Recap / Warrior Cats: Into the Wild

Into the Wild was the first Warrior Cats book released: the first book in the original Warriors series (aka The Prophecies Begin).

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The book begins with a battle between ThunderClan and RiverClan over who owns Sunningrocks, a piece of territory smack in the middle of them. When the odds become impossible, Redtail, the ThunderClan deputy, convinces Tigerclaw, a ThunderClan warrior, to retreat. In the ThunderClan camp, Bluestar, the leader, is distraught because ThunderClan hasn't lost a battle in their own territory since she became leader. The medicine cat Spottedleaf gets a message from StarClan. She recounts its contents: "Fire Alone Can Save Our Clan." Bluestar trusts Spottedleaf because she has never been wrong before.

Meanwhile, a kittypet called Rusty is hunting a mouse. It turns out to be a dream and he wakes up and decides to go into the woods. His friend Smudge tries to dissuade him, but he ignores Smudge and starts exploring. While tracking a fox, he is attacked by a forest cat. After a short fight, the forest cat introduces himself as Graypaw. Graypaw tells Rusty about the four Clans. Bluestar and Graypaw's mentor Lionheart appear. Rusty is curious about the clans, and Bluestar tells him that if he is so curious, he can join ThunderClan. She grants him some time to think. Rusty comes back later and meets Lionheart and Bluestar's nephew Whitestorm. The two warriors take Rusty to the ThunderClan camp and Bluestar begins to perform the ceremony to make him an apprentice. However, a cat called Longtail notices Rusty's collar and realizes he is a kittypet. Longtail insults Rusty, so they fight, and Rusty's collar is torn off. Bluestar sees it as a sign from StarClan that Rusty can now join ThunderClan, so she gives him his apprentice name, Firepaw. However, she doesn't select a mentor for him. Suddenly, Ravenpaw, an apprentice, runs into camp and says that Redtail is dead. Ravenpaw collapses, but his mentor Tigerclaw arrives to explain what happened. During another fight with RiverClan, Oakheart, RiverClan's deputy, killed Redtail, so Tigerclaw killed him in revenge. Bluestar names Lionheart the next deputy - to Tigerclaw's dismay, as he wanted to be deputy.

The next day, Lionheart and Tigerclaw show Firepaw and Graypaw (who complains about already seeing it) around the territory, and tell them about the four Clans: ThunderClan the brave, WindClan the swift, RiverClan the wise, and ShadowClan the fierce. Firepaw wonders why the Clans don't unite, but Lionheart and Tigerclaw say that a union of the Clans is a treacherous and terrible idea ^note much to the amusement of readers who have already finished The Darkest Hour. Two moons later, Firepaw is attacked by a rogue named Yellowfang while on a solo hunting mission. He injures her leg, rendering her unable to walk, and she looks hungry so he hunts for some food for her. Firepaw eats the scraps, breaking the warrior code because he is feeding himself before the Clan. His Clanmates appear and inform him that Yellowfang is the ShadowClan medicine cat and take her prisoner after learning she has left ShadowClan. Firepaw is punished for breaking the code by being forced to look after Yellowfang. Bluestar decides at this point that she will mentor Firepaw. Yellowfang continually berates Firepaw for not doing a good job and for being a former kittypet. In response, Firepaw says that she is only doing this to hide her embarrassment at having to be looked after by someone. This impresses Yellowfang. A short time later, Firepaw is allowed to return to his training.

Tigerclaw gives Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw a hunting assessment. Firepaw meets Smudge while hunting, and, after talking with him, decides that joining ThunderClan was the right choice. At the full moon, Firepaw, Graypaw and Ravenpaw are permitted to go the Gathering, a meeting of all four Clans where they share news. WindClan doesn't show up, and as it turns out, ShadowClan drove them out. Brokenstar, ShadowClan's leader, demands hunting rights for ShadowClan in the territory of the other clans. Bluestar refuses, but Crookedstar, leader of RiverClan, agrees to it. Brokenstar also says that a member of ShadowClan killed some kits and was driven out. The ThunderClan cats assume he means Yellowfang, so they rush home to lynch her. Firepaw runs to camp ahead of everyone else to warn Yellowfang. However, when the cats try to attack Yellowfang, Bluestar says that Yellowfang can stay because she hasn't done anything wrong. Also, Brokenstar didn't give a name for the kit-killing cat, and as such it could be some other ShadowClan cat.

