The Rise of Scourge is a standalone manga released in 2008, starting during the events of Bluestar's Prophecy about a half generation before the main series, and ending during the events of The Darkest Hour.
While originally published in black-and-white, it was reprinted in color in 2024.
The Rise of Scourge is narrated by the eponymous character, but he wasn't always the feared leader of BloodClan — he starts his life as a runt named Tiny, bullied by his brother and sister, Socks and Ruby. Their mother, Quince, insists that the two bigger kits should play with him, but they only do so reluctantly — if they do at all. And she never says it or tries to make it obvious, but Tiny thinks that she likes his littermates better.
One day, their Twolegs take them outside to play. Tiny discovers a hole in the fence that leads to the forest, but doesn't explore. He asks his mother about the forest. She explains that her mate used to explore there, and that it's full of fierce wildcats that fight to survive, claiming that "those savages are a scourge on the name of all good cats." She looks at a picture of her mate, saying "Strange that none of them have your ginger fur... but I see your spirit in them just the same."
Frustrated after another attempt to play with his siblings, Tiny decides to explore the forest. He has a big "adventure" chasing leaves, standing on a stump, and having a crow swoop at him, but his brother and sister are less than impressed. Quince explains to the kits that soon Twolegs will come to take them to new homes. When the Twolegs come, Tiny sulks in the corner to avoid Ruby and Socks, but then Ruby taunts him by saying that unwanted kittens are thrown in the river. Despite Tiny's best attempts at making the Twolegs like him, they already have grown fond of Ruby and Socks. If the Twolegs don't want him, he'll be thrown in the river... so he decides to run to the forest before that can happen.
He runs into a ThunderClan patrol consisting of Thistleclaw, Tigerpaw, and Bluefur. Thistleclaw orders Tigerpaw to attack Tiny. Tigerpaw does, nearly killing the kit, and Bluefur stops him. Tiny realizes that he has nowhere to go except the city. City life isn't any better, since all the cats fight over any scrap of food they can get, and he's taunted for being a kittypet. An old dog gets up from a nap and loses a tooth, so Tiny tries to use the tooth to pull his collar off, only getting it stuck in the collar. He tells the other cats that it's a trophy from killing a dog, and they let him eat with them.
This tale comes back to bite him in the rear when Tiny is visted by two large cats named Bone and Brick, who tell him to live up to his word and chase away a dog that's been bothering cats, or leave the city. Since he has no other place to go, Tiny decides to stand up to the dog. The dog sees Tiny's large shadow and flees in fear. The other alley cats only saw a fleeing dog, not why it was afraid, so they praise Tiny, asking his name. He remembers his mother talking about the savage forest cats, and tells them that his name is Scourge.
After this, Scourge is treated as a bit of a leader. Cats bring him food, and come to him with their problems. One day, Bone and Brick bring him to where a group of forest cats are terrorizing the city cats. Scourge hopes to see Tigerpaw so that he can get revenge, but it's not Tigerpaw — it's a group of ShadowClan cats led by Brokentail (as the reader will recognize by his tabby pelt and bent tail). The warriors laugh at the thought of a kit challenging them, but then Scourge attacks one and rips his throat with one blow. He realizes that killing the cat gave him a cold feeling in his veins, but he welcomes it, and as he grows up, it just becomes colder and colder. No matter what, though, he still remembers Tigerpaw, and still hungers for revenge...
Cats continue to visit Scourge with their problems, bringing bone trophies. One day two of these cats are none other than Ruby and Socks, who have been abandoned by their Twolegs! He lets them eat once but refuses to give them any further hospitality, and he never sees them again.
Finally, the chance for revenge comes to Scourge. Tigerstar, leader of ShadowClan, comes to Scourge to ask for his help in defeating the other Clans, not recognizing Scourge as the kit he once tried to kill. Scourge decides not to kill him right away, but the time comes. Tigerstar attacks, Scourge slashes, and it is all over. After all that time waiting for revenge, learning that he needed to live for blood to survive, Scourge has finally won.
Tropes appearing in this volume:
- Accidental Hero: Scourge became the ruthless warlord he was in part by trying to live up to a reputation for toughness he got for beating up two dogs. One of these incidents was a complete fabrication and in the other the dog became scared of Scourge's massive shadow and ran while Scourge was yowling at him.
- Ambiguous Gender: It's unclear whether Brick is meant to be a tom or a she-cat.
