I have a crazy theory.

[Cobalt]

It explains several things we've noted as odd in the Warriors series, no matter how unintentional it may be is. I don't know how much sense it actually makes in the context of the final two arcs, though, as I've only heard some about those from discussion. Nine-tenths of this is random crap from my brain, anyway, and I'm probably really rambly because I just took my sleeping pill.


The Clans are on their decline.

About from the beginning of the earliest books in the timeline excluding Dawn of the Clans, I'd say, likely even well before that. All through four arcs we see a steady decline in tradition, noted in the ridiculousness of the names and general neglect of the importance of the Warrior Code. The Clans are based on tradition, and without it they wouldn't be Clans, they'd be...something else.

Note also at the beginning of Into the Wild, the mention of how low populations are. Low enough that Bluestar is willing to take in Rusty, and I'd think you'd need a decent couple reasons other than "A PROPHECY". This is what she tells the Clan, anyway, and at least some of them are willing to beleive it, because it is abnormal to have so few cats in ThunderClan. This is a stretch, but the elders then may well have heard stories from the elders when they were young and heard of how much bigger the Clan used to be when those elders were young. Horrible phrasing, yeah, but I guess the point is there to some degree?


And the cats who grow up with a messed up system go into StarClan...

And StarClan's getting screwed up too. We've heard a bit from StarClan, but do you have any idea how they actually operate? Seemingly random reincarnations, arbitrary decisions on who goes to the Dark Forest, and c'mon, the Dark Forest cats can contact the living? They're getting sloppy. I've got no guess as to what the original system was like, but here's a random idea:

The border between StarClan and the Dark Forest was never an invisible wall thing. They have to guard it physically, and StarClan gets control of the power, which they have to constantly protect from the Dark Forest cats to be sure the whole everything doesn't collapse. As more cats with no understanding of tradition and rules enter StarClan, they get a bit sloppy. Cats can slip through occasionally and claim they've been in StarClan all along. Somebody puts a last-hope spy system into place to keep an eye on the Dark Forest cats. Now weirdly out-of-place cats are explained, as well as how the 'bad guys' seem to have way more power than they should.


And I'm exhausted and done blabbling. 'Night.