Later, Bluestar decides to travel to the Moonstone to share words with StarClan, the warrior ancestors of the Clans, in order to find out how to defeat Brokenstar. She takes Firepaw, Graypaw, Ravenpaw and Tigerclaw, because all apprentices must journey to the Moonstone before becoming warriors. When they reach the cave with the Moonstone inside, Graypaw and Ravenpaw are left outside as guards. Bluestar, Tigerclaw and Firepaw go to see the Moonstone, but Tigerclaw gets scared and runs away. Bluestar finds out that they must return to camp at once. On the way back they are ambushed by rats. A loner called Barley saves them, but not before Bluestar is killed. Fortunately, Clan leaders have nine lives, so Bluestar comes back to life. She tells Tigerclaw she has four lives left. When they get back to camp, ShadowClan is attacking. The deputy Blackfoot kills an elder named Rosetail, but Yellowfang defeats him and the ShadowClan cats run away. Yellowfang is welcomed as a full member of ThunderClan. Meanwhile, Lionheart dies of injuries, and Tigerclaw is named deputy. Ravenpaw expresses worry over this. Later, Firepaw hears Tigerclaw spreading rumours that Ravenpaw is a traitor, which he knows to be false. When he asks Ravenpaw about this, Ravenpaw tells him that he witnessed Tigerclaw kill Redtail. Later, while he trains with Bluestar, Firepaw learns that Bluestar lied about her lives: she only has two remaining. He also learns about Spottedleaf's prophecy.

Afterwards, Spottedleaf is found dead in her den and both Yellowfang and some kits go missing. The Clan assumes that Yellowfang killed Spottedleaf and kidnapped the kits, but Firepaw has his doubts. Bluestar doesn't send Tigerclaw out to find Yellowfang because she knows that he would kill her on sight. She sends Firepaw ahead of everyone else, and he takes Graypaw and Ravenpaw with him. Firepaw sends Ravenpaw off to live with Barley and says that he will tell ThunderClan than Ravenpaw died. Firepaw and Graypaw confront Yellowfang, who explains her motive for leaving the camp: she had recognized the scent of a ShadowClan warrior named Clawface on Spottedleaf headed out to pursue him. She also explains that Brokenstar trains cats to be warriors at an age before the warrior code allows it. In one training exercise, he was too brutal and killed some kits. He laid the blame on her, but she did not defend herself because he is the son of Raggedstar, who she respected. She also explains that if it looked like Brokenstar could be defeated, then a good percentage of ShadowClan will help drive him out. Yellowfang, Firepaw, Graypaw, and a ThunderClan patrol team up with some ShadowClan cats to attack the camp and defeat Brokenstar. Brokenstar defeats Yellowfang and says that he killed Raggedstar so he could be leader. Firepaw attacks and defeats him, resulting in Brokenstar being driven out. The members of ShadowClan promise to reform it. For their nobility in the battle, Firepaw and Graypaw recieve their warrior names, Fireheart and Graystripe. Fireheart vows to expose Tigerclaw.

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Tropes that appear in this book:

• 0% Approval Rating: Brokenstar, leader of ShadowClan, is hated so much by the ShadowClan cats that at the end of the book they team up to drive him out.
• Action Mom: The ThunderClan queens join in the battle when ShadowClan attacks their camp; the pregnant queen Brindleface in particular is noted as having fought particularly fiercely.
• Action Prologue: The prologue of the book features a battle between RiverClan and ThunderClan.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: ShadowClan attacks ThunderClan's camp, forcing ThunderClan to defend their elders and kits.
