Begin, joining ThunderClan and dying much later in the great battle against the Dark Forest, killed by Tigerstar's spirit.
  • Bristlefrost's spirit still dies by killing Ashfur and herself, but here this is her second death, with her already have died previously when she was publicly executed by Ashfur for her relationship with Rootspring. In addition, her second death is no longer caused by pushing both of them into the dark water but pushing them both "out of the heavens", with them both spectacularly burning up like a comet and crashing to the ground.
  • It is no longer possible until the end of The Broken Code for a leader to renounce their lives, so to allow Tigerheart to be revived Rowanclaw drowns himself in the Moonpool until he loses all of his lives.
  • None of the elders are left behind in The New Prophecy, and most die later in the story. Speckletail still dies in the destruction of the forest, attacking a bulldozer to try to stop it from destroying the forest.
  • Goldenflower survives well into Power of Three.
  • Gray Wing dies far earlier than in canon, being trampled by a horse while protecting Shaded Flower (who in his original name of Shaded Moss died at the same point) during the Sun Trail journey. Shaded Flower, meanwhile, survives until the first battle where Clear Sky kills him in place of Rainswept Flower.
  • Toadstep is killed by Spiderleg in the Great Battle rather than dying of greencough shortly afterward.
  • Willowpelt dies in The New Prophecy, later than in canon where she died between The Prophecies Begin and The New Prophecy.
  • Snowkit no longer dies because he is deaf and thus didn't hear the hawk that kills him coming - he runs for cover with the other kits, and pushes Tawnykit out of the way to save her before being taken by the hawk himself.
  • Dustpelt dies in the battle against the Dark Forest instead of being killed by a badger later on.
  • Sharpclaw, rather than being killed by Darktail, sides with Darktail and is killed by Brokenstar's tree purposefully falling on him and other Darktail supporters.
  • Rainwhisker dies in the WindClan civil war in the rewritten The New Prophecy rather than being Killed Offscreen between The New Prophecy and Power of Three by a fallen tree branch.
  • Instead of dying in the Great Battle, Ferncloud survives to later take Graystripe's role of being a Light in the Mist and being killed by Ashfur there.
  • Robinwing from RiverClan dies as an apprentice instead of surviving to die in the Great Battle.
  • Briarlight doesn't die of illness in A Vision of Shadows but instead is killed by Ashfur for her rebellion against him during The Broken Code.
  • Swankit, Graypool's kit who is only named by Word of God, dies as a kit in canon but her survives to become a warrior, Swansong, and dies in the Great Battle agains the Dark Forest.
  • Elderkit, Ashfur and Ferncloud's sister who dies as a kit in canon and is only named by Word of God, does not die here and becomes a warrior, Elderberry, eventually being killed saving Fury from the boar she had set up to kill Claw in the flashback sections of Ferncloud's Parting (the reworked version of Graystripe's Vow). Cricketkit, a kit also only named by Word of God, survives to become the warrior Cricketclaw, and remains Dappletail's kit but is now also Darkstripe's littermate, and ends up dying in the rewritten The New Prophecy.
  • Brushpaw is not killed in battle by ShadowClan as an apprentice but instead lives to become a warrior, Brushblaze, and dies in the rewritten A Vision of Shadows when he purposefully collapses the tunnel Breezepelt and Heathertail are using to escape with the Kin cats slated to be executed so they can't be followed.
  • Honeyfern still gets attacked by a snake, but she survives to die later during the Great Battle against the Dark Forest.
  • Clear Sky/Skystar dies in canon saving Thunder's kits from a dog. Here, he dies in a battle which SkyClan wins, cementing his reputation as a hero to the new battle culture that values dying for one's Clan and glory.
  • Tigerheart/Heartstar's original death is different here; in canon, he dies saving a kit from a random owl; here, to avoid the plot being too based on random events, she is killed in an attempt to rescue the ShadowClan kits kept with the Kin. In both cases, they are revived as a leader with eight more lives, so the death doesn't stick.
  • Petal Claw (Petal from Dawn of the Clans) dies in battle as opposed to dying of a sickness in canon.
• Dirty Business: Mistystar is horrified by killing Leopardstar, even though she believes it was necessary to stop the spread of Thistle Law, and is haunted by it the rest of her life.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: The rewrite also autistic cats like Yellowfang and many of her direct descendants, Bluestar, Scourge and Mothwing. Squirrelflight has ADHD, Cinderheart, Squirrelflight, and Breezepelt have borderline personality disorder, Sorreltail has epilepsy, Dovewing is deaf after losing her powers, Whitewing and Stonewing are also deaf, Bumble has dyspraxia, and Thunder Storm (Thunder) is missing a leg.
• Disney Villain Death:
  • One-eye's human incarnation dies by being pushed off a cliff.
• Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Averted, unlike in canon. The cats are crepuscular like real cats and as a result patrol duty at noon is dreaded.
• Doom Magnet: Mapleshade is explicitly using supernatural powers to make Crookedstar's life miserable and kill those he loves, rather than it being Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: The eldest surviving child of Riverstar, taking power after a brief Succession Crisis, delays naming a successor while celebrating his victory and is killed by being poisoned during that time, starting up the battle for succession again. This inspires the law of the warrior code that demands a deputy be named before moonhigh after the previous leader or deputy's death or retirement.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal: Firestar rips of Scourge's collar during their battle, symbolizing his defeat of the BloodClan leader without killing him.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Redtail has this kind of personality and is a rather harsh deputy.
• Driven by Envy: Applefur trains with the Dark Forest due to her envy of her brother Marshwing being The Ace.
• Dying Moment of Awesome:
  • Speckletail dies by attacking a bulldozer along with Thornclaw, succeeding in knocking it into a ravine though being crushed by it in the process, and getting Thornclaw out of the way at the last minute.
  • Bristlefrost's (second) death gets this even more than in canon, using Ashfur and herself out of StarClan with them crashing to the earth and burning up like comets.
• Easy Road to Hell: Usually averted but played straight with all the cats involved in the tragedies that befell Mapleshade and his kits, who are sent immediately to the Dark Forest for relatively minor crimes due to StarClan's impulsive rage at what happened.
• End of an Age: The Succession Crisis in Riverstar's Heir marks the end of the era of free and peaceful relations between the River Kingdom and the Clans, as the way so many cats got pulled into the civil war by having family and friends in the River kingdom makes this seem like a better idea, and the law of loyalty prohibiting cross-Clan relationships follows shortly afterward. It also marks the end of the River Kingdom and Wind Coalition as entities culturally separate from the Tribe-descended Clans, with them being known as RiverClan and WindClan from then on.
• Eternal English: Averted, unlike in canon. The modern tribe cats can't understand the Clan cats' language and vice versa after splitting apart so many generations ago, and only manage to communicate somewhat well thanks to the Long-Lived Stonetellers keeping the old lake language alive for spiritual reasons (which still serves as a downplayed example of the trope, since that language hasn't diverged far enough as to be incomprehensible.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Tigerstar loves his mother and at least his children with Goldenflower, who he displays heavy favoritism towards. He cares for Spottedleaf as well, feeling sad about how his actions lead to her death (though that doesn't stop him from doing what he does).
  • Brokenstar loves Runningnose and genuinely loved Raggedstar, only eventually killing him because he was going to stop the war with WindClan and thus in Brokenstar's eyes make all of their sacrifices for nothing.
• Even Evil Has Standards: One-eye may be a murderous god of destruction, but he takes special pleasure in killing Tom because of him abusing his mate.
• Everyone Is Bi: Bonefall has stated he writes with the assumption that every cat is bisexual unless otherwise stated; in their Non-Heteronormative Society, preference for a different gender is considered as insignificant as preference for a certain feature of appearance.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: One-eye is the god of summer in addition to being a Destroyer Deity.
• Evil Is Easy: When StarClan refuses to give Blackstar nine lives due to all of the horrible things he has done in the past, Runningnose offers him lives from the Dark Forest instead, but he refuses to ally with Brokenstar and Tigerstar again even if it would give him a longer life, deciding to earn his lives the hard way through gradual atonement.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Averted here with the Dark Forest; they are wildly different individuals with different goals who are not all willing to side with Tigerstar's plan in Omen of the Stars, and some of them aren't evil either.
• Evil Redeemed in a Can: After her tyrannical rule over the ancient lake cats, Sol takes over Hollyleaf's body and her spirit is trapped in the tunnels for a hundred years. When she finally gets her body back, she has a better perspective over how wrong her actions were and how pointless her ambitions and obsession with the code were, and is a much more benevolent figure.
• Exasperated Perp: A variant with Lizardstripe during Bluestar's StarClan trial where the intention isn't to provoke Bluestar herself, who's being tried, but her political rival Thistleclaw and his allies, with Lizardstripe manipulating them into unhinged rants to show how cruel and nonsensical their ideology is and that Bluestar was justified in opposing them.
• Eye Color Change: Poppyfrost's eyes become red after Jayfeather rescues her from StarClan.
• The Face:
  • While Tigerstar is the leader of the Dark Forest cats during their plan to overthrow their leadership and take over as the dominant afterlife, it's Hawkfrost who acts as the diplomat able to accomplish the near-impossible task of uniting the Dark Forest cats with wildly differing ideologies towards a common goal.
  • Bumble serves as this for ancient ThunderClan, with her outgoing and warm personality and knowledge of three languages allowing her to create diplomatic relations with other groups effectively.
• Fallen Hero:
  • Hawkfrost was originally a noble, if flawed cat who defended Reedwhisker. Being failed by a Clan which hasn't abandoned Tigerstar's ideology and encouraged by that Clan to be his father's heir in upholding "Thistle law" leads to his descent to villainy.
  • Sleekwhisker starts out as an idealist who has important, if scattered ideas about reforming the Clans' approach towards outsiders, but she gradually becomes a ruthlessly loyal member of Darktail's cult.
• Family Extermination: Dead Moths Pelt and all of his children end up being killed at once when, at the celebration for the former becoming the next king of the River Kingdom, they all eat from the same ceremonial pot which was poisoned by the ThunderClan diplomat.
• Family Theme Naming:
  • Foxheart's family has a tendency to be named after animals (i.e Houndstar, Mousewing and Wolfstep).
  • Deerdapple has kits named Doestar, Deerpaw and Stagleap.
• Famous Ancestor: Tall Shadow and Moon Shadow are descendants of Broken Shadow, the cat infamous for taking in the future tyrant Hollyleaf. Tall Shadow leaves the mountains and takes a leadership role amongst the new Clans in part to make the Shadow name known for something other than this.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: The forget-me-nots gradually drift apart due to them all having their separate ambitions within their Clans.
• Foil: Leafpool serves as a foil to Jayfeather, with Leafpool being a resigned fatalist who hates being punished for her happiness and being a pawn to StarClan but doesn't feel there is much she can do about it, while Jayfeather openly defies StarClan any chance he gets.
• Flower Motifs: Used to represent the various competing political ideologies. Thistleclaw uses his namesake the thistle to demonstrate his philosophy of extreme violence and xenophobia, as shown by how attacking a thistle bush only leaves you wounded and the bush fine. Bluestar, the progenitor of the more compassionate "fire alone" ideology, and her True Companions use forget-me-nots as a symbol of their friendship which inspired their political beliefs. Traditionalists who believe in the Clans never helping each other but not upsetting the balance between them and destroying each other use the metaphor of a honeysuckle bush used in canon in The Last Hope to represent how the Clans' fighting makes them stronger but they all come from the same roots.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling:
  • Redtail is very serious and by-the-book, and when he dies follows all of the rules of StarClan interaction with living cats. His sister Spottedleaf is much more laid-back and is a rogue spirit who doesn't follow StarClan's rules.
  • Bristlefrost and Thriftear are serious and accomplished prodigy warriors, while Flipclaw is a bit silly and not the smartest cat.
• Formerly Fit: Lionblaze gains a lot of weight after losing his powers, in addition to his mane disappearing and giving him the look of a washed-up former athlete. However he is still a strong fighter even without his powers.
• Formerly Friendly Family: Besides canon examples like Mothwing/Hawkfrost and Clear Sky with his brothers:
  • Gorseclaw, Spottedpelt and Ripplestar used to be siblings who loved each other, but Gorseclaw betrayed the other two when he felt Ripplestar attacking the Clans at a peaceful gathering to get territory for SkyClan to return to was going too far, and ended up killing Spottedpelt in the ensuing battle.
  • Hollyleaf not only turns against Leafpool but also Jayfeather, feeling he has defied StarClan one too many times by having kits with Poppyfrost and believing she needs to prove herself as the hero she thought she was by punishing every wrongdoer.
• The Four Gods: The setting features four gods, each associated with a season - Midnight (spring), One-eye (summer), Sol (autumn) and Rock (winter), though they don't otherwise resemble the four this trope is based on.
• Friendly Rivalry: Oakfur, Morningflower and Rosepetal are all known for having trained many apprentices. They see each other at gatherings and have a friendly rivalry over just how many apprentices they have trained.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: The rewritten SkyClan and the Stranger centers around Harry having to choose between going through with his plan to find a third kit to sacrifice in SkyClan to become the vessel of Sol and have power beyond his wildest dreams, or stay in SkyClan and find the acceptance he always wanted. Sadly he chooses the former.
• Friend to Bugs: Spottedleaf is interested in all the creatures that aren't considered cute and popular - in particular, she takes a liking to leeches, admiring them for their medical uses in treating arthritis, and keeps three pet leeches in the medicine den.
