Daylight Warriors

[celestialsquared]

During my attempt to read SkyClan's Destiny, I quickly realized that the book was going to be about Leafstar's attempt to implement a new kind of warrior.

Daylight-warriors are kittypets that have warrior duties in the day and go back to their homes at night. The book perfectly shows what the problem with these kinds of warriors would have; they had to be home at a certain time, sometimes their owners would shut them in, and they got little respect from their full-time clan mates.

What do you guys think? Was Leafstar right to enforce daylight-warriors as a permanent thing? I thought this whole process ruined the point of having a clan at all and made it obvious that Leafstar didn't understand what a clan was about. How is this different from a group of house cats being in a friendly alliance with each other?

[vbfdoee]

Can kittypets really be warriors at heart, in terms of actually caring what happens to SkyClan? I get the feeling that it's more like a game for the daylight warriors than an actual way of life.

[celestialsquared]

That's a concern many of the full-time warriors had throughout the book. It also seemed that whenever hard work was required, some of the daylight warriors would say "man, I would love to help, but I should be getting home now." I then couldn't stand reading anymore because Leafstar was so determined to make this work when it ruined the very concept of being a warrior.

There's also the loner version of daylight warriors, "visitors". These cats would stay in the clan any period of time and learn some skills from the clan, the ultimate goal being to gain some new members. Of course, whenever StarClan was spoken of, the loners would look at the clan cats like they were complete idiots.

[cloudbat]

The concept of daylight warriors is so many levels of stupid I would flip a table if it wouldn't ruin the table.

1. It completely craps on the code.
2. It's inefficient and wastes resources, time and energy.
3. It DESTROYS Clan morale and unity.
4. It completely craps on the code.
5. As Celestial said, it ruins the pride and sense of duty that's the core of being a warrior.
6. It's being utterly stupid.
7. DID I MENTION IT CRAPS ON THE CODE

[Cobalt]

Oh. That's why Firestar's Quest bugged me so much. I don't believe Firestar and Sandstorm ever actually went through the code with the SkyClanners. I have no recollection of it at all. From what I remember, it was more like "Okay, we have a medicine cat, a leader, a deputy, they're cool with StarClan, we killed the creepy rats...nope, definitely not forgetting anything intrinsically important to the forming of a Clan. Bye, guys!" Correct me if I'm wrong, of course, which is pretty likely.

But yeah. Everything crapped on the code because they had no freaking idea about it.

[celestialsquared]

I can't even consider them a legitimate clan. They're more like a tribe than anything. Leafstar makes things up as she goes along and she felt her clan of twenty or so cats needed more members, even though that's pretty much the standard size for a clan. By the end of the book nearly half of the kittypets in the area are daylight warriors.

[Grey]

By the end of the book nearly half of the kittypets in the area are daylight warriors.

This could be legitimately amazing. Like most things in the Warriors series, it's not the change that bothers me. It's the inability to reasonably consider the results of said change, and Erin Hunter's unwillingness to reach any kind of potential.

Imagine that a cat with vague knowledge of clan culture did recruit the local cats as daylight warriors, but rather than throwing culture and tradition out the window, they created a new one. Skyclan got halfway there, I think, but it was just laughable how badly it was done. Harveymoon, for example.

I don't mind the warrior code changing, even being hacked to bits and put together like kindergarten craft. I just want it to be interesting and realistic, and to be honest, I don't think Skyclan meets that criteria.

I then couldn't stand reading anymore because Leafstar was so determined to make this work when it ruined the very concept of being a warrior.

This could actually make for neat reading, though. I'm trying to think on how I'd write it, if it were my story.

I've always believed that cultures are moulded from the environment and necessity, and so, let's say that one of the fundamental differences between the four clans and Skyclan is that Skyclan cats are still able to lead comfortable lives by being fed by humans, etcetera. That actually makes logical sense, when you think about it. More cats are going to survive harsher times, and there were definitely points when - though I could understand the principle - the reality of the four clans' rejection of outsider assistance seemed pretty self-destructive. How many more cats would survive wintersif warriors ate from the bowls on human doorsteps and brought prey home to share?

What of the population growth of Skyclan too? Would queens be allowed to keep their kits, or would humans give them away to other homes? What happens when a vast majority of the local toms are neutered and have very different temperaments from the average clan tom? There's a lot of questions that could be engagingly answered, but Erin Hunter took cheap street instead.

Ghost, they annoy me.

[celestialsquared]

Jan 31, 2013 6:22:36 GMT -6 Grey said:

What of the population growth of Skyclan too? Would queens be allowed to keep their kits, or would humans give them away to other homes? What happens when a vast majority of the local toms are neutered and have very different temperaments from the average clan tom? There's a lot of questions that could be engagingly answered, but Erin Hunter took cheap street instead.

Whoa, never even thought about that.

Also, I was wondering what on earth humans would think if they look outside their window one night and see twenty or so cats walking down the street together. (there was a little comic at the end of the book where the cats did exactly this.) I doubt this whole operation would go down without somebody noticing what was happening.

If authorities were called, would they get captured and neutered or what?

[Grey]

humans would think if they look outside their window one night and see twenty or so cats walking down the street together.

For those who are familiar with Studio Ghibli, this made me think irreversibly of The Cat Returns. (On a side-note, I have always thought a Warriors film could be amazing if it were done in the iconic Studio Ghibli style, both art and story-telling wise).

As for what would happen to these cats, I don't know. Too many cats in an urban area is a problem (too many cats anywhere is a problem, really) so I would think that it would need to be dealt with by authorities, but I'm not certain how. In some rural areas, traps are set to catch feral cats, because they usually are a threat to local wildlife. I have no idea what happens in residential areas, though.