• Anything but That!: A humor variant: When Firepaw comes back from the Gathering, he tells Yellowfang that ShadowClan has a new medicine cat. She amusedly says, "Not Runningnose!" (See Running Gag below)
• Appeal to Familial Wisdom: When entering ShadowClan's territory, Graypaw is nervous and comments that his mother warned him about ShadowClan's scent many times. Firepaw, who of course was raised as a kittypet, replies that his mother taught him no such thing.
• Arch-Enemy: Firepaw and Tigerclaw become this by the end of the book; the narration even points it out.
• Arc Words: Fire alone can save our Clan appears a couple times in the book, and becomes Arc Words for the whole first series.
• Assassination Attempt: Brokenstar killed his father, ShadowClan's leader, to become leader himself. Most cats assumed that an enemy Clan had done it.
• Author Catchphrase: There are at least three instances where a character "shook his/her head to clear it" in this book.
• Battle Cry: Firepaw's is mentioned to be "Gr-aar!". This doesn't last beyond this first book.
• Battle in the Rain: The final battle in the book takes place during a storm.
• Beast Fable: Into the Wild is analyzed as such in the Nikolajeva book Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers.
  ...The book is an example of (ab)using cats as a disguise for human beings, since the feline appearance is not inherent to the plot. It certainly adds excitement and not least novelty to the well-trodden narrative, appealing to cat lovers and adventure lovers equally.
• Bitch Alert: Sandpaw's first appearance. She snarls that Firepaw smells revolting, and then makes a comment about how he's a kittypet.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Firepaw accidentally attacks his friend Graypaw. When Graypaw complains that he was taken by surprise, Firepaw replies, "Surprise is the warrior's greatest weapon." He then mentally notes this to be the catchphrase of Graypaw's mentor, Lionheart.
• Breaking the Bonds: Longtail doesn't want Rusty to join the Clan because he was owned by humans, and the two fight. There's a moment during the battle where Longtail grabs the back of Rusty's collar and begins using it to strangle him. Rusty struggles forward until his collar snaps, and the Clan leader stops the fight, saying that it's a sign that Rusty is meant to join the Clan.
• Broken Pedestal: Fireheart puts Tigerclaw on a pedestal. Then he finds out that Tigerclaw is a team-killing psycho, and they become arch enemies.
• Car Fu: Firepaw is trying to cross a road when a car suddenly drives off the road and heads straight at him. That's right - they swerved off a presumably 55 MPH road, drove on the grass, and leaned out of their window, jeering, just to hit a cat.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Graypaw mentions Clawface early on in the book as being one of the great warriors who might be at the Gathering. Clawface later kills Spottedleaf as the book builds to its climax.
• Child Soldiers: Brokenstar breaks a law in the warrior code by training ShadowClan's kits to fight starting when they're barely weaned from their mothers; as a result, many of them die.
• The Coup: Successfully done by ShadowClan elders, with some help from ThunderClan. They depose the evil Brokenstar, and one of the elders, Nightpelt, takes over.
• Crash-Into Hello: Rusty decided to visit the forest neighboring his home, only to get attacked by Graypaw. However, after they crashed into each other, they stopped fighting and became fast friends.
• Creepy Cave: Mothermouth is considered creepy by Graypaw and Ravenpaw. Ravenpaw even uses that as an excuse as to why he jumped when Tigerclaw came out of the cave.
• Dark Is Evil:
  • It's no surprise which Clan is portrayed as the "bad" Clan: ShadowClan.
  • ShadowClan's villainous leader, Brokenstar, is dark brown, as is Tigerclaw, who murdered Redtail.
• Death Faked for You: Firepaw realizes that Tigerclaw is trying to kill Ravenpaw for witnessing something he shouldn't have. To protect his friend, he sends Ravenpaw to live far away on a farm at the distant edge of Clan territory, and returns to the camp telling everyone that Ravenpaw was killed by an enemy patrol.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: The ThunderClan deputy Redtail is dead after a battle with RiverClan. Tigerclaw claims that the RiverClan cat Oakheart, who also died in the battle, was responsible for Redtail's death, but it's only an excuse to hide the fact that Tigerclaw himself had murdered Redtail.