• Full-Boar Action: Boars take the place of badgers in attacking ThunderClan in The New Prophecy, as their size and being animals that live in groups fits better with how badgers are portrayed in canon. One of One-eye's incarnations is a boar-pig hybrid, which as in real life is twice the size of a normal boar. Shredtail also becomes the enemy of a white boar who killed his mate and kits, inventing all manner of traps to kill him.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Cranberrysplash was originally named Spaghetti Bolognaise when she was in BloodClan. When her father Pigeonflight gets mad at her, he calls her by this name and her Clan name.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Jessy is a genius inventor and designs Briarlight's mobility device.
• Gaia's Vengeance: When the giant catfish Ripwater attacks RiverClan, they notice the attacks tend to happen when they are collecting mussels and, although this is in fact coincidental, falsely believe the mussels to have something to do with the attacks. Willowpaw (the future Willowshine), who wants ThunderClan to help them, takes advantage of this by telling them of a vision she had that encourages them to ask for help. While most of the vision she describes is true, she lies about some parts, one of which is that this trope is in effect and StarClan sent Ripwater to punish them for overexploiting the resource of mussels in their new home.
• Gallows Humor: Rainbloom, who was killed by supernatural rats, makes a joke like this at his own expense when appearing from SkyClan's afterlife to give Leafstar one of her lives. He says the life is "for dodging rat bites", then later clarifies it is for humor.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: In addition to the Sundrown patrol in The New Prophecy, which remains this as it is in canon, there is also the forget-me-nots, with three female members (Bluestar, Lizardstripe and Ashfoot) and three male members (Oakheart, Deadfoot and Barley Sr.)
• Gender Flip:
  • Tigerheart is now female, both to balance out the large number of male ShadowClan characters and to allow for more stable same-gender relationships between major characters with regards to and Dovewing.
  • Bone becomes female because BloodClan is matriarchal and doesn't keep track of paternity, so her being female lets Barley Jr. and his siblings be her known children.
  • There are several other male-to-female gender flips. Spiderstar, Houndstar (to allow for more female leaders), Shattered Frost (Shattered Ice), Sandynose, Stoneclaw, Spiderfoot, and Piketooth are all mollies now.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Like his mother Leafpool, Jayfeather ends up having illicit kits as a cleric and giving them to his sibling to raise.
  • Tigerstar's family line has a pattern of tabbies losing their golden sister in some way, most of the examples of which already existed in canon (Frecklewish and Birchface being separated in the afterlife, Hawkfrost losing his abusive control of Mothwing, Tigerheart not being able to stop Dawnpelt from joining the kin and being killed, Strikestone watching Sleekwhisker become a villain fully allied with the kin who never rejoins ShadowClan), while making Tawnypelt's design golden makes Tawnypelt leaving Bramblestar for ThunderClan this as well, and Gorseclaw killing Spottedpelt (and the two also being separated in the afterlife) is specifically added to fit this trope.
• Genki Girl: Besides the cats portrayed this way in canon, Sorreltail very much has an excitable and wild personality.
• Giver of Lame Names: Bramblestar is considered a bad namer of warriors In-Universe for giving names where, despite fitting the cat in question, the combination of prefix and suffix sound weird. Blossomfall's litter is considered some of the worst in terms of naming: Stemleaf implies a plant where a leaf serves as the stem, Plumstone doesn't use the same word used for an actual plum stone (the nut in the center of the plum) and just seems to oddly imply something like a plum made of stone or a stone that looks like a plum, and Shellfur oddly pairs a prefix supposed to convey strength and toughness in structure with a suffix that focuses on the beauty and texture of his fur. Ivypool's suffix gets some flak, though not as much as some of the others, due to the "passive-sounding" suffix not fitting her personality and it oddly referencing her controversial biological grandmother Leafpool's honor title. Everyone is also very disappointed that he doesn't give Stormcloud a cool honor title referencing the scars he got from surviving being hit by a car, while Mousewhisker's dishonor title of Stupidhead just sounds funny instead of properly punishing. One of the signs that he is being possessed by Ashfur is that the impostor is actually good at naming with his dishonor titles.
• Godhood Seeker: Part of Tigerstar's plan in Omen of the Stars is to replace StarClan with the Dark Forest as the main afterlife, which he thinks will make him the god of the clans as he is the leader of the Dark Forest, with his supporters also promised godly positions.
• God of Chaos: Sol is now one, and his role in Power of Three is playing a game with the Clans, trying to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible while prevented due to his deal with Midnight from using direct force.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: StarClan cats who are more remembered and had stories told about them, usually for being famous for their actions in life, become more powerful, some to the point where they are comparable to minor gods (though only the collective StarClan is as powerful as the four main gods). If their belief builds up enough they will be able to keep their power even if cats stop remembering and believing in them later. Averted with said four gods themselves, though, though they might have originally been like that they have long since beyond too powerful for belief to matter.
• Good All Along: During Bluestar's trial to see if she is allowed into StarClan, Lizardstripe initially seems to be sabotaging her despite being her defense attorney, and Bluestar has her doubts about her especially since her friendship with her and the other forget-me-nots has gradually drifted apart. In the end, it turns out it was all part of the plan to save her and Lizardstripe makes it clear that she has never stopped caring about Bluestar.
• The Good King: Riverstar is a beloved and competent king, with his wisdom being respected by everyone. However, this doesn't stop his carelessness about naming a clear successor causing a lot of war and strife when he dies.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil:
  • Done with the three political factions of the Clans. Fire Alone is the "good" ideology which treats outsiders with respect and is willing to change some of the harsher practices of the Clans that lead to constant battles and xenophobia. Thistle Law is the clearly "evil" ideology, accentuating normal Clan obsession with war and discrimination against outsiders, rejecting some of the more merciful parts of the Code like the Queens' Rights and being the cause of much violence and tragedy throughout the series. Traditionalism represents the "bad" middle ground, still seeing Clan loyalty and Code-following as important in a way that has led to much violence and destruction in itself, but respecting softer parts of the Code and not going as far in its violence as Thistle Law. This dynamic is embodied by the Traditionalist Mistystar, who is responsible for cruel actions of her own in enforcing the Code when the Imposter is in power in the rewritten The Broken Code, but nonetheless recognizes Thistle Law as the enemy and does everything she can to root it out.
  • Sone in the rewritten Dawn of the Clans; Clear Sky is a clear villain, Tall Shadow opposes him for abandoning Thunder Storm and starts her own group in protest but isn't too different with how she refuses to let Bumble stay in the group, and Thunder Storm leads the clearly heroic faction which protests both of them.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Justified - the Proud Warrior Race Guy culture of the Clans means leaders are expected to throw themselves into deadly situations, be on the front lines of battles and sacrifice themselves for their Clanmates all the time, which is why StarClan gives them nine lives as opposed to more peaceful groups like the Tribe where their Stonetellers are given the power to live a very long time without dying of natural causes, but can't revive after being killed. As a result of this, leaders often die so often they don't live to the maximum lifespan of a cat despite their nine lives, with Tallstar, Mistystar and Riverstar being exceptions.
• Grief-Induced Split: Pinenose and Owlclaw split up as a result of their kit Weaselkit being killed in the battle against the Dark Forest.
• Gruesome Grandparent: Lionblaze still threatens Shadowsight's life for his role in Ashfur taking over ThunderClan (despite him doing nothing more than listening to a StarClan cat as all clerics are told to do) like in canon, but here he is also Shadowsight's grandfather.
• Guardian Angel: Some cats have StarClan cats who died when they were young acting as their guardian angel. For instance, Squirrelflight is watched over by Shrewpaw (given the warrior name Shrewface in StarClan, and he helps her cover up Leafpool's kits by giving her a special plant that she can claim her and Leafpool needed to go on a mission from StarClan to find. Jayfeather is watched over by Moleflight (the StarClan-given name of Molepaw, who died in a green cough epidemic when they were apprentices), though their relationship is unusually antagonistic due to Jayfeather's defiance of StarClan and Jayfeather even physically fights Moleflight at one point.
• Guile Hero: Lizardstripe is always making clever plans for the rest of the forget-me-nots. Later on, she plots from the afterlife how to win Bluestar's trial and get her into StarClan while humiliating Thistleclaw's supporters in the process long before Bluestar actually dies, and succeeds.
• Half-Identical Twins: Hazeltail and Mousewhisker, due to Hazeltail being transgender. Though they are actually two out of a set of triplets, the third who doesn't look like them at all.
• Healing Factor: Spirits can heal far faster from the living due to not having bodies, which makes the Dark Forest cats especially threatening during the Great Battle.
• The Heart: Oakheart is this for the forget-me-nots, having a friendly and goofy personality that makes him good at keeping them together.
• Heel–Race Turn: WindClan becomes more antagonistic to ThunderClan, who are the "good guys" under Firestar's leadership due to his more tolerant and idealistic ideology, as in canon, but on the other side of the coin ShadowClan much more cleanly becomes heroic under Blackstar's leadership than in canon.
• Heel Realization: Ivypool realizes how horrible the fake Bramblestar's actions that she has supported are after he kills her daughter Bristlefrost.
• He Knows Too Much: Flametail drowns under the frozen lake due to supernatural interference from the Dark Forest breaking the ice since he'd managed to figure out too much about Tigerstar's plans. They try to kill his spirit before it can reach StarClan as well, but Tigerstar himself steps in to stop this from happening.
• Held Back in School:
  • Squirrelflight is the age of a full warrior by the time of the journey in the rewritten The New Prophecy, but was held back.
  • Happypaw (later Happyface) is the oldest of the [ShadowClan] apprentice rebels in A Vision of Shadows, being old enough to be a warrior but held back for defying orders.
  • Reedwhisker spends an inordinately long time as an apprentice due to a combination of his anxiety and trauma over what happened in TigerClan making him struggle and his mentor, Skyheart, being prejudiced against him for his ancestry and deliberately looking for excuses for him to fail his assessments.
• Hell of a Time: The Dark Forest isn't quite as miserable as in canon, despite its rather creepy and unpleasant architecture, and some cats manage to find happiness in this afterlife.
• The Hero Dies: Needletail is now a POV in A Vision of Shadows but still dies midway through the arc.
• Heroic Rematch: Jaypaw loses his first fight with Owlpaw badly, as in canon, and it crushes his already low confidence in himself, but during ShadowClan's marsh reclamation project they get into another fight, and Jaypaw wins this time.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Deerfoot helps try to free the half-Clan prisoners during Tigerstar's reign and is killed for refusing to name his collaborators.
  • Snowkit is killed by a hawk after pushing Tawnykit out of its way.
  • During Breezepelt and his friends' mission to help the cats the Kin is slated to have executed escape through a tunnel, Brushblaze purposefully collapses the tunnel and dies in the process so the Kin can't pursue them.
  • Firestar loses one of his lives saving Sorreltail when she is hit by a car. In general, this is expected for leaders - StarClan gives them nine lives for a reason, to be willing to throw themselves into danger to save their Clanmates, which is why some of them don't outlive all the normal cats of their generation.
• Heroic Suicide: Leaders can't give up their lives here, so after Tigerheart's death Rowanstar takes his daughter with him to the moonpool and drowns himself there so Tigerheart will succeed him as leader and StarClan will be allowed to resurrect him.
• A Hero Is Born: The prologue for Brokenstar's Cataclysm has Brokenkit when he is just born, with Raggedstar thinking about his future. Though in this case it's "A Villain Protagonist is Born".
• Historical Downgrade:
  • In-Universe, Cloudstar is remembered as a weak, soft leader whose unwillingness to defend his Clan like his predecessor Flystar lead to SkyClan's "deserved" exile. In reality he was a perfectly competent and compassionate leader, but came to power when SkyClan's part of the forest was almost fully destroyed and there was nothing he could do about it (he had only been a leader for a year or so at the time of the exile).
• Also In-Universe, Larkstripe is remembered with a combination of this and Historical Villain Upgrade, as someone who cruelly let her leader die, and this trope, as she is seen as hysterical and driven out of her mind by the duties of having a child while being a cleric (with Dalestar heroically solving the problem by taking away her kit), when she was actually fully aware of what she was doing and fully capable of taking care of Ripplekit.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: In-Universe, as part of glorifying kit stealing in the times before it was banned, Birch Claw gets remembered as a heroic exemplar of it for staying loyal to Clear Sky's group who "won him through honor", even if that group was villainous in reality.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: For the same reason as Birch Claw is venerated, his family members Red Claw, Snake Claw and Alder Claw are looked upon negatively by history for all defecting from Clear Sky's group, being seen as an example of the dangers of nepotism and valuing family over Clan, even though there was a very good moral justification to defect.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Hollylark is a product of Fallenleaf accidentally using her powers as a god to impregnate her mate Cinderheart.
• Hope Spot: Early on in Riverstar's Heir, the succession crisis seems to be resolved with the eldest surviving child of Riverstar taking power. Unfortunately he delays naming a successor while celebrating his victory and is killed by being poisoned during that time, starting up the battle for succession again. This inspires the law of the warrior code that demands a deputy be named before moonhigh after the previous leader or deputy's death or retirement.
• Human Sacrifice: One-eye accepts cats as sacrifices to him because he gains power from the sacrifices. Star Flower sacrifices eight of Clear Sky's lives in order to try to summon One-eye after his defeat. Sol also demands the sacrifice of three kits for Harry to be able to be his vessel; however, he does not actually gain power from sacrifices and is only pretending to need them because it's entertaining and shows the cat he wants as his vessel is willing to do anything for him.