- Art Shift: When Tiny is making up a story about fighting a dog, there's a "flashback" to a crudely drawn fight between Tiny and the dog, which involves them rolling around in a dust ball.
- Backstory: This manga serves as Scourge's backstory.
- Badass Boast: Scourge gives a few.[to his siblings] "Oh, yes. Blood is everything. But the only blood I'm interested in flows from my enemies. Look around you! These cats are bathed in blood. It soaks their fur and laps at their paws. We are BloodClan!"
[after killing Tigerstar] "My littermates said I was too small... too weak. But I've proven them wrong. I've learned how to be strong... how to live for blood. Because that's the key. The only answer. I am leader of BloodClan. I am Scourge. AND I HAVE WON!" - Bad Liar: When Tiny lies about things like killing a fox and ripping a tooth out of a dog's head, nobody believes him for a second.
- Becoming the Mask: Scourge was a product of this: When he was little, he was tricked into running away from his home and happened to end up in the city. To survive, he managed to fool the other rogues residing there into believing that he was a cold-blooded killer so they would fear him and bring him free food. However, by the time he actually kills someone, he slowly starts to become the unfeeling, cold-blooded monster he was portrayed as in his debut.
- Berserk Button: Scourge is easily angered, especially if someone makes fun of his size.
- Best Served Cold: Most of Scourge's life is dedicated to trying to get revenge on Tigerstar, for beating down Scourge back when he was a kit.
- Big Ball of Violence: Tiny invents a story about him fighting a dog. His "story" is drawn in a very rough, sketched style, and the "fight" is drawn as a ball.
- Big Brother Bully: Tiny, the runt of his litter, is teased by his sister Ruby and brother Socks.
- Big Shadow, Little Creature: This is how Scourge defeats his first dog.
- Blood from the Mouth: Tigerstar, as Scourge kills him at the end.
- Break the Cutie: Tiny was a curious, adorable little kitten. He wandered into the forest and was attacked by Tigerpaw. This made him hate Clan cats. It didn't help that his siblings drove him away.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Reconstructed. Scourge still remembers his one encounter with Tigerstar, but Tigerstar doesn't recognize him as the kittypet he nearly killed. Though this would normally be a blow to someone's ego, Scourge uses this to his advantage so he can get close enough to his enemy to exact his vengeance.
- Chekhov's Gun: The tooth Tiny takes from Samwise becomes important a little while later when it makes him more well-known in Twolegplace.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Brick disappears from the plot completely around the end.
- Circle of Shame: At one point, a bunch of cats in the Twolegplace surround Tiny and laugh at him.
- Colorization: The Rise of Scourge was originally drawn and released in black-and-white. It was colorized for a 2024 re-release, sixteen years after the original came out.
- Cool Old Lady: There's a kind old she-cat Tiny meets in Twolegplace who gives him some chicken and is pretty nice to him.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Tigerpaw easily manages to defeat Tiny.
- Scourge takes down Tigerstar even faster than he did in The Darkest Hour.
- Cute Kitten: Scourge was an adorable kit before becoming the fearsome leader of BloodClan.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Scourge, telling a story about him and explaining why he turned evil. It's also one for BloodClan in general.
- Desecrating the Dead: Scourge kicks dust onto the body of the cat he's just killed.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Thistleclaw orders his apprentice to attack and almost kill Tiny for accidentally wandering into their territory. This Disproportionate Retribution is eventually met with more Disproportionate Retribution, as Tiny grows up to become Scourge, who disembowels Tigerstar after Tigerstar tries to give Scourge's followers orders.
- Dogs Are Dumb: The dog that Tiny is sent to fight ends up running away because he's scared of kitten Scourge's shadow (it was a rather fierce looking shadow, but still).
- Drowning Unwanted Pets: As a kit, Scourge's bully siblings lied to him and told him that Twolegs throw unwanted kittens into rivers. Scourge, then known as "Tiny", was so scared that he ran away from home, which ultimately led to his Start of Darkness.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- At one point, Quince looks at a picture of the father of her kits. This is Jake, who is also the father of Firestar, and would later have a more important role in Bluestar's Prophecy.
- Tiny runs into three ThunderClan cats in the forest. The one who beats him is Tigerstar, and the one who sticks up for him is Bluestar. The other one is Thistleclaw, who later became one of the main antagonists of the series with the releases of Bluestar's Prophecy and Omen of the Stars.
