User:Kitsufox/essays/death of the warriors code

This article was originally written following the end of the New Prophecy, but prior to the release of any of the books in the Power of Three. It has not been reworked to include consulsions or suggestions that might have changed following the release of the newest books, and I (Kitsu does not intend to make changes to reflect new books, except a possible addition to the end, or a followup essay.

Death of the Warriors Code

 * Just over a year ago I first picked up a book with a red cat on the cover. I was instantly entranced by the world held within and the society the cats were a part of. The story, however, lived up to that world.


 * Time has progressed and it has started to change that world I love so much. These changes don’t feel natural to me, as if an author is arbitrarily altering the core truths and morals of the world to suit the soap opera they wish to write about. This soap opera is ill-suited to the cats’ world, requiring that cats shed the morals they were raised to believe without a second thought and unraveling the carefully woven sense of realism the world once had.


 * I think the books we are reading now, the New Prophecy, are chronicling nothing less than the death throws of the Warrior’s Code. StarClan, and belief in it, appears to have lost it’s value. The days of great warriors were well behind the forest before Rusty had set his paws on ThunderClan soil.


 * I shall begin my exploration of the Death of the Warrior’s Code as the first book did: with Bluestar. Though she shows great nobility in her willingness to sacrifice her family for the good of her clan, she gives them to another Clan. This irresponsible choice put two new potential warriors (who should have been raised to fight for ThunderClan) into the paws of RiverClan. Couple that act against the good of her clan with a mating to a tom from the wrong side of the River and you have proof that you are looking at a she-cat unworthy of her nine lives. StarClan was given verification of this un-worth when her mental stability was shattered and she was consumed by her own self-doubt and fear. A leader must be the pillar that holds a clan high, but Bluestar served as little more than an anchor to drag them down. Only a moment of desperate clarity in the last moments of her life secured her place in StarClan and the continued existence of ThunderClan.


 * From Bluestar, a cat without the mental fortitude to withstand failure and betrayal, we must turn out eyes to her successor: Firestar.


 * The very presence of Firestar speaks volumes about the state of the code. I feel there is only one reason that StarClan would go beyond the clans to find a savior would be to find a cat from whom flagrant disobedience to the code would be unacceptable, even to those who break the code almost religiously. It is, thus, unfortunate the Rusty was the cat selected. Time and time again, despite the best effects for Bluestar to steer him towards the path of true obedience to the Warrior’s Code (the moral compass of the Cat’s lives), he acts in ways that directly disobey it. He also has little will to bend to the authority of any other, choosing to disregard those rules and instructions that fail to suit him. Though a warrior at heart, the indulgences of his Kittypet youth cannot help but shine through.


 * Continuing to consider Firestar, we must put careful thought into the results of a rule bending, code breaking, order disobeying cat attaining the leadership of a Clan. Not only does every cat in a Clan look up to the leader, but the young enjoy imagining they are him. Consider the precedent, and the example, this sets for the cats of the next generations.


 * With a leader who fails to set the example as an exemplary cat of the Code, we must begin to consider the younger generation and the ways that they provide further evidence for the death of the Code.


 * Thus, we come to the heretic of ThunderClan, the cat who has never once been told to shut his sacrilegious trap by his uncle. Cloudtail, for all his loyalty to ThunderClan, is a failure to the code at its very deepest level. The code is StarClan’s will, and belief in them is intrinsic to truly upholding it. Cloudtail is an example of the future the Clan Cats are heading towards: The Code without StarClan.


 * Moving from one extreme to another, consideration of the sordid path walked by Leafpool must begin.


 * Not only did she fail in her loyalties to the Warrior’s Code and in her own birth Clan, but in the loyalty to StarClan and her oaths as a Medicine Cat. Most telling is that she has done all of this without retribution on any level. Not only that, but it seems that StarClan intends her for great things. StarClan themselves seem to have unquestioningly placed all the faith they possess in a cat who has already turned her back on her path once, while choosing to ignore Medicine Cats better placed for the tasks they put to Leafpool.


 * The final cat we have to consider is Mothwing. While the omen that verified her as a Medicine Cat was false, it is her own shortcomings that have put her into the liar’s situation she rests in. StarClan is not innocent of all responsibility here, for they who know the hearts of their earthly charges certainly could have provided better guidance to the Medicine Cat who trained Mothwing. Now StarClan’s own failure leaves RiverClan precariously perched with only an untrained apprentice to handle the Clan’s spiritual well being. Pebblekit and Heavystep have already died for this failure, who will be the next?


 * Following the conclusion of Sunset I wonder at the fate of the code and the society I love so much. Will it be able to survive the author’s seeming desire to destroy and re-design it? With Medicine Cats who fail their callings completely, warriors who openly defy StarClan, and leaders who pick and choose what to obey, it becomes clear that the way of the Warriors Code is dying.


 * In light of a noble traitor, a kittypet savior, a loyal heretic, a traitor priestess, and a false holy-cat can the code be saved? Can generations of decline be reversed? Can StarClan regain the sensibilities they once had and permit the Clan’s the autonomy they are entitled, free from constant interference from the cats of ThunderClan?


 * Only the Power of Three will answer these questions, but the Summary released suggests that the authors are aware the Code is dying: “The code is in danger of being washed away by a river of blood”. This implies that the death of the code is known to the authors, and perhaps they have realized the path the Clans are walking and want as badly as me for the forest’s ways to continue on.


 * I can only hope…