Battles in the First Arc

[Lady Ten]

(Into the Wild) ThunderClan vs. RiverClan: RC wins
ThunderClan vs. ShadowClan: TC wins

(Fire and Ice) ThunderClan vs. RiverClan (skirmish): TC wins
ThunderClan vs. ex-SC rogues: TC wins
ThunderClan and WindClan vs. ShadowClan and RiverClan: TC and WC win

(Forest of Secrets) ThunderClan and RiverClan vs. WindClan and ShadowClan: TC and RC win
ThunderClan vs. some rogues: TC wins

(Rising Storm) ThunderClan and RiverClan vs. some rogues: TC wins

(A Dangerous Path)
ThunderClan vs. the dogs: TC wins

(The Darkest Hour)
TigerClan vs. WindClan: TigerClan wins
LionClan vs. BloodClan: LionClan (including ThunderClan) wins

hmmmm.

[vbfdoee]

Authors are unwilling to let their darlings lose (especially in children's lit, which has more simplistic conflicts)

[mistytail]

Yeah, especially when you consider each book in the first series had its own individual conflict that needed to be resolved, unlike the later series where the conflicts kind of drizzled incoherently through each book.

[celestialsquared]

ThunderClan is the protagonist clan and good guys always win. Sure, some characters are lost in the process, but they're usually unimportant characters whose only purpose was to contribute to the plot.

[Grey]

but they're usually unimportant characters whose only purpose was to contribute to the plot

The alternative being "the Moonflower", a character of significance to the actual protagonist who is killed for protagonist-oriented sympathy ("oh, they have had such a hard life", courtesy of Crookedstar, I believe) or for the purpose of protagonist-oriented "character development" (as seen, questionably, with Bluestar).

The interesting thing with Warriors is that no death is really unwarranted. To be fair, there are some whose deaths are particularly untimely, or solely to allow for the existence of another character, but I don't think there has ever been a character killed "just because"? I don't think Warriors is as hard-hitting as Harry Potter is on this topic, but that is to be expected considering the audience.

The thing I liked was that anyone could die. That was pretty unusual for a children's series, and it remains to be something I like about these series as a whole. Every battle could be someone's last.

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnyoneCanDie

This is one of my favourite tropes in the world, and I think that - to begin with, at least - Warriors did a good job of it. Could be better, but then again, I am a ghoul, ehehe.

[celestialsquared]

The alternative being "the Moonflower", a character of significance to the actual protagonist who is killed for protagonist-oriented sympathy ("oh, they have had such a hard life", courtesy of Crookedstar, I believe) or for the purpose of protagonist-oriented "character development" (as seen, questionably, with Bluestar).

Brindleface from the first arc comes to mind here. It seems most of the characters who dies from fights were killed unfairly and gave the protagonist cause to avenge their deaths.

And then there's Rosetail who was killed in a raid and there was minimal anguish about it.

The thing I liked was that anyone could die. That was pretty unusual for a children's series, and it remains to be something I like about these series as a whole. Every battle could be someone's last.

That's definitely true during the final battles (i.e. the BloodClan battle). I don't think anyone expected Tigerstar or Whitestorm to die. Sickness and starvation is another example and I love that Warriors stuck with the realistic approach that kits and elders would be affected the most. The death of basically infants is pretty heavy for a children's book.

[Lady Ten]

Women in Refrigerators, anyone?

So looking at these stats, it makes me wonder how, with TC's winning streak, the narrative was still effective in creating tension for me as a young reader. In contrast to Anyone Can Die (a good trope), which creates suspense about who will die because it's difficult to pin down any characters who might be safe, from the outside it looks like there's never any danger of ThunderClan losing. And, perhaps, once you realize that, it kills the tension. But in the middle of reading the first arc for the first time, how is it that the narration can convince readers to believe there will be uncertainty as to the outcome?

No real answer in mind here, just pondering. Erin should've let the ThunderClanners experience a little more even-handed loss, in order to preemptively dispel any notion of TC being boring-invincible, but even so, what was it about her writing that succeeded this way, for some fans?

Also, might be interesting to compare these stats with those from other arcs. I've heard rumors that the other books don't have as many fights and battles. Would that be accurate?