• Hypocrite:
  • Jayfeather is mad at Leafpool and Squirrelflight for lying about his parentage despite doing the same thing with his own children, he's aware of the hypocrisy and knows he shouldn't feel angry but can't stop himself from feeling that way.
  • Many of the Thistle Law supporters are often willing to work with other Clans despite their claims of focusing on blood purity and xenophobia towards the others; this is done intentionally because real bigots are often like that.
• Identical Grandson: Ivypool looks just like her great-great grandfather Redtail, barring them having different coat colors. It unnerves Tigerstar a lot.
• If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: In part why Sol asks for sacrifices he doesn't actually need; it proves the cat working for him can be manipulated into doing anything for him. In Harry's case this involves killing literal kittens.
• Ignored Epiphany: Leopardstar genuinely regrets her role in TigerClan and the persecution of half-Clan cats, but over time comes to forget that regret and look on that time fondly, leading to her relapsing into her old behavior.
• I Know What You Fear: The Dark Forest incorporates things that living cats fear as part of its environment, i.e there are horses because a lot of cats are scared of horses, and prey includes the rabbit that blinded Longtail and the pheasant that lead to Shrewpaw's death. Though of course, one cat's fear isn't everyone's, so some cats in the Dark Forest find a way to enjoy the scenery.
• Immortality Field: Spirits in StarClan the Dark Forest are revived if they get killed by other spirits in their home, but are not safe from ending up Deader than Dead in the opposite afterlife. However, this does not apply if they are killed by living cats, and it does not apply to living cats visiting an afterlife either.
• Improbable Weapon User: Deadfoot has a gauntlet on his weak foot that he uses to whack other cats with.
• Incidental Multilingual Wordplay: In-universe, Hollyleaf's ancient Lake name of Holly Leaves, Wask Russ'a, gets mockingly punned on as Wurru'ss'a ("Mistake Leaves"), which can conveniently be translated to English as "Folly Leaves".
• Inertial Impalement: Hawkfrost still dies by being impaled by the fox trap's stake, but here Mothwing kills him and not entirely intentionally, raising the stake to defend herself with Hawkfrost impaling himself as he leaps to attack her.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Bumble is very confident and talks about herself like she is the coolest cat ever, but her being constantly belittled for her kittypet status and dyspraxia, her daughter's betrayal and the possibility of Thunder Storm learning the languages she knows making her useless leads to her actually having deep-seated self-worth issues.
• In It for Life: Until the end of The Broken Code, leaders are not allowed to resign or leave in any other manner than death; their successor if they do so will not be able to get their nine lives (so Sunstar and Nightstar don't get any lives). This becomes a problem for Rowanstar/claw when he has retired and disbanded his Clan but can't get rid of his lives, and as long as he's alive his daughter and deputy Tigerheart can't get nine lives. After Tigerheart's death, Rowanstar takes her to the moonpool and drowns himself there, as long as it takes to get rid of all of his lives, so Tigerheart will be able to be revived to get her nine lives.
• Intro-Only Point of View: Yellowfang gets one in the prologue of Brokenstar's Cataclysm, recounting Brokenstar's birth.
• In-Series Nickname: Clan cats have nicknames, but they always have to incorporate parts of the prefix and suffix to avoid being disrespectful to the cat's rank (i.e Squirrelflight = Squilf, Nightcloud = Nico). Ancient River kingdom or Wind Coalition cats didn't follow this rule, so we have Flowers Came First being called "Flow", Jumping Foot as "Jump", Mossfire Alight as "Moss" and Dead Moths Pelt as "Moth".
• Inspirational Martyr: Briarlight is very popular in her Clan and, when she is killed for opposing Ashfur, her death inspires her Clanmates to fight against him as well.
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers:
  • Before the law of the Warrior Code protection kits was made, Clan cats would occasionally steal kits from kittypets and other Clans. This, with the requisite expectation that those kits would be considered fully part of their adopted Clan, is the reason why Clan cats in the rewrite are so accepting of adoption despite being obsessed with Clan blood and loyalty. Oakstar kept trying to do this even right after the law was made by trying to take Reedshine's kits. As in canon, Brokenstar is happy to continue this tradition by taking kits from other Clans.
  • Moth Flight's kits are stolen due to them also having medical skills and a connection to StarClan, and each Clan wanting a cat with those abilities. She makes them promise to never take a mate and kits as part of an overall oath to be loyal to medicine over the Clans who stole them from their mother.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: The Clans make up one concerning Tigerstar's death that describes in gruesome detail all of the organs that fell out of his body, which serves to teach young cats the names of those organs.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Runningnose gives his acorn necklace to Firestar to allow him to summon Brokenstar for his purpose in bringing back SkyClan, even knowing this means they will be separated in the afterlife and he will be miserable in the Dark Forest alone, because he knows it is best for Brokenstar.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Speckletail is rather harsh and critical as well as having hard Traditionalist views that are often xenophobic, but she is genuinely kind and caring to her family.
• Journey to Find Oneself: Fallenleaf leaves between A Vision of Shadows and The Broken Code, prompted by her disillusionment with the politics of the Clans and Hollylark's death to want to truly understand her powers as a new god.
• Judgement of the Dead: Cats have trials to determine whether they are let into StarClan after they die. Squirrelflight and Leafpool's is featured, as in canon, though unlike in canon Leafpool is easily let in while Squirrelflight has a harder time owing to the whole "Fire Alone" ideology being put into question by the trial. Bluestar also gets one shown in her Super Edition.
• "Just So" Story: The Clan cats have some that concern historical cats from the Dawn of the Clans era that have become mythical.
  • One story explains why you shouldn't stare at the sun because Sun Shadow challenged One Eye to show all his power and thus stole the power at the cost of being burned himself, becoming the sun, but he will have to give up his power to the next cat who defeats him in a staring contest.
  • Another story has Snake Claw kill all the snakes but realize that, without snakes, prey fearlessly hide in their burrows and can't be caught. He begs StarClan to bring the snakes back but has to re-create them himself, and they ended up being not quite the same as the original, which is why snakes are "worms" but have scales, grass snakes have no venom, slowworms' tails can fall off, some adders are green.
• Kansas City Shuffle: When Thunder's Clan needs to escape from their camp to go on hunts and diplomatic patrols, but they are constantly watched by Clear Sky's larger group which could easily beat them in a head-on battle, Bright Storm comes up with a plan. She builds a thick, impenetrable briar wall around the camp, knowing that Clear Sky is proud of his intelligence and will figure out that the fence can be circumvented by climbing the trees around it, thinking he has outsmarted her. However, this means Clear Sky's Clan is now equally trapped inside the camp, and a few guards can keep them stuck there while the rest of the Clan goes on patrol.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Clear Sky never atones for his actions, but is still let into StarClan as a respected Clan founder. Many arcs later in the rewritten The Broken Code, his soul gets eaten by Ashfur, though.
• Kill the Cutie: Mossfire Alight, Flowerstar's kindhearted ward and adopted little sister, ends up being unfortunately caught in the middle of a Succession Crisis due to being Riverstar's adopted heir and dies trying to kill Jumping Foot for all he's done to disturb the peace (and his supposed poisoning of Dead Moths Pelt and his children).
• Kill the Ones You Love: Brokenstar genuinely loves Raggedstar in the rewrite, but he still ends up killing him.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Stumptail isn't the smartest cat but he fights against Brokenstar's cruelty.
• Klingon Promotion: In addition to the canon examples with Brokenstar and Tigerstar (the latter of whom is actually responsible for Lionheart's death here, thus killing two deputies to get the position), Leopardstar kills Crookedstar when she is his deputy and thus succeeds him as leader, while Mistystar in turn kills Leopardstar when she is her deputy and becomes leader after her.
• Knight Templar: Hollyleaf even more so than in canon, being convinced she needs to punish all wrongdoers (she kills Ashfur simply as a revenge/punishment here without him posing any threat of revealing her secret), and going after not just Leafpool but also Jayfeather, and ruling the ancient lake cats tyrannically because she believes she knows what's best.
• Lamarck Was Right: Shadowsight inherits his grandmother Poppyfrost's red eyes despite Poppyfrost not being born with them but having her eyes change color after being rescued from death.
• La Résistance: There are several of them throughout the series, some of which are new to the rewrite and others which existed in canon but are expanded upon with new members.
  • Nightpelt's resistance against Brokenstar, which eventually overthrows him with ThunderClan's help, included Deerfoot and Stumptail... and not Runningnose, who is a loyal supporter of Brokenstar here.
  • Several TigerClan cats oppose their leadership and secretly help the half-Clan cats, mostly RiverClan cats with the exception of Deerfoot and Jaggedtooth due to Runningnose having killed a lot of the former Nightstar supporters from ShadowClan in the epidemic. Besides Deerfoot and Jaggedtooth, this includes Reedpaw, Mudfur, Mosspelt, Dawnflower and Swansong. They allow Stormpaw, Featherpaw and Mistyfoot to escape to ThunderClan but Deerfoot gets caught and killed for refusing to name his allies.
  • Breezepelt and Heathertail oppose the Kin from within it and help rescue many cats slated for execution, with the help of WindClan allies like Harespring and Brushblaze.
  • As in canon, there is a resistance against the Bramblestar impostor, though this time Cloudtail and Briarlight are also involved, and Finchpaw is an active member rather than just leaving with Sparkpelt, helping set up the reputation of Firestar's kin as heroes.
• Last Villain Stand: Tigerstar fights on even as it becomes clear his last-ditch effort to attack the Clans and install the leaders he wanted in charge has failed, and manages to put up an impressive fight in the process, seeming to be unstoppable as he plows through cats. This culminates in him killing Iceheart and taking one of Blackstar's lives. This gets put to an end when Jayfeather gets StarClan to show up.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: In Power of Three, Lionblaze learns from fighting to help the Tribe that the right way to use one's strength is to help others. He takes this lesson too far by pressuring his own children into working to save the Clans in ways that are dangerous or traumatizing.
• Lethal Chef: When Fernstripe joins ThunderClan from WindClan, the cats of ThunderClan are excited to have a cat who can teach them WindClan cooking techniques like making tunnelbuns. Unfortunately she turns out to be horrible at cooking.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Firestar attempts to negotiate with Scourge to not use deathberry-poisoned claws against BloodClan in the upcoming Final Battle, in exchange for BloodClan not using their claw extenders. Scourge mocks him for claiming to be honorable when BloodClan has been consistently betrayed by Clan cats, and mocks him further that if he really does mean what he says, it would be foolish indeed. However, most of both groups, including Scourge himself, stay true to their word. Firestar also defeats Scourge without killing him, with Scourge agreeing to order BloodClan to retreat rather than being killed.
• Lifesaving Misfortune: Cinderpelt, Littlecloud, and Leafpool (then called Leafstripe) are late to the Moonstone gathering of clerics when Mothermouth, the cave around the Moonstone, collapses due to human construction and kills two of the other clerics, Mudfur and Barkface. This allows the three to avoid getting killed themselves.
• Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Nightpelt and his brother Daylight with regards to their names, until Daylight gets the honor title of Clawface.
• Lighter and Softer: Bluestar's Flowers compared to Bluestar's Prophecy is this - while is still includes all of the tragic parts of the story like the deaths of Moonflower, Snowfur and Mosskit, Bluestar now has a group of loving friends from the other Clans that give moments of levity rather than it being all angst.
• Light Is Good: Blackstar initially has an all-black head which gradually erodes and becomes white like the rest of his bodies, symbolizing how he atones for his crimes and gets his nine lives.
• Light Is Not Good: Daylight is a ruthless Brokenstar and Thistleclaw supporter despite his light-related name, unlike his more heroic brother Nightpelt, and he's happy to get the honor title of Clawface which seems less "weak".
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: It turns out that despite Stormcloud not being born in the Clans' battle-focused culture he takes to it quite well, loving to fight and enjoying the admiration he gets for his scar.
• Literal-Minded: Stumptail is described as being like this.
• Long-Lived: Tribe Stonetellers live upwards of 30 years, which is certainly this by cat standards, thanks to being given near-immortality with an inability to die from things like disease or starvation.
• Lost in Translation: Several In-Universe examples.
  • Iceheart's name has more meaning in the Clans' language, with the prefix being the past tense of frozen, and the suffix being the future tense of heartbeat - i.e his heart was frozen but it continues to beat as he continues to live. Similarly, Harespring's name uses the future tense of the word for "spring", giving the connotation that the hare is about to leap but is waiting for the right moment, showing his cautious personality.
  • Onestar's name is hard to translate without knowledge of the Clans' fractional number system. It refers to a whole fraction and in the Clans' communal society carries the connotation of loneliness, completeness, and full moons.
  • Heatherstar and Heathertail don't actually have the same prefix in the Clan cats' language, with Heatherstar's referring to common heather and Heathertail's to bell heather.
  • Hallowflight's honor title in clanmew uses the prefix "shahaf", which means "holy" but also has the double meaning of "healing", giving a sense that his flight redeemed him for being a Dark Forest trainee.
  • Skywatcher's clanmew name doesn't just refer to watching but to sitting vigil like a new warrior does, referencing how he kept the memory of SkyClan alive.
  • Mapleshade's name doesn't just refer to the shade created by a single tree but the understory in general, and the prefix actually more accurately refers to a sycamore.
  • Mistystar's name specifically refers to the dewy mist in the morning. It references how this mist was present when Oakheart first took the kits from Bluestar.