- Evil Counterpart: Scourge is one for Firestar. Both were originally kittypets who ran away to the forest and became leaders. However, Scourge was brutally beaten and then chased off by a young Tigerstar, and went on to be the leader of a large gang in Twolegplace, while Firestar joined ThunderClan and eventually became leader. Their key difference is that Firestar has faith in his warrior ancestors and would die for his Clanmates, while Scourge treats those he rules over as mere pawns to be discarded when they've served their use. To highlight the evil counterpart-ness, Scourge was revealed to be Firestar's half brother after it was hinted at in this volume.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Scourge describes feeling an icy cold feeling in his belly when he kills his first cat, and he embraces the cold and lets it fill him.
- Foregone Conclusion: We know from the very beginning that Tiny is going to take over the Twolegplace and become Scourge.
- Freudian Excuse: Scourge was bullied by his siblings, Ruby and Socks. They told him he would be drowned in the river if he wasn't adopted by Twolegs, so he ran away, only to be attacked almost to death by Tigerstar. This mistreatment led to him becoming what he is in The Darkest Hour.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While the whole point of the story is to explore why and how Scourge became the monster he is today, the commentary also points out that no amount of hardship or bullying could ever justify the terrible things he's done.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: A small kittypet named Tiny, bullied by his siblings, manages to become leader of BloodClan with sheer ruthlessness and one of most deadly cats in the series.
- Funny Background Event: When Quince is telling Socks and Ruby to be nice to Tiny, you can see said cat comically falling out of the cat basket.
- Generation Xerox: Tiny likes exploring the forest, just like his father Jake and his half-brother, Rusty.
- Irony: Out of spite, Ruby told Tiny that the visiting twolegs don't want to adopt him. She and Socks certainly didn't see it coming when their owners eventually abandoned them, while the ownerless Tiny (now Scourge) is relatively well off.
- It Gets Easier: Scourge started innocent but found it easier to kill as time went on.
- Kick the Dog: Ruby taunts Tiny by saying that the Twolegs will never accept him and that he'll be thrown in the river like all other unwanted kittens. This causes him to worry and run away.
- Kid Hero: Tiny is a kit, the feline equivalent of a child.
- Kids Are Cruel: Socks and Ruby bullied Tiny, believing he was too weak to fend for himself, and even scare him with the made up story that the Twolegs will drown him in a river if he's not adopted.
- Laser-Guided Karma: For as long as he can remember, Socks and Ruby bullied their younger brother for being small, often excluding him from their games. Ruby even goes as far as to taunt him with a cruel story about how the Twolegs will drown him if they don't want him. Although they get adopted and are happy for a while, karma eventually catches up with them when their own Twoleg owners abandon them, and Scourge (who has grown beyond needing a Twoleg owner) refuses to take them into BloodClan.
- Meaningful Rename: Feeling that the name "Tiny" no longer suits him, our protagonist changes his name to Scourge.
- Miles Gloriosus: Scourge used to be one, claiming to have killed foxes and ripped teeth out of the mouth of dogs. Then he Took a Level in Badass and was actually able to do the stuff he claimed to be able to do.
- Mirror Character:
- The author's note at the beginning talks about how they wanted to take a character born with the same gifts as Firestar and give him a more negative upbringing.
- Tiny's mother often thought of Clan Cats as being barbarians and savages that gave a bad name to cats. But later, when Tiny tries to get a good view of Twoleg Place, he sees that city cats are just as bad, picking on the weak and stealing food from one another. Still, he decides to help them because he can see that they're just frightened, just as he's scared to face the mean dog that's hoarding the food.
- More Deadly Than the Male: While they do both pick on Tiny, Ruby is more vicious in her bullying towards him than Socks is.
- Nightmare Dreams: Tiny has frequent nightmares about Tigerstar attacking him.
- Old Dog: Tiny runs into a dog named Samwise sleeping in an alley. Tiny is afraid that it'll eat him, but it's too old to chase him, and it loses a tooth as it gets up. As Tiny tries to use the tooth to get his collar off, it gets stuck, and then he claims he got it by killing a dog. It's thanks to Sam the Old Dog that Tiny became Scourge, leader of BloodClan.
- Origins Episode: This book serves as Scourge's.
- Parental Favoritism: Although Quince tries not to make it obvious, Tiny believes that she likes Socks and Ruby more than him.