• Deceptive Disciple:
  • Tigerclaw was noted by other cats as knowing the Warrior Code by heart. He actually killed the Clan deputy in the hope that he would take his place - something that, obviously, is against the code.
  • Brokenstar did the same but succeeded, with the added bonus of the cat he killed and usurped being his own father.
• Did Not Die That Way: Tigerclaw returned from battle with Redtail's body, claiming that he'd been killed by the enemy warrior Oakheart, and that he himself killed Oakheart in revenge. Ravenpaw later reveals the truth: that Redtail killed Oakheart first, and that Tigerclaw murdered Redtail after the battle.
• Dies Wide Open: Bluestar's eyes are mentioned as being glazed while she's dead in between her lives.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Brokenstar is built up as the Big Bad, but by the book's end it is apparent that Tigerclaw will be the true villain of the series.
• Don't Ask: Firepaw jumps into a cold stream to wash mouse bile off his paws after using it to help clear the elders' ticks. Graypaw and Ravenpaw show up and stare at him like he's crazy, so he says, "Mouse bile. Don't ask."
• Don't Go in the Woods: What kittypets seem to be raised on. Smudge tells Rusty that he's heard that there's all kinds of dangerous animals out there, as well as huge, fierce wild cats that eat live rabbits and sharpen their claws on old bones.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal: Happens to Rusty. He wore a collar with a bell on it, and several ThunderClan cats disagreed with him joining the Clan due to all the trouble the collar would cause. His collar gets torn off in a fight with Longtail, causing Bluestar to declare it a divine sign that Rusty is meant to join the Clan, and Rusty winning the respect of the Clan as well as losing his ties to being a pet cat.
• Dream Intro: The first chapter starts with Rusty dreaming about exploring the woods.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Each Clan keeps mostly to itself and doesn't know much about what's going on elsewhere in the forest, and the other Clans' territories are generally a mystery to them. Tigerclaw freaks out in this book when they take Yellowfang as a prisoner, saying that now ShadowClan will know where the ThunderClan camp is, and that they'll need to move, while in later books (even ones that take place around the same timeframe) they actually visit each other's camps on a fairly regular basis.
  • In this book, they say for both Ravenpaw's disappearance and Raggedstar's death "he must have been killed by an enemy patrol" and just forget about it. Later on in the series, such an event would be huge news - even regarding a normal warrior, and we're talking about a Clan leader - and they would confront the other Clan and try to figure out what happened.
  • Highstones is consistently capitalized as HighStones in this book, which changes in later books.
  • In this book, they use "queen" for any female cat, but later on it only gets used for females currently pregnant or nursing kits, and "she-cat" becomes the general word for "female".
  • Bluestar laments about how "never before have we had so few apprentices in training", since there's just Dustpaw, Sandpaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw before she invites Rusty to join the Clan. Books taking place both before and after Into the Wild show that four apprentices isn't at all out of the ordinary.
  • Graypaw comments that usually Bluestar trains only the kits of deputies. While it's true in later books that it's rare for any leader to take an apprentice, Bluestar didn't train anyone during her time as leader, much less a deputy's kits, until that point.
  • The word "kitten" is almost never used in the series, with "kit" being used instead. However, "kitten" comes up several times in this book: for instance, in one scene Graypaw is described as a kitten (later books also never refer to apprentices as kits), and there's a mention of "kitten-cough", a disease that is never referenced again.
• Ear Notch:
  • Tigerclaw is noted to have a V-shaped nick in his ear.
  • Rusty gives Longtail a permanent ear notch in their fight.
• Establishing Character Moment: Bluestar describes Clan life to Rusty, and the joys of participating in it... but also warns him that a warrior's path is not an easy one, and that Rusty will be expected to follow Clan rules. This foreshadows her position as Rusty's mentor and Lawful Good beliefs.
• Evil Plan: Tigerclaw killed Redtail in the hope that he'd be made deputy next, and he asks Bluestar how many lives she has left, clearly interested in how soon she'll be giving up the leadership role.