  • Ferncloud's suffix specifically refers to a fast-moving cloud, referencing how fast she ran when luring the dogs to the gorge.
  • Finchlight's name refers to a thistle-eating finch and then refers to glowing like fire, alluding to her being expected to advocate for Fire Alone and destroy Thistle Law.
  • Dead Moths Pelt actually has a name that refers to him saving a bunch of pelts by killing the moths inside before they laid eggs, with a meaning more like "Killed the moths to save the pelts", but this is hard to translate into a three word title.
  • A lot of the dishonor titles have meanings that are hard to translate. Spiderleg's dishonor title, Spiderbite, invokes cannibalism, specifically animals eating their young, to reference him nearly killing his own son. Mousewhisker being Stupidhead, also translatable as Mousebrain, is a pun that refers to him having the brain of dead prey eaten as food as opposed to his normal name which refers to a living mouse. Blossomfall's is translated as Shredbloom but specifically refers to a bud plucked before it blooms into a fruit. Sunstrike's, translated as Brokensun, really means something like "sun-quenched". Furzepelt's is to Fleapelt, which actually means something like "fleas hide in me".
• Louis Cypher: Morningstar was already an existing cat in canon, but here his "devil-invoking name" is played up with him being in the Dark Forest and having a design meant to look like a devil. Despite this he is actually a nice cat who ended up in the Dark Forest due to being too resolutely pacifistic.
• Madden Into Misanthropy: Fallenleaf becomes very cynical about the Clans' way of life after her experiences, seeing the patrols and battles as just another pointless game like the ones Sol plays, eventually inspiring her to leave altogether.
• Magical Underpinnings of Reality: StarClan cats have the power to "design" kittens based on what their parents look like; this leads to Purdy making Lightleap look just like Tigerheart despite being biologically Bumblestripe's kit. They can also grow animals and plants, with Spottedleaf particularly liking to do so with the "ugly" and thus unpopular ones like leeches.
• Malicious Misnaming: Mistystar's Clan name as a warrior was Sooheffepwyyarr, and as a result she was sometimes called by the nickname "Son" by her siblings. Blackclaw, her former mate, also calls her this, though it's meant as an insult, both mocking their former relationship and disrespecting her official title as a leader.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe:
  • The queens' rights to not name the father of their kits mentioned in the first series is made into a consistent law, created after finding out the father of Mapleshade's kits led to their deaths. Many kits now have unknown fathers.
• Married to the Job: Blackstar feels he doesn't have time for romance with his devotion to his leadership role. It turns out that he actually is aromantic anyway but he has never really had the opportunity to realize that.
• The Matchmaker: Rosetail is a bit obsessed with romance (despite realizing she is aromantic herself) and tries to get her son Redtail together with Runningwind.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Part of the reason Tigerstar gives Stormpaw and Featherpaw the dishonor titles of Graypaw and Silverpaw is to blame them for the death of their mother in childbirth. The other part, of course, is emphasizing how their father is a traitor and their birth was a crime in general.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Fallenleaf and Cinderheart - a variation where despite Fallenleaf being a god more than 100 years old (which is extremely old by cat standards) and Cinderheart being a normal cat, they grew up together due to time travel shenanigans.
• May It Never Happen Again:
  • Darkstar's Commandment follows up Mapleshade's Vengeance and centers Darktail creating the law of the code protecting kits regardless of origin to stop the exile and deaths of Mapleshade and her innocent kits ever happening again, as well as the Queen's Rights so no cat will be forced to reveal the biological parentage of their children, leading to them being punished for it, in the first place.
  • The law requiring the Clans to help each other against a greater threat, created as in canon at the end of A Vision of Shadows, is contextualized here as being a response to how the Clans refusing to work together made Darktail and the Kin, which could have been a minor threat, into a great danger. Unlike in canon, the law is added when ShadowClan has dissolved, in memory of them (before Tigerheart returns to revive it).
  • As in canon, the rewritten The Broken Code ends with a law allowing the deposing of leaders with a Clan supermajority vote, and a law allowing a cat to switch allegiances to join their lover from a different Clan, but unlike in canon the latter is specifically a response to Bristlefrost's execution on account of her relationship with Rootspring in addition to her later Heroic Sacrifice from the afterlife.
• Meaningful Rename: Besides the typical changes from kit to apprentice to warrior to leader, there are also name changes made by a cat who joins the Clans and, more commonly, honor titles which are given for some achievement or surviving a serious injury.
  • Scourge chooses to change his name to a Clan name, Iceheart, when he joins ThunderClan, to show his respect for the Clans' culture. He disapproves of cats like Millie who join ThunderClan but choose not to change their names.
  • Hollyleaf changes her name to Fallenleaf after returning from her century-long ordeal in the tunnels a changed cat.
  • Hoprunner gets an honor rename to Deadfoot for his effective battle strategy of having a bludgeoning weapon in his weak foot.
  • Daylight takes an honor title of Clawface, which he thinks is a much stronger sounding name, symbolizing his turn to a violent ideology and rejecting the "weakness" of his brother.
  • Meltpelt becomes Ratscar after surviving being attacked by a huge swarm of rats. He gets his name at least temporarily reset Back to Meltpelt as punishment for being a Dark Forest trainee.
  • Crowfeather is now already a warrior, Crowfoot, when he asks to have an honor title of Crowfeather in memory of Feathertail.
  • Similarly, Jayfeather is now a full warrior, Jayfang, before he gets the honor title of Jayfeather for saving Hazeltail from a seemingly incurable illness, with no one knowing that he committed sacrilege by fighting a StarClan warrior to do so.
  • Leafpool got her full cleric name of Leafstripe before being renamed to Leafpool after her discovery of the Moonpool and telling multiple prophecies.
  • Harelight was originally Harefur and was renamed as an honor title for being ones of the Lights in the Mist.
  • Lizardtail, a former Dark Forest trainee, is renamed to Hallowflight in honor of him betraying the Dark Forest in the Great Battle and swimming across the lake and running the rest of the way to ThunderClan territory to get reinforcements.
  • One-eye was originally named Pheasantfeather before getting One-Eye as an Honor Title.
  • Rather than Scorchwind being Raggedstar's brother, it is now his original name before he got Raggedpelt as an honor title.
  • On the negative side there are the several dishonor titles, usually temporary. For instance, Brightpaw's rename (which unlike the others was intended to be permanent, showing Bluestar's cruelty) is now to Swifthound instead of Lostface, because in the Clans' Proud Warrior Race Guy culture scars are considered honorable, but being reminded of your friend's death due to your foolishness is not.
  • Tigerstar gives dishonor titles to the half-Clan cats to shame them. Stonefur and Mistyfoot are named Heartworm and Festerberry, respectively, to portray them as poisons or parasites on the Clan, while Stormpaw and Featherpaw get named respectively Graypaw and Silverpaw to shame them for their parents.
  • Both Bramblestar and Onestar give the Dark Forest trainees in their Clans dishonor names. In ThunderClan, we have Spiderleg as Spiderbite (referencing the idea of animals cannibalizing their young because he almost killed his son), Blossomfall as Shredbloom, and Mousewhisker as Stupidhead for not thinking through his decision to join the Dark Forest. In WindClan, Harespring becomes Darkseeker for joining the Dark Forest to seek knowledge of Mudclaw, Breezepelt is Dodderheart for corrupting his Clanmates into joining with him (with specific emphasis on Onestar's fear for Breezepelt's influence on Onestar's daughter Heathertail, as dodder is a parasite to heather), Sunstrike is Brokensun and Furzepelt is Fleapelt.
  • Ashfur also gives several dishonor titles to cats who defy him. Blossomfall becomes Clearface to show no one wants to hear from her and she might as well be invisible (which hurts her a lot given her past experience with dishonor titles), Sparkpelt becomes Flickercry to remind her of her failures, and Twigbranch becomes Fumbleclaw to portray her as lazy for a hunting mistake.
  • Yellowfang was originally Shroompelt, and was renamed Yellowfang as a dishonor title when she was framed for the murder of Marigoldkit, to represent her fangs being stained with guilt.
  • Tribe cats have inherited last names (e.g siblings Brook and Crag being Brook Where-it-Swirls and Crag Where-it-Swirls), and can change their last names due to great achievements or sometimes make minor changes for minor achievements.
  • All cats have this in the form of their warrior names being granted when they finish training, and the "star" suffix gained when a cat becomes leader, as in canon. In the rewrite, the cultural origin of this is from the park cats, who are nameless at birth and choose a meaningful name for themselves.
  • Some original warrior names have particular meaning. For example, Brushpaw nearly gets killed fighting for Onestar during Mudclaw's rebellion and the sabotaged muirburn, and is named Brushblaze for the fire, while Snappaw gets named Snapstorm for the rain that put out the fire.
  • Fernpaw gets the full warrior name Ferncloud to reference a fast-moving cloud, referring to how fast she ran while leading the dog pack towards the gorge to avenge her mother's death.
• Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Harestar's dates don't go well do to his tendency to eat tunnelbuns by biting straight into them (they are supposed to be sliced open with only the meat inside eaten, with the unleavened bread coating being used to not keep the tunneler rations dirty when cats are underground).
• Mirror Character: Shadowsight gets a scene where he talks to Ravenwing in his Land Mar in the Dark Forest. they form a connection over their parallel backstories, both being clerics who interpreted a sign from a rogue [StarClan] cat believing it was [StarClan's] will that led to cats being disproportionately punished for codebreaking, and were hated and punished for that to the point where they believe they deserve their treatment.
• Missing Mom: Ripplestar was separated from his mother, Larkstripe, at only four moons old due to Dalestar's plan to discredit the clerics who protested SkyClan's exile, and she dies shortly afterward.
• Morality Chain: Russetfur's death causes Blackstar to be manipulated by Sol, reverting to his old ways of being a follower of someone with questionable morality.
• Morality Pet:
  • Russetfur acts as this to Blackstar as well as a Morality Chain, with Blackstar being inspired to be a better cat because of her.
  • Rock is generally a disinterested observer who will make no effort to help anyone, but has a soft spot for Jayfeather due to him being the reincarnation of his beloved "priest" Jay's Wing. When he and other apprentices get stuck in the flooding tunnels rescuing the WindClan kits, Rock would have let them all drown were it not for Jaypaw being there.
• More Hero than Thou: Crowfeather initially volunteers to be a Light in the Mist and venture into StarClan to defeat Ashfur, but Breezepelt knocks him out while escorting him to the border so he can take the role instead.
• Murder by Inaction: Applefur doesn't help Brackenfur when he's being overwhelmed by enemies despite her Clan and his being allies in that battle, and Brackenfur ends up getting killed. Onlookers don't know if it was unintentional or due to jealousy of her brother Marshwing who's life Brackenfur saved, though it turns out it might have to do with her being a Dark Forest apprentice, and the Dark Forest's goals include getting the high-ranked cats of all the Clans killed and replaced with their own allies.
• Mutual Kill: Besides the preserved canon example of Onestar and Darktail;
  • Applefur and Marshwing siblings on opposite sides of the Dark Forest battle, kill each other during the battle's second wave.
  • Mossfire Alight (canon Mossier) and Jumping Foot (canon Jumpfoot) do this as in canon, though the circumstances are different; during a battle between all the Clans except ShadowClan to determine the next RiverClan leader (the two are RiverClan cats and not ShadowClan ones in this AU), they fight in the river and their crowns get tangled in each other, leading to them both drowning.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Spiderleg is horrified with himself for almost killing his son Toadstep while siding with the Dark Forest in the Great Battle. Come the Impostor's reign, he is loyal to him as a way to atone and even asks to be punished.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Done twice with Brackenfur regarding failing to save Snowkit, the cat who he wanted to make his apprentice, from being taken by a hawk. The first is preserved from canon: he saves Marshkit from a similar incident with a bird of prey, though here it's no longer Shoot the Shaggy Dog because Marshkit doesn't die shortly afterwards. The second is having a chance to train another deaf apprentice, Whitepaw.
• Named After the Injury: Canon examples like Clawface, Deadfoot, Crookedstar and Ratscar are preserved, but this time it is always meant as an honor due to the Proud Warrior Race Guy society, for example Crookedstar is no longer named by his mother out of cruelty. Deadfoot didn't actually get his name purely based on his weak foot but on the fact that he used a gauntlet attached to it as a weapon.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Thistleclaw and Tigerstar's ideology, "Thistle Law", is explicitly based on fascism, though particularly how fascism would manifest in the context of the Clans' culture rather than copy and pasted from modern human societies.
• Neutral No Longer: RiverClan gets involved in the First Battle despite River Ripple's preference for staying neutral because River Ripple takes Jackdaw's Cry's place as Clear Sky's prisoner of war.
• No Fathers Allowed: BloodClan cats are matriarchal and don't keep track of fathers at all, with uncles filling the social role that fathers would in the Clans.
• Non-Action Guy: Male clerics count as this, of course, but there is also Barley Sr., who had the rank of "solver" in BloodClan, meaning he is not a fighter and instead using his intellect to solve problems (and by extension all male solvers).
• Non-Heteronormative Society: Clan cats have a concept of three genders, with their associated stereotypes that are different from those used by human societies and more reflect real-life cats, and accept same-gender couples and transgender cats just as well as they accept opposite-gender couples and cisgender cats (though they can still pressure cats like Dustpelt who are not transgender but do not fit the stereotypes of the gender they identify as to be more conforming). The cultural concept of parenthood also involves a primary parent who does most of the caretaking and secondary parents, a concept which is completely gender-neutral.