- Perspective Flip:
- The scene where Tiny is attacked by Tigerpaw also appears in Bluestar's Prophecy; in that book it's from Bluefur's point of view; in this one, it's from Tiny's.
- The final scenes are scenes from The Darkest Hour, now seen from Scourge's perspective: the prologue of that book where Tigerstar meets Scourge was originally from Tigerstar's point of view, and the ending where Scourge kills Tigerstar was originally viewed from Firestar's perspective.
- A Pet into the Wild: Scourge was a kittypet named "Tiny", who fled his home after his sister told him that any kittens that humans didn't want were thrown into a river. Later on, Scourge's littermates Socks and Ruby, who had been adopted by Twolegs, became strays when their Twolegs abandoned them after moving away. The two begged their brother Scourge to take them in, but he chased them off. It's never clarified if Socks and Ruby were eventually adopted again or if they lived as loners for the rest of their lives.
- Pet the Dog: Zigzagged. When Ruby and Socks come to Scourge some time after he forms BloodClan, they ask him for food, given they've been starving ever since their owners abandoned them and they don't know how to hunt. Scourge initially refuses their plea, saying the only "blood" he cares about are that which he spills from his enemies. When they desperately help themselves to food anyway, he lets them have their fill on a whim rather than kill them for such insubordination. But once they've eaten, he banishes them from BloodClan territory, and that's it.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Scourge may be small, but he's super fast, incredibly strong, and goes homicidal if you provoke him.
- Prequel: It was released after The Darkest Hour to explain the origins of BloodClan.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Our protagonist, a cute little kitten named Tiny, becomes Scourge, ruler of BloodClan and Evil Counterpart to The Hero Firestar.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the colorized reprint, Tiny's story about fighting a dog shows the dog with evil red eyes.
- Revenge: Scourge's goal is to get revenge on Tigerstar for beating him when they were younger.
- Scare the Dog: Bone first met Scourge because of rumors (which Scourge himself had spread) that Scourge defeated a dog in combat. Bone and another cat named Brick got Scourge to fight another dog that had been terrorizing cats around the town. While at that point, Scourge wasn't the all-powerful cat known to fans, his badass-looking shadow was able to scare away the dog and earn him the respect of Bone.
- Scars Are Forever: Bone has a scar on his head for the entirety of the comic.
- Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Scourge was born a kittypet runt who was named "Tiny". His siblings often teased him due to his size. After being told that Twolegs drown kittens that no one wants, Scourge ran away and became a rogue. As an adult Scourge becomes the feared and fearsome Ax-Crazy leader of BloodClan, though he is still a small cat.
- Slashed Throat: Scourge slashes the throat of a rogue that laughs at him. This, being the first time Scourge killed another cat, shows that he became ruthless in his goals.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Socks and Ruby. Both were mean to Tiny, causing him to run away and become Scourge. Also Tigerclaw, though his role is only small in the manga — he only appears twice, but is the driving force behind Scourge's entire motivation.
- Spikes of Villainy:
- When Tiny invents a story about fighting a dog, the dog has a spiked collar, making it more intimidating.
- The first tooth in Scourge's collar is an accident, getting stuck when trying to use it to take the collar off. He uses it to invent a new persona for himself as a fierce fighter that can kill dogs, and once he becomes the feared ruler of the city, his collar is lined with teeth. Thereafter, most of BloodClan also have spiked collars that serve to make them look more evil and menacing.
- Start of Darkness: This volume shows how Scourge turned evil.
- Street Urchin: Tiny took to the streets after being told that humans throw unwanted kits in the river. His street life began pitiful and begging for scraps, but thanks to telling some tall tales and gradually Becoming the Mask, he ends up as Scourge, the feared leader of BloodClan (the city strays).
- Taught by Experience: Scourge was thrown out onto the streets and learned this way. It led to him becoming a brutal killer with no remorse.
- Unknown Rival: Tigerstar is Scourge's archnemisis. Tigerstar however, doesn't remember Scourge.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Scourge, who in his backstory was an inquisitive, cute little kitten who had bad things happen to him, turning him into a crazy killer.
- Villain Episode: Rather than telling a story about the heroes, The Rise of Scourge is all about the villainous BloodClan, and focuses on how the villain Scourge became what he is.
- Villain Protagonist: After he changes his name to Scourge, we're essentially watching Tiny going around and killing cats.
- Young and in Charge: Scourge takes over the city cats when he's only a kit, simply because of his reputed fighting skill and being the most bloodthirsty cat.