• Evil Teacher: Tigerclaw - Ravenpaw's mentor, and partial mentor to Firepaw before Bluestar - is a Villain with Good Publicity: he secretly murdered the Clan deputy in the hope of being chosen for the role, and intends to continue killing his way to leadership. He even tries to kill his apprentice Ravenpaw (who witnessed the murder) by assigning him dangerous tasks (hunting in enemy territory, or at the rocks where poisonous snakes live).
• Failed Attempt at Scaring: Graypaw tries to sneak up on Firepaw using his best "stealth crouch". Unfortunately he isn't as stealthy as he thinks he is, so Firepaw hears something that sounds large moving through the brush, and, thinking it's an enemy warrior or predator, attacks, resulting in Graypaw being startled instead.
• Faking the Dead: Ravenpaw's death is faked in order to protect him from Tigerclaw, who had intended to silence him for witnessing something he shouldn't have.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars:
  • Clawface, as his name implies, has many scars running along his face. He's a villain.
  • Tigerclaw, another villain, has a scar across the bridge of his nose and a split in his ear.
• Grade Skipper: In a manner of speaking. Apprentices usually become warriors in the order they were apprenticed, and an apprenticeship is stated in later books to normally last about 6 moons. Fireheart and Graystripe were made warriors before the older Dustpaw and Sandpaw, and if you carefully keep track of every mention of time passing in the book, they were only apprentices for a little over two moons.
• Grim Up North: ShadowClan, the "evil" Clan, lives in the northernmost territory. Graypaw even tells Firepaw that there's a saying in ThunderClan that the cold north wind blows over every ShadowClan cat and chills their heart.
• Grumpy Old Man: Yellowfang is a perfect (female) example of this.
• Hairball Humor: When Sandpaw is rude to Firepaw, Graypaw excuses her behaviour by saying, "She must have a hairball somewhere."
• Hate at First Sight: Longtail, Sandpaw, and Dustpaw hate Firepaw the moment he joins the Clan, and he reciprocates in kind.
• Heaven Above: StarClan is said to be located within the collection of stars above, locally known as Silverpelt (we'd call it the Milky Way).
• The High Queen: Bluestar is treated this way, though Clans have no monarchy so she is officially just their leader. She is a regal blue-furred cat with Icy Blue Eyes who leads ThunderClan with wisdom and dignity.
• Holy Ground: The Moonstone is a sacred place for the cats to communicate with their ancestors. New leaders are given nine lives there, each new warrior must make the trip there once, and that's where the medicine cats receive omens twice a moon.
• Humans Are Smelly: The cats believe that humans smell, and even once Firepaw earns his place in the Clan, other cats still occasionally insult him by saying he smells like humans.
• Inheritance Murder: Clan law dictates that the Clan deputy becomes leader if the leader dies. Brokentail reveals that he did this successfully; he killed his own father, who was leader of the Clan, after being made deputy himself.
• Initiation Ceremony: A ceremony is held when Rusty joins the Clan; Bluestar says the ceremonial words and gives him a Clan-suitable name.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Firepaw becomes good friends with Yellowfang, the medicine cat old enough to be his mother or grandmother.
• Intimate Hair Brushing: A cat equivalent. Cats regularly groom with their friends and loved ones; this is called "sharing tongues".
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: ShadowClan stealing ThunderClan's kits.
• Ironic Echo: When Sandpaw and Dustpaw get to go the Gathering but Graypaw doesn't, Sandpaw tells him to have a "nice quiet evening". Later, when Graypaw gets to go but Sandpaw doesn't, he mentions that he told her to have a "nice quiet evening".
• I Surrender, Suckers: Firepaw uses this a couple times: once when play-fighting with Graypaw, and later on during his battle with Yellowfang. Both times, it results in his victory.
• I Will Show You X!: Firepaw teases Graypaw by telling him that he stalks like a lopsided badger. Graypaw replies, "I'll show you lopsided!" and the two get into a play-fight.
• Kiai: As part of the book's Early-Installment Weirdness, Firepaw tends to use "Gr-aaar!" every time he attacks something.
