The Warrior Code: Discuss

[cloudbat]

Also, I hate the specific rules in the warrior code. It completely defeats the purpose of the code in the first place. It's not a set of laws that you can find loopholes in. It's a way of life.

Spoken by vbfdoee months ago, and I finally remembered to make a thread about it.

I think it's both; a set of laws that dictate a way of life.

Originally, the guidebooks stated that the first four leaders worked together to make the code. This was later ignored and the code was shown to be developed one rule at a time by decisions spanning generations. To date, the last rule of the warrior code was agreed on when Pinestar of ThunderClan resigned from leadership and left his Clan to live with humans.

This resulted in the rule banning anyone else from doing that.

I like the code quite a bit. It's fair and strict, but allows for kindness and mercy. Of course, it's all but ignored in the later series and has barely a shadow of the power it used to, which annoys me. However, Hollyleaf annoys me too with her fanatic zealotry (why is she like that again? It just sort of happens.)

Yet despite my own dislike of her, I find her character traits a good deal more interesting than many in the books and we wish we saw more cats' personal opinions on the rules of the code and why.

[celestialsquared]

In the later books it seems characters either vaguely follow the code or not at all. In that aspect, it becomes more of a way of life instead of actual laws. This is enforced by the fact that little punishment is given out for cats who break the code. Sure they may lose a little respect and/or have to clean out a den or two, but it's not like they're going to be banished or anything.

So for me, the code is like a guidebook to a way of life, not absolute law.

[cloudbat]

A guidebook, yes, and sometimes breaking it is the right/practical thing to do, but I think parts of it should be stricter. Not necessarily with harsher punishment, but just more firmly taught that you follow them for good reason. It should also be more fully explained - there are unspoken rules touched on in the books that aren't actually part of the official code. I find them fascinating but they're never gone into in much depth, something typical of the Erins. We never really see apprentices taught about all the facets of the code and what they should do in x situation. Sigh.