Clan Culture

[vbfdoee]

One of my favorite aspects of the first series was how much detail and care went into the development of Clan culture: the ceremonies, the lore, the general atmosphere of being mystical but not necessarily magical. Even the little things like sharing tongues and taking apprentices to the Moonstone contributed to the sense of immersion in a different world.

I've seen a lot of people complaining about how, in the later series, the characters seemed to just not care about the warrior code anymore. I think that that's symptomatic of how the Erins just sort of gave up on actually portraying Clan culture and just focused on prophecies! Drama! Forbidden romance! The series lost a lot of potential when that happened

Thoughts? Am I just getting overemotional about fictional cats again? Shouldn't I be writing an English essay instead of a half-fledged rant about worldbuilding?

[Osprey]

I loved the Clan's culture a lot, when I first read Warriors, I found their culture very fascinating, but now the Erins are focusing what younger people want to read about, finding love, Warriors had so much potential, but then it flushed done the toilet for stupid plots about the Main Character having a forbidden romance with another character.

[mistytail]

I agree so much.

What I loved about reading the Warriors series as a child was looking at their world. I personally think moving the Clans out of the forest was the worst mistake the Erins ever made. By ripping them up out of the land that we had gotten to know and love and putting them somewhere else, we as readers lost a lot of what had made the first series so special to us. I still have no idea how the lake territories are supposed to be laid out, whereas in the first series I felt like I knew the forest by heart.

Moving them out of the land that we had come to know also gave them an excuse to drop the culture we had come to know. Border patrols weren't seen as as important because since there was a giant lake bordering all their territories, they had to protect themselves from just two Clans, not three. It took away the sense of oneness that the forest provided. Wasn't the original tagline for the series "Four Clans. One destiny."? Why did they have to drop that sense of separate-but-one for the sake of moving them for no reason?

And don't get me started on how suddenly we switched from "A queen never has to tell anyone who the father of her kits are because it's nobody else's business" to making romances the central plot device of the whole series. Not only is there a huge element of misogyny to the whole thing, it really shattered the idea of Clans being about duty and honor and more about drama and meaningless, trite BS that not even the Erins care about.

tl;dr The first series had the best setting and setup for Clan culture and it all went to garbage when the second series took them out of the forest.

[leah]

This is why I actually liked Hollypaw/leaf until Erin made her into a complete....

I mean, they ruined one of my favorite characters in the series. She seemed to be the only cat who ever cared about the Warrior Code anymore, and the Erins made her flip the eff out and nearly kill and nearly be killed herself. It's like WTF ERIN

I mean you see this in Dark River when Firestar makes Millie into a Warrior. She wonders why Firestar is being a complete idiot by allowing Millie to keep her name. I mean, she's a freaking APPRENTICE who knows more about the meaning behind the name of a Warrior than her stupid leader. I really did like Hollypaw and her character was just destroyed by Erin's stupidity.

So yes, I am annoyed how the Clans, by moving to the lake, have forgotten about everything their ancestors had set up for them when they made the Clans in the first place. I also hate how Starclan went from mysterious and powerful to useless and stupid. The Clans have lost that unique charm of culture and wonder that made us love the Warriors Series in the first place.

[celestialsquared]

Firestar in general seems to be the main reason why ThunderClan has lost touch with traditional Clan culture even before the big move. Ridiculous names, disregard for the warrior code, and taking in any loser that crosses their path seems to be ThunderClan's new motto.

Like the rest of you, I think moving to the lake territories has ruined the culture but I also think it is the leader's job to uphold these traditions. I really don't think simply moving to a new place to be a good reason for everyone to totally forget what a Clan cat is all about. It's up to the leader and elders to teach these youngsters and it seems that they're doing a horrible job.

Hollyleaf, as much as I hate her, admittedly could have been a good character if it wasn't for the fact that Erin decided to take the "religious fanatic" route. It doesn't help that we now know StarClan on a personal level and have been stripped of the mysterious wisdom they produced earlier in the series. It only makes Hollyleaf's fascination seem incredibly stupid.

[Lady Ten]

oh man oh man. Slightly off the original topic:

You know, I always kind of assumed that cats of each different Clan were of a slightly different nature, or that they had some unique cultural elements of their own, besides their hunting grounds and their prey. But I never really saw that unfold. Some people have talked about how cats from RiverClan are supposed to be one way or the other, but I was expecting there to be a little more like clear-cut attributes like there are in the Hogwarts Houses. Of course, as Grey has stated, they are not Hogwarts Houses; you're born into them, not sorted into them.

With that said, I do still think that being as separate as they are, they would have developed slightly different rituals and habits, just like the different regions of a country. Without there being any real differences between their societies, even on the surface level, it doesn't make sense why they would continue to keep separate and view each other as potential enemies.

[Cobalt]

Ugh oh yes. I agree so, so much with all of this. I loved the whole setup that the first series gave and then I actually ended up quitting once I realized how quickly the second series threw everything away. There were names that meant things! There was this thing called "StarClan" that nobody understood! There were rituals and ceremonies galore and we knew every single one! And then, suddenly, it doesn't matter nearly as much as "oh no this cat loves this cat but he loves this other cat!"

Nov 19, 2012 15:14:56 GMT -6 Lady Ten said:

oh man oh man. Slightly off the original topic:

You know, I always kind of assumed that cats of each different Clan were of a slightly different nature, or that they had some unique cultural elements of their own, besides their hunting grounds and their prey. But I never really saw that unfold. Some people have talked about how cats from RiverClan are supposed to be one way or the other, but I was expecting there to be a little more like clear-cut attributes like there are in the Hogwarts Houses. Of course, as Grey has stated, they are not Hogwarts Houses; you're born into them, not sorted into them.

With that said, I do still think that being as separate as they are, they would have developed slightly different rituals and habits, just like the different regions of a country. Without there being any real differences between their societies, even on the surface level, it doesn't make sense why they would continue to keep separate and view each other as potential enemies.

I've had this thing I've wanted to write for awhile, which basically puts the Clans so far in the future that they have grown into completely different religions and cultural variations, though they still all follow the same structure. I even made a new naming system where each Clan had different suffixes because they meant different things to each Clan. I have a ridiculous amount of stuff written up on it, but I haven't gotten to actually writing the story.