• Kid Hero: Rusty is about six moons old - the Clan cats' equivalent of somewhere between 10 and teenage - at the start of this book.
• Lazy Neutered Pet: Clan cats note that kittypets become fat and lazy after going to the Cutter (the vet), and Rusty realizes that this is true when he thinks of one of his neighbors, Henry, who recently went to the vet.
• Lowered Recruiting Standards: Bluestar's recruitment of Rusty is considered to be this by most cats, since recruiting house cats with no fighting experience is basically unheard of in the Clans. Even Yellowfang comments that ThunderClan must be getting pretty desperate.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Tigerclaw sends Ravenpaw on dangerous tasks (for instance, hunting at Snakerocks where poisonous snakes live) in the hope that it'll get him killed and look like an accident.
• Malicious Misnaming: Firepaw calls Darkstripe "Dirtstripe" for his obstructive behavior.
• Meaningful Rename: Twice. First when Rusty joins the Clan; he is given the Clan name Firepaw, which Bluestar chose for his flame-colored pelt. Bluestar also realizes, upon naming him this, that the "Fire alone can save our Clan" prophecy might refer to him. He and Graypaw earn their warrior names at the end of the book.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Lionheart - mentor to Graypaw, and temporarily to Firepaw - ends up dying at the climax of the book.
• The Missing Faction: WindClan is this for much of the book, since they were driven out of their territory shortly after Firepaw joined the Clan.
• More Insulting than Intended: Yellowfang tells Firepaw that he's "dithering like a kittypet!", which makes him fear that she smells human scent on him. She realises she's offended him (but doesn't realise why) and keeps teasing him by mentioning housepets.
• The Mutiny: ShadowClan fights back against and deposes their tyrant leader Brokenstar, with the help of ThunderClan.
• Named After the Injury:
  • Two ThunderClan elders are named after injuries they've sustained during life: One-Eye has a blind eye, while Halftail only has half his tail after it was bitten off by a badger.
  • The RiverClan leader Crookedstar is named after his twisted jaw.
• Names to Trust Immediately: Lionheart. He's a pure hero, right down to the end. Fireheart as well.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • Adjectives:
    • Dark: Darkstripe is an antagonistic cat.
    • Other: Brokenstar is the Big Bad of the book.
  • Animal:
    • Lion: Lionheart isn't evil, but you would not want to run into him in a fight.
    • Raven: Ravenpaw is one of the rare Non-Action Guys in the series.
    • Tiger: Tigerclaw, the main Big Bad of the series.
  • Body Part:
    • Claw: Again, special mention goes to Tigerclaw, who is a particularly strong warrior.
    • Eye: One-Eye is a grumpy elder and the oldest cat in ThunderClan.
    • Fang: Yellowfang is a grumpy, elderly medicine cat who was a warrior before becoming a medicine cat.
  • Colors:
    • Black: Blackfoot is The Dragon to the evil ShadowClan leader Brokenstar.
    • Yellow: Again, Yellowfang.
    • White: Whitestorm is one of the strongest and most noble warriors in the first series.
    • Blue: Bluestar is the leader of ThunderClan, and a strong warrior.
  • Weapons:
    • Hammer: Tigerclaw was originally to be named Hammerclaw until late drafts, when it was pointed out that cats don't know what hammers are.
• Nervous Wreck: Ravenpaw is a constantly jumpy, nervous cat.
• Never Mess with Granny: Yellowfang is still capable of fighting, even in her weakened state. She even threatens to split open anyone who tries looking after her once she's captured.
• Nice Guy: Graypaw is friendly, enjoys food, and is a bit goofy and clumsy.
• Opposed Mentors: Firepaw has a split mentorship for two moons between Lionheart and Tigerstar, and due to their different personalities, they calmly argue from time to time. He gets Bluestar as his permanent mentor later.
• Panthera Awesome: The cats' mythology says that they're descended from a LionClan, TigerClan, and LeopardClan, and they have folk tales about these Clans (which per the authors are just stories - the big-cat Clans did not actually exist).