• Not Afraid to Die: Spottedleaf isn't afraid to die and often uses dark humor to mock the idea of death, inspiring Firestar to be the same way. She maintains this attitude even after her physical death, facing getting killed again and her spirit facing an unknown fate with the same fearless curiosity about the unknown.
• Not Me This Time: After Ashfur tries to kill Hollyleaf, Jayfeather and Lionblaze, and Firestar is murdered at the same time this is revealed everyone assumes Ashfur did it, as would have motivation to kill Firestar to hurt his daughter, Squirrelflight. However Firestar was actually killed by Breezepelt.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Billystorm thinks that bringing his kittens to his human to take care of will protect them. Instead the humans reject them and Harry takes advantage of the situation to get Stormkit sacrificed to Sol.
• O.C. Stand-in:
  • Some cats who died as kits in canon and are often only even named by Word of God are Spared by the Adaptation, such as Swansong, Marshwing and Cricketclaw. Given that they had no canon personality or characterization, they effectively work as OCs.
  • There's also Greenflower, who was only mentioned in canon as a potential wet nurse for Graystripe's kits and then forgotten about and replaced by Mosspelt.
  • In general, the Better Bones AU has a lot of these due to its policy of not using any OCs, forcing the use of characters for whom not much is known except their name - if even that - to fill the Clan rosters and Tangled Family Tree.
• One-Steve Limit: Whichever is the least important of two characters who originally shared the same name has their name changed. There's a reason for this in-universe - when leaders take apprentices to the Moonstone/Moonpool, they contact Starclan themselves to ensure the name hasn't already been taken by another cat who is in StarClan. This applies to leaders as well; upon becoming leader Tigerheart becomes Heartstar to avoid being another Tigerstar when there is a previous one in living memory.
  • Averted with Barley Sr. and Barley Jr.
• One-Winged Angel: Ashfur absorbs several StarClan cats in the final battle against him to turn into a larger, stronger form that can't be killed by normal means.
• Outliving One's Offspring: There are many examples as in canon, some which are lost from canon and some added due to the switching around of deaths. Notably, this trope poses a particular problem for the River kingdom's succession after Riverstar's death. Riverstar had lived such a long life due to having nine lives and not getting involved in battles that, by the time he dies, his oldest children have predeceased him, leading to both his oldest living child and the oldest descendant of his actual oldest child claiming a right to the throne.
• Papa Wolf: Dustpelt dies protecting his kits Lilykit and Seedkit from the Dark Forest.
• Parental Favoritism:
  • Tigerstar favors his children by Goldenflower over his younger litter, as shown when he intervenes to spare the life of Flametail, his grandson through Tawnypelt, despite him knowing about the Dark Forest's plans and threatening to take the knowledge with him to StarClan. Hawkfrost realizes he would never do this with Mothwing, a realization that helps trigger his Heel–Face Turn.
  • Graystripe favors Feathertail and Stormfur over his kits with Millie despite the former two being respectively dead and living far away, alienating his younger children with how he is always comparing them to his older kits.
  • Clear Sky favors Thunder Storm over his younger children Pale Sky and Tiger Sky, due to him being larger and more charismatic. When he has a later litter, although he claims not to, he clearly names them in reference to the estranged Thunder Storm (as Lightning Sky and Rumble Sky), and his other kit who is dead doesn't get either named after her.
• Parents as People: Firestar, who remains the protagonist of the first arc, is a parent figure to Cloudtail (he would fully be considered Cloudtail's father except that, as an outsider to the Clans' culture, he flubbed the Queens' rights by declaring Cloudtail his nephew, so Bluestar compromised and made him his mentor). Firestar isn't always the best parent to him, but it's portrayed as due to his young age and all the stress he's dealing with rather than him just being an obstacle Cloudtail faces.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Hollyleaf no longer kills Ashfur because he would reveal her and her siblings' secret parentage (it would no do good since Squirrelflight would just tell everyone about his attempted murders), but as revenge for him trying to kill her and her siblings.
• Percussive Prevention: Breezepelt to Crowfeather, so he can go on the dangerous journey to StarClan to fight Ashfur instead of Crowfeather.
• A Pet into the Wild: The canon examples (Firestar, Cloudtail, Daisy and her kits, Stormcloud and Jessy, Millie) are all included, but Fernsong was now also originally a pet.
• Pet the Dog: Hawkfrost takes Ivypool on an excursion to see horses in the Dark Forest, showing how he genuinely cares for Ivypool as more than just a future soldier for his cause.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: Ashfur strikes Shadowsight with lightning to give the two a channeling connection together, so Ashfur can contact and manipulate him. Shadowsight later uses this same connection to hold him down in the final battle against him, allowing Bristlefrost to kill him for good.
• Plaguemaster: Runningnose causes ShadowClan's epidemic on purpose to kill Nightstar and his supporters and make way for Tigerstar to become their new leader.
• Platonic Co-Parenting:
  • Lionblaze and Cinderheart co-parent Dovewing and Ivypool due to both being the siblings of the two's biological parents. There's also Hawkwing and Plumwillow, as in canon.
  • Oakheart gives Graypool his kits Mistykit and Stonekit to be raised alongside her biological kit Swankit, and ends up raising the kits alongside her although they are not romantically involved.
  • Some honor siring situations, like Firestar and Sandstorm with Squirrelflight and Leafpool, are a variation where both are the biological parents of the kits, but not romantically involved, though in other honor sirings the biological father does not participate in raising the offspring.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Blackstar and Russetfur rely on each other deeply and are the most important cats in each other's lives, with Russetfur also acting as a Morality Pet / Morality Chain to Blackstar.
• Playing Possum: This is Firestar's signature move as it is in canon, but unlike in canon it doesn't stop being a Chekhov's Skill after the first series - in the Great Battle, Firestar's spirit is seemingly killed and dissolves into nothing in his fight with Tigerstar, but he is just faking and quickly reconstitutes and kills Tigerstar.
• Playing with Fire: StarClan cats have some supernatural powers with which they can affect the living world, and Firestar, fitting his name, has some control over fire after he dies.
• The Plot Reaper: Firestar dies earlier than in canon, killed by Breezepelt in the transition between the rewritten Power of Three and Omen of the Stars, because having such a good leader on the heroes' side during Omen of the Stars would make the plot too easily resolved.
• Pokémon Speak: Clanmew often uses words for prey animals that mimic the sounds those animals make, leading to them seeming to "say their names".
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Some of the ableism Jayfeather and Longtail face comes from otherwise upstanding cats like Brackenfur and even Firestar, who is a determined opponent of all kinds of other prejudice.
• Position of Literal Power: In addition to the Clan leaders having nine lives like in canon, other groups have powers given to a significant position to show that they are not supernaturally inferior to the Clans. Tribe Stonetellers are immune to illness and consequentially live very long times for a cat (often living 30 years or so), and the Guardians' leaders can sense what is happening in their territory, like the needs of plants or whether a new cat has arrived there.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: The story of the rewritten The New Prophecy apparently ends with Mothwing killing Hawkfrost, stopping his plans to reinstate Thistle Law and take over the Clans. But as a postscript, Mistyfoot realizes that Hawkfrost was just a symptom of the overall problem and, as long as Leopardstar is leader and enabling Thistle Law, it will continue to fester in RiverClan, leading to Mistyfoot fighting Leopardstar and killing her.
• Power Incontinence: StarClan is capable collectively of great supernatural abilities like casting a Bolt of Divine Retribution, but this is based on their emotions and not something they can control or do on purpose.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Brokenstar no longer forces kits into battle and harsh training, not because of kindness but because he doesn't want to lose weak kits before they can become adult warriors that can help him in battle. He does use kits in one case, the attack on WindClan to drive them out of the forest, and that is where Badgerpaw dies.
• Prescience Is Predictable: Goosefeather can see the future and inadvertently causing a famine due to his omens leads to him thinking trying to defy his predictions will only lead to disaster, so he tries to prevent Bluestar from doing so.
• Principles Zealot: Spiderleg is very loyal to the warrior code and is consequentially loyal to the possessed Bramblestar, to the point of willingly taking a punishment from "Bramblestar" himself while condemning other cats for being unwilling to atone.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Several examples, many as part of the Adaptational Sexuality changes. Hollyleaf now is in love with Heathertail and later Cinderheart, who she ends up together with, and other new couples include Sleekwhisker and Raven, Redtail and Runningwind, Stonepelt and Weedwhisker, Turtle Heart and Bumble, Thunder Storm and Lightning Cry (Lightning Tail originally), Leafpool and Mothwing, and Reedwhisker and Hawkfrost. Violetshine now gets together with both Tree and Dragonfly. Jayfeather and Poppyfrost are a non-Adaptational Sexuality example, though Poppyfrost still ultimately ends up with Berrynose after giving birth to Jayfeather's kits, as are a gender-flipped Sandynose's mate being Egg instead of Plumwillow, and Rainwhisker and Swallowtail actually getting together and having kits rather than just having Ship Tease that goes nowhere. Breezepelt and Heathertail still get together but they both end up with Harestar as well.
• Prophecy Twist: There is a prophecy that "The first of the lake will guide WindClan", which Mudclaw interprets as meaning that he will be leader because he was one of first to see the lake and led the first patrol there. This, in addition to the suspicious circumstances of him being denied succession in favor of Onewhisker, helps motivate his rebellion. However, it turns out the prophecy referred to Mudclaw's children Harespring, Kestrelflight, and Owlclaw, with Harespring becoming the leader (Harestar) after Onestar and Kestrelflight becoming the next cleric.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain:
  • Hollyleaf is now the main protagonist of the rewritten Power of Three and her arc centers around becoming more villainous and revenge-driven after being betrayed and hurt with her attempts at idealism and diplomacy.
  • Hawkfrost as well, though he's only one of four POV characters rather than the clear main protagonist.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: In addition to examples like Firestar, Heartstar (Tigerheart) and Bluestar (in her super edition) as in canon:
  • Flowerstar, who is the protagonist of Riverstar's Heir and ends up becoming leader at the end of the book's Succession Crisis, bringing peace to RiverClan.
  • Tallstar serves as a deconstruction of this trope, with him seeing the suffering and problems of his Clan and believing he has to abandon the happy life he could have had with Jake/Sparrow to lead them to a better era... but he proves naive and overly compromising when it comes to actually making changes, leading to him not accomplishing much.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Clans have a strong focus on battle in their culture, which leads to a lot of the conflict and bad things that happen in the arcs, though on the positive sides it means that scars and injuries are respected and that they are able to provide good help to the Tribe, who have more of an advantage in hunting and spirituality than fighting (though they are not as incapable of defending themselves as in Canon).
• Psychic Nosebleed: Goosefeather gets nosebleeds when experiencing visions to underscore how painful they are to him.
• Psychopomp: In the other four Clans, the cat who fetches recently dead spirits to meet StarClan varies, but in SkyClan, Cloudstar serves this role for everyone.
• Public Execution: In addition to Stonefur's execution that happens in canon, Ashfur (in Bramblestar's body) kills Bristlefrost for her code-breaking forbidden relationship in a gathering in front of all of the Clans.
• Pull the Thread: Iceheart enjoys probing Purdy with questions when he tells a story, forcing him to expand his story until it is clearly false, though he never criticized Purdy for this when he figures it out and just says "I see. That makes sense."
• Pungeon Master: Feathertail is described as loving puns, with her funny and laid-back nature hiding her wisdom.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Cloudtail is no longer Ashfur's adoptive brother as in canon due to issues of avoiding incest in the Tangled Family Tree. Instead, he is now mentor to a younger-than-in-canon Ashfur to keep their dynamic as close to each other. They bonded with each other like most mentors and apprentices before Ashfur's Face–Heel Turn, and Cloudtail takes a leading role in rebelling against Ashfur when he possesses Bramblestar while trying to come to terms with how the cat he loved became so horrible.
• Put on a Bus: Hollyleaf/Fallenleaf leaves ThunderClan before The Broken Code starts to learn about the gods and their powers, and Cinderheart follows her.
• Racist Grandma: Speckletail has bigoted views and ends up passing them onto her grandson Thornclaw, who she spends a lot of time with.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Jayfeather finds StarClan seems to hate him and try to obstruct him - due to the prophecy of the Three which he is unaware of, so he has no idea why they were like this. He often challenges StarClan, culminating in him physically fighting a StarClan warrior to save Hazeltail.
• Really Gets Around: Houndleap got sent to the Dark Forest for having six cross-clan mates, with which he had a total of 16 kittens. Turns out he actually had more than six, though only six of them had kittens.
• Real Men Get Shot: Scars and injuries are looked upon favorably in the Clans due to their battle-centric culture, as a sign the cat is tough enough to survive. Brightheart, for example, is seen as the ideal, beautiful cat.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Firestar gives one to Tigerstar during the Great Battle, saying it's sad that Tigerstar has become so obsessed with fighting him despite all of the power and love of his children he had, and saying his ideology is old and outdated.
• Rebellious Rebel:
  • Tall Shadow breaks off from SkyClan with a good portion of the Clan due to anger at Clear Sky's actions of kicking out cats for their disabilities, and Thunder Storm in turn decides to break off and create a new Clan because Tall Shadow not taking Bumble into the group after Turtle Heart's death due to being a house cat incapable of fighting makes Thunder Storm see her as no different from Clear Sky.
  • Crowfeather joins Mudclaw's rebels when they are plotting to overthrow Onestar, but betrays them and reveals their scheme when he feels Mudclaw is going too far by recruiting other Clans' Thistle Law supporters and attempting to sabotage a muirburn.
• Redemption Earns Life: Blackstar isn't offered all of his lives by StarClan due to his previous crimes, and has to earn his lives gradually by atoning for what he did.
• Redemption Equals Death:
  • Downplayed with Hawkfrost, who gets a redemption arc while in the Dark Forest and ends up being horribly injured by Tigerstar as a result. While he gets back to the Dark Forest where dying to another Dark Forest cat is not permanent in time, because he was injured in the living world, when he die he ends up coming back in a strange state where he flickers in and out of existence.
  • As in canon, Onestar dies to "make up" for his crimes, though here it's given the extra context that it's actually Breezepelt who believes this trope should be in effect and suggests drowning Darktail and himself as his redemption, with Onestar hearing this and deciding he can't let the younger generation die for his own mistakes.
• Redemption Rejection: Oakstar, along with Darkstar, is begged by StarClan to atone for his role in the exile and death of Mapleshade's kits. He responds by not changing his ways and instead launching "crusades" on the kittypets of the nearby city to impress StarClan. It doesn't work and he gets sent to the Dark Forest after he dies.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Besides canon examples like Squirrelfight and Leafpool, couple Stormcloud and Cherryfall form this sort of dynamic, with both loving to fight but Stormcloud being calmer and Cherryfall being Hot-Blooded and reckless.
  • There's also the calm and tactical Harestar contrasted with the angry and passionate Breezepelt, with both being two-thirds of the Harestar/Breezepelt/Heathertail childhood friendship turned polycule.
  • Rowanstar, who tends to follow his heart, is the red oni to his deputy's (the more logical Crowfrost) blue oni.
  • As another leader-deputy pair, the warm, silly and cheerful deputy Sedgecreek is the red oni to the stern and serious blue oni of her leader Mistystar. Mistystar's brother Swansong is also the red oni to her, with him being open and friendly and following his passion rather than having any tact or diplomacy.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Hawkfrost remains a cruel prankster appearing in the Dark Forest sometimes to cause trouble even after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Regularly Scheduled Evil: One-eye reappears every few generations in a new form to terrorize the tribe, and the tribe has to once again kill him.
• Reincarnation: In addition to the canon reincarnations of Jay's Wing, Dove's Wing and Lion's Roar as Jayfeather, Dovewing and Lionblaze, this is also the ultimate fate of any spirit that fades away rather than becomes a god, either from an afterlife created by a culture's religion or from the "default" of becoming a ghost who lingers until fading and then is reincarnated. The nomads that Tallstar lives with believe in the "default" afterlife in this respect.
  • The groundskeeper of the Guardians is reincarnated into the new groundskeeper, who is given the same name.
  • Unlike in canon, Cinderheart is not a reincarnation of Cinderpelt, she is a separate cat and Cinderpelt goes to StarClan like normal.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Tawnyspots is now the father of Thrushpelt and Dappletail rather than their brother. Patchpelt is now Willowpelt's mother rather than her brother. Foxheart is Wolfstep's mother instead of sister. Marigoldkit and Mintkit are now the kits of Rowanberry, Yellowfang's sister, instead of Yellowfang's mother Brightflower. Mallownose and Sneezecloud are cousins instead of siblings, with Pouncetail as Mallownose's new father. Frecklewish and Birchface are Oakstar's niece and nephew instead of his children, with Shinecloud as his sister rather than mate. Halftail is One-eye's son instead of her mate, as One-eye is now considerably older to match with her being portrayed as the oldest elder in the first arc. Instead of being Robinwing and Fuzzypelt's kits, Ravenpaw and Dustpelt are now their grandkits, the children of Chestnutkit who survives to become the warrior Chestnutface here.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Redtail and Spottedleaf are now Rosetail's kits instead of Adderfang and Swiftbreeze's.
  • Instead of being Robinwing and Fuzzypelt's kit, Frostfur is the biological daughter of Featherwhisker adopted by Stonepelt and Weedwhisker.
  • Sandstorm and Longtail are siblings and the kits of Redtail and Runningwind.
  • Swiftpaw is Tigerstar's son, as opposed to having an unknown father in canon.
  • Dovewing and Ivypool are Lionblaze and Cinderheart's children (biologically Jayfeather and Poppyfrost's and adopted by them) instead of Whitewing and Birchall's.
  • Sparkpelt and Alderheart are Jessy's kits instead of Squirrelflight's.
  • Graystripe and Darkstripe are Dappletail's kits instead of Willowpelt's.
  • Littlecloud and Rowanclaw are brothers and are Brokenstar's kits.
  • Pebble Heart, Sparrow Fur (now Sparrow Heart) and Owl Eyes are still Turtle Heart (Turtle Tail) and Tom's biological kits, though Bumble is now also their adoptive mother and Turtle Heart's mate.
  • Hollyleaf, now called Fallenleaf after her ordeal in the tunnels, Hollylark's other mother. Meanwhile canon Hollytuft's siblings, Snaptooth and Flywhisker, are still Lionblaze's kits but the other parent is Toadstep instead of Cinderheart.
  • Rainflower is now the grandchild of Appledusk instead of Shellheart (making Crookedstar still his great grandson), with Duskwater as the kit of Appledusk and Reedshine who becomes Rainflower's mother.
  • Silver Stripe and White Tail are now Sun Shadow's kits instead of Gray Wing and Slate's (Black Ear is now in Rainswept Flower's family).
  • Graystripe is actually Fang/Honeysuckle's father, though neither of them know it.
  • Sparrowpelt and Sandynose are siblings.
  • Quailfeather, Birdwing and Finleap are kits of Sandynose and Egg.
  • Voletooth is the father of Mintfur's kittens.
  • Cherrytail's kits are biologically Echosong's instead (Cherrytail is spayed), though Echosong is still not involved in raising them at all and is just a surrogate. ** Rockshade is the father of Plumwillow's kittens (which no longer includes Finleap).
  • Rainstorm and Rippletail are the kits of Swallowtail and Rainwhisker.
  • Shell Claw is Acorn Swoop (Acorn Fur) and Red Claw's kit instead of Thunder and Violet Dawn's.
  • Appledapple (a renamed Applefur from Tigerclaw's Fury) is now Snowbird and Ratscar's mother.
  • Aspentail is Darkstar's sister and Perchshine (Perchpaw) is her kit with Splashheart. Greenflower and Duckfur (a Word of God-given "missing kit" who here lives to become a warrior) are siblings. Greenflower is mates with Sedgecreek and Swallowtail is their daughter (the biological kit of Greenflower and honor sire Loudbelly).
  • Swansong (Graypool and Rippleclaw's son) is now Mosspelt's mate instead of Frogleap and the father of her kits, which include Stonestream in addition to Mosspelt's canon offspring Dawnflower and Willowshine. Stonestream in turn is the father of Mossyfoot and Troutstream.
  • Shadepelt is the mother of Pouncetail and Graymist.
  • Gullswoop is the daughter of Ivytail and Darktail instead of Snowbird and Scorchfur, and Ivytail herself is the daughter of Fernshade and Wolfstep.
  • While Shinecloud is still Birchface and Frecklewish's mother as per Word of God, Beetail is their father instead of Oakstar, and Flowerpot and Nettlebreeze are their half-siblings (Beetail's kits but not Shinecloud's). Squirrelwhisker is Beetail's sister. Seedpelt (Pinestar's Choice) is now named Seedfall and is Adderfang's sister.
  • Snake Claw (originally Snake) and Red Claw are Tribe cats rather than outsiders here, and are siblings, with Petal Claw (formerly Petal, also now a tribe cat) as their mother.
• Reluctant Warrior: Bright Storm prefers not to fight, particularly against her former mate Clear Sky. Unlike canon Gray Wing (who she is a Composite Character with), she is quicker to realize when fighting is nonetheless necessary.
• Rescue Romance: Jayfeather saves Poppyfrost by walking with her from the StarClan border when she almost dies of greencough as in canon, and here she is Promoted to Love Interest.
• Resurrective Immortality:
  • Every time One-eye is killed, he comes back many years later in the form of a different animal.
  • Dark Forest cats regenerate after they die to do being already dead, unless they are killed by a living cat in which case they die permanently.
• Retired Monster:
  • Scourge joins ThunderClan, where he lives a peaceful life despite his past as the ruthless leader of BloodClan (though he is not as cruel as he was in canon).
  • Runningnose lives on past the succession of Blackstar as leader, no longer doing any evil deeds for Brokenstar's sake anymore but knowing he's obsolete now that Blackstar has refused the help of the Dark Forest in favor of earning his lives the hard way from StarClan.
• Risking the King: Clan leaders are expected to be the first into any dangerous situation and to risk or sacrifice their lives for others without hesitation, which is why they are given nine lives (which also justifies this risk-taking). Due to this, it's rare for a leader to live to the maximum cat lifespan of 20 years or so (with Riverstar, Tallstar and Mistystar being exceptions) despite their nine lives.
• Rousseau Was Right: The cats treated as being "born evil" in canon are not this way in the rewrite, with more of an emphasis on how environment and ideology shape a cat into what they are. For example, Brokenstar, despite being a manifested curse, is not inherently evil but a product of his battle-centric culture angry at all his Clan has suffered due to WindClan and wanting to make sure the battles are all for something by winning them, and Hawkfrost is himself a victim of half-Clan prejudice who is manipulated by Leopardstar, Tigerstar, and the other remaining TigerClan supporters in RiverClan into becoming the next incarnation of his father who will bring back their "glory days". The exceptions are gods like One-eye and Sol who are just motivated by respectively spreading destruction and chaos, though they are so far removed from their mortal selves and personalities that they may well once have not been inherently evil as well.
• Rule of Cool: Bonefall tries to avoid letting too much of a focus on realism prevent there from being cool parts of the series. For example they admit Runningnose's plans to coat ShadowClan warriors' claws in deathberry juice to poison their enemies probably wouldn't work in real life, but it's cool.
  • In-Universe, the names Brokenstar gives runs on this; for example Mossthorn is named because "thorn" sounds cool and tough, ignoring that the name sounds like it's referring to painful thorns being stuck in moss bedding.
• Samaritan Relationship Starter: Hawkfrost defending Reedwhisker from Heavystep's bullying helps to start their relationship.
• Saved by the Awesome: Harespring expects to lose his deputy position for going behind his leader's back to dig a tunnel and getting Brushblaze killed in the process. But Onestar can't be mad at him because he managed to rescue many cats in the process.
• Save the Jerk: Bramblestar is portrayed as a very flawed cat who is abusive to Squirrelflight, leading to them breaking off their relationship. Nonetheless Squirrelflight is determined to save him when his body gets possessed by Ashfur, because that's what she would do for anyone.
• Saying Too Much: As a former kittypet, Fireheart doesn't quite understand how the Queen's Rights system works (you can bring a kit from anywhere and claim it as your own without questions asked about the parentage or the cat in question considered lesser for non-Clan parentage) and straight-up announces that Cloudkit is his nephew, leading to him losing the full right to be considered his parent.
• Scavenger World: Kittypets and BloodClan cats often take antibiotics from humans' homes, knowing that they are valuable medicines. BloodClan and SkyClan are mentioned to steal other things as well; for example, SkyClan cats might take birdbaths for a flea-removing bath, or BloodClan cats might take salt.
• Self-Poisoning Gambit: Suspecting that the ThunderClan diplomat was responsible for poisoning Dead Moths Pelt and his children, Flowerstar repeats the exact situation that got them killed by celebrating her ascension to leadership and eating out of a special ceremonial pot, claiming she doesn't have to worry because the supposed culprit Jumping Foot is dead. The diplomat falls for it and poisons the food, only for Flowerstar to ask them to share the food with her. Unbeknownst to the diplomat, Flowerstar has already gotten her nine lives from StarClan, so when they both die, Flowerstar comes back while the diplomat stays dead.
• Self-Punishment Over Failure: After losing his duel with Mudfur, Adderfang asks Pinestar to be given a dishonor title.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Elderberry sacrifices her life to save Fury from a boar. After Ferncloud soon after discovered that Fury was the one who had caused the boar attack in the first place, aiming to kill Claw, she and Ashpaw kill Fury in revenge. Elderberry, looking down on StarClan, isn't happy about her sacrifice being rendered meaningless.
• Sex for Solace: Jayfeather, dealing with complicated feelings about The Reveal of Leafpool and Crowfeather being his parents, turns to Poppyfrost for comfort and ends up accidentally getting her pregnant.
• Shown Their Work: Bonefall has several posts detailing the herbs cats use, created by doing research into what effects various herbs that can be found in northern England have on humans and removing the ones that are toxic to cats. They note you should not use these herbs on your real cats since they aren't actually tested in cats, but it's more research than the authors put into herbs in the canon books. Bonefall also researches the ecology of the areas of northern England that the AU is set in, in contrast to canon's many instances of Misplaced Wildlife.
• Sibling Murder:
  • Hawkfrost is now killed by his sister Mothwing rather than his brother Bramblestar, so the "blood will spill blood" prophecy still applies.
  • After betraying his siblings Spottedpelt and Ripplestar by warning the other Clans of Ripplestar's planned gathering attack, Gorseclaw kills Spottedpelt in the ensuing battle.
  • Clear Sky doesn't kill his brother Jagged Peak outright, but he kicks him out of his group while he has a broken leg because he thinks his brother is a "burden", leaving him to starve. Thunder Storm accompanies him to try to save his life but he dies anyway.