• Patricide: Brokenstar killed his father in order to become leader - as deputy, he was Raggedstar's successor.
• A Pet into the Wild: The book is entirely about a house cat leaving his home to join a Clan of forest cats in the wild.
• Pets Versus Strays: Many Clan cats dislike pet cats and even those that don't tend to look down upon the lifestyle as "soft". In turn, most kittypets fear Clan cats as vicious and wild, though a few look down upon them.
• Playing Possum: One of Firepaw's favorite moves. When in an enemy's grasp, he goes limp, making the enemy think he or she has won. Then when they're least suspecting it, he strikes!
• Plot-Triggering Death: In Into the Wild, Redtail and Oakheart, the deputies of ThunderClan and RiverClan respectively, are killed in a very early battle. Fireheart, main character of the first arc, spends the next few books trying to prove that the celebrated ThunderClan warrior Tigerclaw actually murdered Redtail, while uncovering Oakheart's dark secrets and connections to the other Clans.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Graystripe's main purpose for being around in this book is to lighten the mood. However, his role greatly increases in later books.
• Position of Literal Power: When a cat becomes leader of their Clan, they get nine lives from StarClan.
• Pregnant Badass: Brindleface is noted as being very close to having her kits, but still fighting as hard as she can to defend the Clan when their camp is attacked.
• The Prophecy: This book and the rest of the first arc have Fire alone can save our Clan, referring to the main character and his, uh, potential to save his Clan.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Bluestar almost always made the best decision, including asking Firepaw to track down Yellowfang before Tigerclaw would do so and execute her, on the chance that Yellowfang was innocent.
• Really 17 Years Old: Lionheart asks a ShadowClan apprentice how old he is because he seems unusually small. The apprentice claims that he's six moons and that his mother is small too, but as it turns out he's actually only three moons, only half the age he's supposed to be to start training as a warrior. With the murderous Brokenstar as ShadowClan's leader, it's no wonder that he would be afraid of revealing that his leader was breaking the warrior code.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Polish illustrated edition depicts the rats with red eyes.
• Renowned Selective Mentor: It is considered to be a huge honor to be mentored by the Clan leader, so everyone is surprised when Bluestar decides to take on Firepaw as her own apprentice.
• Running Gag: Almost every time Runningnose is mentioned, one of the main characters will remark that he can't be that great of a medicine cat since he can't even cure his own cold.
• Sadist Teacher: Tigerclaw ruthlessly bullies his apprentice Ravenpaw, including poking him with a claw and telling him to get up while Ravenpaw is unconscious in the medicine den after battle.
• Scratchy-Voiced Senior: Dappletail is mentioned to have a voice cracked with age.
• Sensing You Are Outmatched: In the prologue, Redtail orders the ThunderClan patrol to retreat from the battle at Sunningrocks when he realizes that there are just too many RiverClan warriors and that his cats are losing.
• Short-Lived Leadership: Though not technically a leader, Lionheart had the shortest time as deputy, being promoted after Redtail died and then being killed off in a battle just a few moons later during the same book.
• Signature Move: Firepaw's favourite move is his Playing Possum skill.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Tigerclaw is this to Ravenpaw. Bluestar gave Ravenpaw to Tigerclaw thinking that Tigerclaw would teach the timid young cat to be brave. Turns out that Tigerclaw doesn't care much for an apprentice that doesn't share his bloodthirsty attitude. He's especially hard on him to begin with, and after Ravenpaw saw Tigerclaw commit murder, Tigerclaw tried to have him killed by giving him deliberately difficult tasks, such as hunting at Snakerocks (named for the poisonous snakes that live there; cats avoid it during warm weather), and hunting in enemy territory.
• Small Town Boredom: The reason Rusty decides to stop being a kittypet and become a warrior. He's bored with his kittypet life.
• Sneaky Departure: Yellowfang sneaks away from ThunderClan camp to chase after Clawface, who she deduces has stolen ThunderClan kits. Firepaw, Ravenpaw, and Graypaw sneak away to chase after her, and to fake Ravenpaw's death.