  • Marshwing and Applefur, the latter who is a Dark Forest trainee, fight during the Great Battle and both kill each other.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Besides canon examples like Squirrelflight and Leafpool, there's also the serious, rule-following Redtail and the mischievous and rule-breaking Spottedleaf, as well as Cynic–Idealist Duo Stormfur and Feathertail.
• Significant Name Shift: Or pronoun shift; the Clans' language uses a different pronoun for friends/cats from the same Clan and outsiders, and the journeying six in The New Prophecy shift to using the friendly pronoun with each other, having trouble switching back after the journey is over.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Falls somewhere in the middle, but leans towards idealism, noticeably more so than the books it is based on. Many idealists end up as Doomed Moral Victors (Deerfoot, Larkstripe and Ripplestar)), falling prey to people who want to manipulate their goals for cynical ends (Sleekwhisker and the rest of the ShadowClan rebels) or suffering for their determination to change things until they completely break (Bluestar), but others like Firestar transform their society for the better in a way that sticks, even if they get eventually killed for it and the cruel mindsets they thought keep resurfacing as threats over and over again, unlike in the canon series where the thread of changing the system largely seems to be dropped. No one is inherently evil, unlike what is implied in canon, groups of foreigners can be negotiated with rather than canon's use of invading hordes that can't be reasoned with, and many characters change for the better, but it is also shown that some cats are Beyond Redemption because they choose not to change and trying to redeem them will only lead to heartbreak. Supernatural threats are often too powerful to be beaten, leading to the bad guy winning or sacrifices for a temporary victory. Many characters perform awesome and sometimes self-sacrificial acts of heroism that generally matter and achieve their intended goals. Honor Before Reason can sometimes pay off, but sometimes Violence Really Is the Answer. The resident Wide-Eyed Idealist, Tallstar, is not naive because of thinking he could improve the world but naive for not going far enough outside of his ingrained cultural mindset to make lasting change. The overall message is that cultures constantly change, whether for the better or for the worse.
• The Slow Path: Hollyleaf gets transported back in time a hundred years and never is able to get back to the present, instead being trapped in the tunnels for the whole time when Sol takes over her body, until she manages to take her body back and rejoin the modern-day Clans.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Briarlight does not die in A Vision of Shadows and survives at least until The Broken Code if not until the current arc.
• Marshkit does not die offscreen as a kit and survives to become a warrior, Marshwing.
  • Hollyleaf no longer dies in the Great Battle against the Dark Forest.
  • Bumble no longer dies in Dawn of the Clans.
  • Smokepaw and Talonpaw both don't die in The New Prophecy, with Smokepaw being the same cat as Smokefoot here.
  • Spiderleg and Hazeltail both don't die of greencough and are alive as of The Broken Code.
  • Rileypool does not die in Hawkwing's Journey.
  • Brightsky does not die but leaves the Clans.
  • Ferncloud takes Graystripe's role as a Light in the Mist in The Broken Code so Graystripe does not die when he does in canon, instead moving to the mountains to live the last of his days with Stormfur and his children.
  • Stumptail doesn't die in the ShadowClan epidemic in Rising Storm as he is implied to in canon.
  • Sorreltail and Ferncloud both survive the Great Battle in ThunderClan, as do Troutstream and Hollowflight in RiverClan.
  • Several kits who died in canon and were only named by Word of God are turned into O.C. Stand-in full warriors. Of the ones who have not died yet in the AU: Swankit, Graypool's kit, survives and becomes a warrior Swansong. Leopardstar's sister Carpkit survives to become a warrior Carpwhisker. Both Chestnutkit and Tulipkit, Robinwing and Fuzzypelt's first litter named in the official family tree, survive to become the warriors Chestnutface and Tulipflight. Happykit, the original fan-given and author-approved kit of Pinenose, lives to be the warrior Happyface, though his later official name Weaselkit is used as a sibling of his who does die where he did in canon. And while Clear Sky does not have kits with Star Flower like in canon, his dead kits with Bright Sky, named by Word of God as Tiger Tail (here Tiger Sky) and Pale Sky, live to adulthood as Clear Sky's kits with a second mate ([[Dies Differently in Adaptation one dies in the First Battle). While Thunder Storm still has siblings who died as kits, their named Lightning and Rumble are also used for another litter of Clear Sky's.
  • Hawkfrost only sort of ends up Deader than Dead during the battle against the Dark Forest, ending up being a half-dead spirit flickering in and out of existence.
  • Stoneclaw is not killed during the WindClan massacre, with her sister Thrushwing dying instead.
  • Redwillow is not killed by Blackstar in the Great Battle, with Ratscar dying this way instead.
  • Brokenstar isn't a chronic kit-killer anymore for Pragmatic Villainy reasons, with only Marigoldkit being killed to frame Yellowfang (Mintkit survives to become the warrior Mintpool) and only Badgerkit/fang dying as a result of his apprenticing kits since he only uses those kits for one battle (thus Blossomkit and Mosskit survive to be full warriors).
  • Bright Storm, the Composite Character of Bright Stream and Storm, does not die when either of those two die in canon.
• Spiky Hair: Lionblaze has a spiky mane, though he goes "bald" after losing his powers.
• Stable Time Loop: Unlike in canon, here it's Hollyleaf who goes back in time, with her tyrannical leadership and the ecological devastation around the lake leading to the future Tribe to leave for the mountains.
• Start My Own: How a lot of the Clans formed initially. Tall Shadow broke off and made her own Clan over Clear Sky abandoning Jagged Peak and Thunder Storm, the latter who grew up to form his own Clan, defecting over Tall Shadow's xenophobia driving her to not let Bumble into ShadowClan.
• The Strategist: Bright Storm, as a Composite Character with the original Gray Wing, acts as the strategist of Thunder's Clan, always coming up with tricks to fight Clear Sky (preferably ones that involve little violence, due to being a Reluctant Warrior).
• Stumbling in the New Form: Fallenleaf/Hollyleaf walks very awkwardly and unsteadily after taking her body back from Sol, given that she has been a ghost without a physical body for 100 years.
• Sudden Principled Stand:
  • After half the arc is spent watching the kin show its increasingly cult like nature and descend into executing people who defy Darktail, Breezepelt, who has previously been loyal to the kin, takes a stand and expresses horror at the idea of Heathertail being executed, leading to his Heel–Face Turn and spending the rest of the arc trying to atone for what he's done in both Omen of the Stars and A Vision of Shadows by fighting against the Kin from the inside and saving as many of the cats slated for execution as he can.
  • Hawkfrost, despite fighting with Tigerstar for most of the Great Battle, objects to him and turns against him after Tigerstar suggests trying to kill everyone, even the noncombatants, in a Last Villain Stand. He gets brutally attacked by Tigerstar for it and, despite Ivypool getting him to the Dark Forest in time to avoid being fully Deader than Dead, he remains in a. state of flickering half-existence afterwards.
• Survivor Guilt: Brightheart has this over Swiftpaw's death, and Ivypool has survivor's guilt over both Antpelt (who she accidentally killed) and Hawkfrost.
• Switching P.O.V.: As in canon, this is used for every arc except the first, though some of the POV characters are different. The New Prophecy alternates between the children of Tigerstar (Brambleclaw, Tawnypelt, Mothwing and Hawkfrost). A Vision of Shadows alternates between Breezepelt, Heathertail and Needletail, until Needletail dies and she gets replaced with Violetshine. Ivypool is now a POV character for The Broken Code instead of Bristlefrost, though Shadowsight still gets a POV. This is also done with some of the Super Editions that only had one POV character in canon; Heartstar's Rise, the rewrite of Tigerheart's Shadow, is split between Tigerheart and Dovewing, and the Graystripe's Vow rewrite is split between Cloudtail and Ferncloud.
• Tangled Family Tree: The family tree is complicated and completely revamped from the original series, in part in order to avoid incestuous relationships.
• Team Mom: Icewing acts as a mother figure to some of the younger Dark Forest trainees, protecting them and in part joining the Dark Forest in the first place to look after her son Beetlewhisker, which later extends to the other cats there.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Blossomfall being punished for being a Dark Forest trainee by being given a dishonor title only makes her feel more isolated from her Clan and like she will always be bad, leading to her joining the Kin. Squirrelflight suggests that she should be punished in a different way that would let her be more integrated into the Clan for this reason, but Bramblestar has already given dishonor titles to Spiderleg and Mousewhisker and doesn't think it would be fair to not treat Blossomfall the same way.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Fenneldust is repeatedly killed in various ways, such as being used to demonstrate a killing move, and regenerates afterwards because that is what happens with Dark Forest cats who are killed by anything other than a living cat.
• Thread of Prophecy, Severed: Thistleclaw was supposed to become leader and Mosskit was supposed to be the hero who overthrew him. Then Bluestar manages to succeed to the leader position instead, at the cost of Mosskit's life, completely breaking the prophecy.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Runningnose doesn't exactly seem like a name for a war criminal responsible for many deaths.
• Took a Level in Badass: Hallowflight was originally a meek, constantly bullied young cat who stays in the Dark Forest out of cowardice, but he ends up saving a lot of cats by running and swimming from RiverClan to ThunderClan to warn them of how the Dark Forest intends to attack noncombatants.
• Total Eclipse of the Plot: The Eclipse in "Power of Three" is now an illusion generated by Sol, with the real eclipse being the only day the Dark Forest cats have the power to go to the living world and attack living cats.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Sorreltail really likes grasshoppers and the insects are often associated with her.
• Tragic Bigot:
  • Hillrunner's extreme xenophobia stems from having lived through the WindClan massacre by ShadowClan, and then having her sister Downwind killed when RiverClan and ShadowClan attempted to drive them out again.
  • As in canon, Berryheart is initially open-minded but becomes bigoted towards outsiders after joining the cult-like Kin, led by outsiders, leads to her almost getting killed. However, in the AU this is largely due to her warped perspective - she is saved from her execution by another outsider member of the Kin but doesn't take that into account at all.
• Translation Convention: Separate posts detail the Clans' language and how it works, and Onestar's name is noted to be an incident where translation is difficult; his name refers to a whole fraction, which can be used to describe the full moon and has a sense of loneliness, thus his name might also be translated as Lonelystar or Fullmoonstar.
• Trapped in the Host: Hollyleaf uses Sol's attempt to possess her to seal Sol inside her chest, gaining his powers in the process.
• Troubled Abuser:
  • Lionblaze ends up taking his obsession with strength out on his children, pressuring them to make great efforts and sacrifices for the Clans, but this initially stems from his own abuse by his mentor Ashfur, who taught him to value strength so highly (as well as learning from helping the tribe that he should use that strength to help others.
  • Hillrunner's trauma over the WindClan massacre and the following battles leads her to have a very short fuse, and she sometimes takes her anger out on her children Nightcloud and Tawnyfur.
• True Companions: The forget-me-nots, consisting of the cross-Clan friendship of Bluestar, Oakheart, Lizardstripe, Ashfoot, Deadfoot and Barley Sr, are very close to each other.
• Turbulent Priest: The clerics object strongly to SkyClan's exile due to their knowledge of what will happen to SkyClan's afterlife if they are separated, with Larkstripe of WindClan in particular going on strike, leading to her leader Swiftstar's death. Swiftstar's successor, Dalestar, responds by citing the (at this point less enforced) belief that clerics shouldn't have kits to separate her from her son Ripplekit.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Breezepelt, Harestar and Heathertail are close friends as children but fall apart from each other due to the first two becoming Dark Forest trainees while Heathertail refuses to participate, and then Harestar regretting his actions and being reintegrated into the Clan while Breezepelt remains resentful and refuses to atone, seeing Harestar as an enemy as well now. The three rebuild their bonds with each other during the events of the rewritten A Vision of Shadows, and rather than competing over Heathertail all three of them end up together romantically.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: In addition to the canon examples of Brokenstar, Tigerstar and Ashfur, we also have Hollyleaf becoming the tyrannical leader of the ancient lake cats.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Cloudtail and Brightheart are considered this by Clan beauty standards. Brightheart, as a powerful-looking bicolor cat with scars that show her toughness, is considered very attractive, while Cloudtail is considered a "boring" pure white cat.
• The Unchosen One: Thistleclaw was destined to be leader according to Goosefeather's prophecies and Mosskit was supposed to overthrow him, but Bluestar defies destiny and becomes leader instead by giving up her kits, saving ThunderClan from the violence of Thistleclaw's reign.
• Unconventional Courtroom Tactics: During Bluestar's StarClan trials, Lizardstripe does some unusual things to defend her, like making Bluestar herself testify, which makes Bluestar feel she's been betrayed and Lizardstripe is trying to get her in the Dark Forest but is in fact a tactic to make Thistleclaw and his supporters rants against her and prove just how horrible and nonsensical their ideology is.
• Undeath Always Ends: SkyClan is plagued by rats which are actually the spirits of their dead ancestors that, due to SkyClan being exiled from the other Clans and their ancestors being thus separated from the other Clan's afterlife of StarClan, cannot fade away like normal spirits. Firestar, Brokenstar and the reconstituted SkyClan are ultimately able to defeat the rats and allow the spirits of cats they once were to rest.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Berrynose supports fake Bramblestar because he thinks it is Bramblestar and is completely loyal to his mentor.
  • Runningnose is motivated by his complete loyalty to Brokenstar.
  • Swansong is completely loyal to his family, and supports his siblings even when they are persecuted by TigerClan and he, due to being Graypool and Rippleclaw's biological kit, is considered "pure" enough to be spared. He used to extend that loyalty to all of RiverClan, until the TigerClan incident showed him cats would pick and choose who they were supposed to be loyal to.
• Unfortunate Name:
  • Foxheart, even more so than in canon, due to her name in clanmew referring specifically to a ke'ek, a roving, aggressive young fox without a territory, and thus carrying the connotation that she causes problems on purpose by her nature. This is typical of ShadowClan's dark humor.
  • And Runningnose, of course, as in canon, who is named by Yellowfang because she doesn't like having him forced on her as her apprentice, as she (correctly) distrusts him with poisons and spiritual secrets.
  • Then of course there are the various dishonor titles, which are this on purpose.
• Unholy Matrimony: Runningnose and Brokenstar love and are completely loyal to each other while helping each other commit horrible actions.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation:
  • Onestar lacks siblings in the rewrite.
  • Cherrytail and Sparrowpelt are no longer siblings.
  • Cases where a cat breastfeeds a kitten due to the biological mother not being present are no longer automatically considered adoptions; Cloudtail is no longer Brindleface's adopted kit, Thunder isn't considered Hawk Swoop's, and Brokenstar is no longer an adopted child of Lizardstripe and sibling of Runningnose, Deerfoot and Tangleburr.
  • Thornclaw is no longer the father of Blossomfall's kits; the father was a cat from the Kin who she doesn't talk about due to the Queen's Rights.
  • Gray Wing dies earlier than in canon so he is no longer the adoptive father of either Thunder or Turtle Heart's (Turtle Tail's) kits.
  • Although Tiger Sky, Pale Sky, Lightning Sky, and Rumble Sky were the Word of God - given names (changed to conform with the AU's last name system) of Clear Sky's kits with Bright Stream and Storm who died, in their BB AU incarnation none of them are the children of Bright Storm, the Composite Character of the two.
• Unreliable Narrator: Brambleclaw is biased in his narration of The New Prophecy, downplaying his own flaws and being prejudiced against cats like Squirrelflight. Tawnypelt, who is also on the journey with him, getting a POV as well helps show the readers what's really going on.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Billystorm's action of leaving his kits with his human without Leafstar's knowledge leads to Harry getting possession of the kits and managing to kill one of them, Stormkit.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When Flytail first chooses to stay with his father Talltail in WindClan as a kit, he is kind and innocent, but being raised in Clan culture causes him do adopt it's battle-idolizing mindset, to the point of killing Lizardstripe in battle.
• Vacation Crossover: During Dovewing and Tigerheart's journey away from the Clans in Heartstar's Rise, they meet a cat from the culture of Cats who had ended up on the train all the way from London. Due to cat cultures in the Better Bones universe running on different afterlives existing according to each group's beliefs, the supernatural aspects of Cats can fit into the universe without inconsistency, it's just that they live too far away from the part of northern England the Clans are in to regularly encounter each other.
• Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: Inverted: the villainous Clear Sky's group is in the most food-rich part of the forest while survival is more of a struggle for the relatively more heroic Tall Shadow's group in the marshlands. This explains why cats stay in Clear Sky's group in spite of his Bad Boss tendencies.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ashfur doesn't take it well when he realizes his former victim Shadowsight found a way to turn their supernatural connection against him to hold him down.
• Villain Protagonist: Besides Mapleshade's Vengeance being preserved as it is in canon, Brokenstar now takes the POV from Yellowfang in the Yellowfang's Secret equivalent, Brokenstar's Cataclysm, in which he performs villainous actions like killing his father and ending the book by launching a brutal raid on WindClan.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Because Crowfeather is seen as a hero by WindClan for his role as one of The Chosen Many in their journey to a new home and for exposing Mudclaw's rebellion, and just being charismatic, WindClan takes his side over Nightcloud even as he is abusive to her and their son Breezepelt, and Breezepelt ends up written off by many as a "problem child" because that is what Crowfeather told them. This is not helped by how Nightcloud was a participant in the aforementioned rebellion, even though she is trying to atone for it. This changes when Hollyleaf reveals her and her siblings as Crowfeather and Leafpool's siblings at a gathering, and Crowfeather declares he still loves Leafpool and doesn't regret any of this; the scandal causes Onestar to strip him of his name and exile him and the Clan's opinion turns more against him and toward Nightcloud.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: Mistyfoot is initially willing to be a loyal deputy to Leopardstar despite the leader's responsibility for her brother's death and the prejudice against half-Clan cats like her. However, after Hawkfrost's death, she sees how the problem of "Thistle Law" ideology doesn't go away and Leopardstar continues with the same old habits, and she decides the only way to get rid of this ideology is to kill it by killing Leopardstar. It works, and she's able to use her leadership to make sure her Clan never goes in that direction again (though her traditionalism poses its own problems later on when she sides with Ashfur in punishing codebreakers).
• Virtuous Character Copy: Shredtail is a confirmed by Word of God send-up of Captain Ahab, with his obsessive pursuit of a white animal. However, unlike Ahab, he has a very good reason to want Deadfrost killed (Deadfrost killed his family and will continue to kill if left alive), the problem is only that he gets so obsessive that he ends up hurting others in his pursuit.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The four gods are capable of transforming into different animals, such as when Sol appears to Harry as a fish.
• War God: Clear Sky is remembered enough by the Clans to become a Deity of Human Origin in StarClan and takes this role due to his warlike nature.
• Was Once a Man: Or rather, was once a cat: the rats attacking SkyClan are the spirits of SkyClan ancestors unable to fade away once they were forgotten due to the SkyClan ancestors' separation from StarClan.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The Dark Forest cats don't all get along very well. While cats like Thistleclaw and Clawface agree with Tigerstar on enforcing Thistle Law standards of purity when they take over the afterlife and their apprentices take over the Clans, you also have cats like Ripplestar and Spottedpelt who are very opposed to this ideology but want revenge, and Cloudberry and Ryewhisker who want the law of loyalty that prevents cross-Clan couples like them ended. Hawkfrost tries to hold together the coalition with a lot of diplomacy and sometimes outright lies.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Ashfur believes that killing Hollyleaf, Lionblaze and Jayfeather will protect the Clans due to the danger of having cats more powerful than StarClan, and this and the fact he did not work with Hawkfrost here lead to StarClan accepting him. However he is still the Crazy Jealous Guy he is in canon and is also partially motivated by wanting to cause Squirrelflight pain.
  • Ripplestar launched attacks on all the other Clans because he wanted to gain enough territory to allow SkyClan to come back from exile and have a home.
• We Can Rule Together: Instead of Darktail delivering this sort of speech to Hawkwing, Sharpclaw does, wanting his son to join him and Darktail in overthrowing Leafstar.
• We Used to Be Friends: Breezepelt is friends with Jayfeather, Hollyleaf and Lionblaze before their secret parentage is revealed, which causes him to turn against them. As in canon there is also Needletail and Sleekwhisker, who go from friends to Sleekwhisker killing Needletail.
• When Trees Attack: Brokenstar, transformed into the guardian tree of SkyClan, kills many of the Kin by deliberately crashing down on them in the rewritten Hawkwing's Journey.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: Ferncloud's Parting, the reworked version of Graystripe's Vow, largely consists of Ferncloud (Ashfur's older sister) and Cloudtail (his mentor), who played a big role in raising Ashfur after his mother died when he was a kit, reflecting on his turn towards being the ruthless Impostor and what they could have done to prevent it. They ultimately conclude that by raising him like any warrior would be raises - instilling in him the importance of the warrior code - they contributed to what he became, rather than anything unique to him, and while Ferncloud does bear some responsibility for getting him involved in their revenge on Fury, he still made his own choices in the end and plenty of cats were raised with the same values and didn't turn out like him.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Tallstar's naive idealism gets him and his Clan into a lot of trouble. He leaves behind the nomad life with Jake believing he can change the Clans for the better, but his belief that he can end the war with ShadowClan while still keeping the land they won (despite WindClan starting the war) out of Clan pride leads to Brokenstar's vicious retaliation, and he believes he can keep his kit Flytail innocent and idealistic only for him to become another vicious warrior. Finally, when he dies he thinks switching the deputy to Onewhisker will allow for a new, kinder vision of leadership, but his inopportune switch leads to the former deputy Mudclaw starting a civil war and Onewhisker, who he ultimately didn't know well enough to be so sure he would be a good leader, caving under the pressure and becoming exactly the kind of leader Mudclaw would have been anywhere. Note that the Better Bones AU isn't so cynical as a whole that all idealistic character are treated like this (others like Firestar are successful), just that his particular naive view leads to him failing in exacting lasting change.
• Willing Channeler:
  • Harry is happy to become Sol's vessel due to the power it gives him.
  • Lion's Roar initially willingly allows himself to be possessed by One-Eye as a mutual alliance to defeat Hollyleaf, though One-Eye refuses to let him go even after they have defeated her.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Shadowsight has an understanding of death beyond what would be expected of his age even as a kit, due to the deaths of cats like Rowanstar, Heartstar (temporarily), and Juniperclaw, as well as fully believing he himself will die young from his epilepsy before Tawnypelt takes him to the Tribe to get treatment.
• Wise Tree: Brokenstar is the Anthropomorphic Personification of SkyClan's tree in fourtrees and thus of the pain caused by SkyClan's exile. While initially a villain, he ends up transforming into a benevolent guardian tree of SkyClan at the end of Firestar's Quietus.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Lionblaze learns the importance of using his great power to help others rather than for his own needs by taking part in the mission to help the Tribe. However, he takes this lesson too far in how harshly he pressures his own children to take dangerous and stressful responsibilities for their Clan.
• Woolseyism: In-Universe examples:
  • Since cypresses aren't found in northern England Cypresspaw is actually named after a type of willow, with different types having their own names in the cat language, and is translated this way to distinguish it as a name from cats with Willow as a prefix.
  • Scourge's name. The statement that inspired it about Clan cats being a "scourge on the name of good cats" is actually referring to Clan cats ruling tyrannically over other cats, with the word for tyranny, skurss, sounding enough like the English "Scourge" that the imaginary translator went with it.
  • Similarly, turtles are not found in the mountains so Turtle Heart's name really refers to the cats' word for tortoiseshell.
  • Hollyleaf's name in the Clans' language is Waskruss, and over time she forgets her name, confusing it with her mocking nickname of Wurru'ss'a ("mistake leaves") and ending up with Wowar russ'a, the word for leaf litter that literally means "under leaves". This gets translated as Fallen Leaves or Fallenleaf.
• The Worf Effect: Tigerstar's final battle with Firestar in Omen of the Stars is set up by him being seemingly unstoppable during the rest of the battle, managing to kill formidable fighters like Hawkfrost, Blackstar and Iceheart (though the last two are quite old by this time, while Tigerstar as a spirit is physically in the prime of his life).
• Worf Had the Flu: Scourge only takes one of Firestar's lives rather than taking them all in one blow like he did to Tigerstar because, due to the mutual agreement of both parties in the battle to not use weapons or poisons, he no longer has the claw extension that allowed him to pull that move. Firestar anticipating the attack still causes him to slip up and get "normally" killed.
• Working with the Ex: Crowfeather and Nightcloud, who have split up by this time, work together to help their son Breezepelt and others stage a grand rescue of captives from the Kin, including rescuing Breezepelt himself.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Snowtuft ended up in the Dark Forest for killing a whole family including the kits, except for one kit who he stole, during the crusades against the human town. He doesn't get punished for it since it's technically considered acceptable by the code to hurt outsiders, but his Clan isn't happy about it and never looks at him the same way again.
  • Runningnose, with Brokenstar's permission, poisons Marigoldkit in order to frame Yellowfang. This allows them to exile her, getting the biggest opponent of their planned attack on WindClan out of the way.
• You Are Worth Hell:
  • Cloudberry and Ryewhisker choose to go to the Dark Forest after their death out of protest against StarClan for approving of the law that made their relationship forbidden.
  • Fenneldust chooses to go to the Dark Forest to be with Batear.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Tigerstar's plan is for the Dark Forest to take control both as the main afterlife and to take control of the Clans to form a new TigerClan. Since he's dead and can only interact with the living, this goal takes the form of trying to replace the leadership of the Clans with Dark Forest apprentices, and he has initial success in this goal with Firestar being killed and Thornclaw, a Dark Forest apprentice, becoming deputy, as well as Blackstar being manipulated by Sol giving an opportunity for the ShadowClan Dark Forest apprentices Ratscar, Redwillow and Applefur to take power.
• You Never Did That for Me: When Tigerstar intervenes to spare Flametail, his grandson through Tawnypelt from being killed for a second time, Hawkfrost realizes that Tigerstar would have never done this for Mothwing (Hawkfrost's sister and Tigerstar's child by Sasha), helping contribute to his Heel–Face Turn.
• Your Worst Memory: Whenever a cat joins the Dark Forest, the place in which their worst memory occurred is added to the Dark Forest's landscape as a land mar. For instance, Houndleap's is the place he was caught for having many cross-Clan affairs (when one of his lovers ran into him with another one) and Morningstar's is the ThunderClan camp when he was overthrown from leadership.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Near the end of the battle against the Dark Forest, Blossomfall fights Millie and threatens to kill Briarlight. Briarlight, suspecting she doesn't really have it in her to do it, asks Blossomfall if she truly hates her that much. Blossomfall says she does, but ultimately can't bring herself to actually kill her sister.

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