• Snipe Hunt: Graypaw hopes that Sandpaw and Dustpaw will be sent on one, commenting that he hopes their mentors will set them the task of hunting blue squirrels all day. Firepaw doesn't get the joke, confused because there are no blue squirrels.
• The Spartan Way: ShadowClan's training while Brokenstar is the leader - even kits are forced to train in the brutal battle training.
• Spring Is Late: A plot point in Into the Wild is that spring is late and ThunderClan needs more warriors now, causing its leader Bluestar to take in a kittypet.
• Stars Are Souls: When a Clan cat dies they go to StarClan. They are said to live in Silverpelt (the Milky Way).
• The Starscream: Brokenstar served as this to Raggedstar and pulled it off successfully.
• Starter Villain: Brokenstar is this for the series.
• Start to Corpse: The series' first death takes place early on, on page 33 of the first book.
• Strike Me Down: Yellowfang tries to convince the main character to kill her, because she is shamed by being defeated (and, as we see in her Super Edition, feels she doesn't have much to live for at this point.)
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Brokenstar's kit-warriors are completely ineffective in battle, and such a blatant violation of the Code makes every Clan in the forest (including his own) hate him. Brokenstar is quickly overthrown (partly because of these idiotic tactics) to make way for a more pragmatic villain.
• Swarm of Rats: Bluestar loses one of her lives to a horde of rats on the way back from Highstones.
• Symbolically Broken Object: Upon first joining ThunderClan, Rusty's collar breaks in a fight against Longtail, who had been loudly taunting him about his origins. This is taken as an omen that their ancestors, StarClan, approve of him joining the Clan, and represents that he's left his old life behind.
• Team Shot: The illustrated edition from Belgium does this on the cover◊: the featured cats include the protagonist Firepaw and his best friends, the villain (looking menacingly down on everyone else) and his Dragon, several significant ThunderClan cats (including love interest Spottedleaf who's looking at Firepaw and smiling), and a friendly loner.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: During Brokenstar's time as leader of ShadowClan, his warriors spent all their energy battling rather than hunting, so cats resorted to eating the rotting crowfood left in the Carrionplace.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Brokenstar, who murdered his father Raggedstar to be ShadowClan's leader, and that's where things go downhill for the Clan really fast. He banishes all the elders from the safety of the camp, forces kits to become apprentices at three moons instead of six (and makes them warriors at five moons instead of twelve), and makes his Clan eat rotten food instead of fresh meat to focus on battles. He even lets Brightflower's kits die and shifts the blame onto Yellowfang, banishing her from the Clan. But a lot of ShadowClan cats get so sick of Brokenstar that they team up with a ThunderClan patrol to drive him out.
• Unfriendly Fire: After a border fight, Tigerclaw kills the Clan deputy, Redtail, hoping he'll be made deputy himself. He places the blame for Redtail's death on Oakheart, whom Redtail had been fighting against and who had been killed in the battle so he wouldn't be around to deny it. Too bad Ravenpaw had been hiding in the bushes and saw it happen...
• Uriah Gambit: Tigerclaw sets his apprentice Ravenpaw (who had witnessed him killing the Clan deputy) dangerous hunting tasks: first at Snakerocks (normally avoided by the cats in summer due to poisonous adders - but Ravenpaw actually killed an adder!), and then in ShadowClan territory.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Tigerclaw. Ravenpaw is the only character who knows that he is treacherous.
• Would Hurt a Child: Brokenstar trained kits at too young an age, and even fought them himself, killing them.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Brokenstar was the rightful leader of ShadowClan, but he was a completely malicious monster, who attempted to destroy the other Clans and killed kits. He eventually had to be driven out and replaced with Nightpelt, an elder.
• You Dirty Rat!: Some rats attack the ThunderClan cats as they return from Highstones.
• You Got Guts: After Yellowfang insults Firepaw's kittypet blood, Firepaw snaps at her and says that she just finds being helped humiliating, and calls her a spiteful old bone bag. Yellowfang chokes a bit, worrying Firepaw... but she was actually laughing, and said she liked his bravery. Firepaw had no reply.

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