Times the Erins Messed Up

[FadingEchoes]

Oh the various mistakes.
Mosskit's gender gets messed up so much I don't know what to believe anymore

Firestar, Graystripe, Sandstorm and many others are referred by their paw names.

Yellowfang is described as being pale gray with bright orange eyes, she was also called a tom.

Spottedleaf and Firepaw are in love despite them knowing each other for like two seconds. Firepaw is evidently so in love with this cat he doesn't know, he never stops dreaming of her(Creepy) and she has to die again so he won't be unfaithful to Sandstorm.

Thistleclaw is in the Dark Forest despite never actually doing anything wrong, in fact he was a very loyal warrior and was probably a good father with the way Whitestorm turned out.

Spottedleaf is described as "young and pretty, while Darkstripe is neither young nor pretty" however, she is older than Darkstripe.

Grewpaw
Mistystar and Stonefur were described as Graystripe's kits(Although they did fix it later on.)

Stormfur is a prey-hunter in Sign of the Moon and a cave-guard in Dawn.

The writing and character development is honestly really bad and makes me wish I was young so I wouldn't notice it like I do now.

Sandstorm is described as golden, russet-furred, and depicted as solid with a pale muzzle in mangas.

In The Last Hope, it is noted that Spiderleg has known Mousefur and Purdy longer than any cat in ThunderClan. However, at the time, there are many cats still living in ThunderClan that have known Mousefur much longer, such as Firestar, and Bramblestar and Squirrelflight have known Purdy longer than any cat in the Clan.

In Leafpool's Wish, Hazelkit leaps for Spiderleg's tail when he is putting a piece of fresh-kill on the pile, and Daisy says, 'Don't disturb your father!' This is incorrect because Hazelkit's father is Smoky, not Spiderleg. I mean maybe we can say he was like a surrogate father but still.

Brightheart has been mistakenly mentioned as white with tortoiseshell patches instead of white with ginger patches, depicted as flecked instead of patched, described with white patches of fur, mistakenly mentioned as a plain tortoiseshell and a solid-colored cat.

Frostfur was mistakenly called a tom, even though she spent like half of the time as a queen.

Brackenfur's description is often mixed up. Over the timespan of his appearance in the series, he has been called ginger, pale ginger dark ginger, light brown, and russet colored. In addition to those mistakes, he has also been depicted with a white muzzle and paws. He has also been mentioned with green eyes.


The list goes on and on feel free to add to it.
At times like this I want to read Starkit's Prophecy to feel better about the Erins' writing.

[Fireflower]

Oh the various mistakes.
Mosskit's gender gets messed up so much I don't know what to believe anymore
Firestar, Graystripe, Sandstorm and many others are referred by their paw names.
Yellowfang is described as being pale gray with bright orange eyes, she was also called a tom.
Spottedleaf and Firepaw are in love despite them knowing each other for like two seconds. Firepaw is evidently so in love with this cat he doesn't know, he never stops dreaming of her(Creepy) and she has to die again so he won't be unfaithful to Sandstorm.
Thistleclaw is in the Dark Forest despite never actually doing anything wrong, in fact he was a very loyal warrior and was probably a good father with the way Whitestorm turned out.
Spottedleaf is described as "young and pretty, while Darkstripe is neither young nor pretty" however, she is older than Darkstripe.
Grewpaw
Mistystar and Stonefur were described as Graystripe's kits(Although they did fix it later on.)
Stormfur is a prey-hunter in Sign of the Moon and a cave-guard in Dawn
The writing and character development is honestly really bad and makes me wish I was young so I wouldn't notice it like I do now.
Sandstorm is described as golden, russet-furred, and depicted as solid with a pale muzzle in mangas.
In The Last Hope, it is noted that Spiderleg has known Mousefur and Purdy longer than any cat in ThunderClan. However, at the time, there are many cats still living in ThunderClan that have known Mousefur much longer, such as Firestar, and Bramblestar and Squirrelflight have known Purdy longer than any cat in the Clan.
In Leafpool's Wish, Hazelkit leaps for Spiderleg's tail when he is putting a piece of fresh-kill on the pile, and Daisy says, 'Don't disturb your father!' This is incorrect because Hazelkit's father is Smoky, not Spiderleg. I mean maybe we can say he was like a surrogate father but still.
Brightheart has been mistakenly mentioned as white with tortoiseshell patches instead of white with ginger patches, depicted as flecked instead of patched, described with white patches of fur, mistakenly mentioned as a plain tortoiseshell and a solid-colored cat.
Frostfur was mistakenly called a tom, even though she spent like half of the time as a queen.
Brackenfur's description is often mixed up. Over the timespan of his appearance in the series, he has been called ginger, pale ginger dark ginger, light brown, and russet colored. In addition to those mistakes, he has also been depicted with a white muzzle and paws. He has also been mentioned with green eyes.


The list goes on and on feel free to add to it.
At times like this I want to read Starkit's Prophecy to feel better about the Erins' writing.
i find your noteis to the mess up intreging and strange

[FadingEchoes]

i find your noteis to the mess up intreging and strange
Is that more intelligible? I edited it a bit.

[Fawn]

while we're on the subject, here's a few major flaws of the erins:

- severe inability to give any character a personality other than what is demanded of said character in that moment.
best case: i imagine they're trying to make them more relatable by keeping the character open to interpretation, or perhaps they have too many characters to worry about (but that's not an excuse.)
worst case: they genuinely have no idea how to keep characters interesting and consistent, or flesh them out.

they also don't know how to write a realistic villain. it could be a product of their 11-14y/o target demographic (who presumably "can't handle moral dilemmas" / don’t have the capacity to consider moral issues), but i think their audience deserves better than a clear-cut, this-is-a-bad-guy sort of thing. that's cheap black and white writing that speaks down to their audience.


- favoritism. not sure there's a lot to say about this one since it speaks for itself. ever notice how fan favorites and previous main characters (along with their kin) generally get high ranks or "special" things, such as plots, reincarnations/possessions, and powers or relationships (family/mates) with the important cats?

i don't fault the erins completely for this because i think i understand why they're doing it, though it still rubs me the wrong way. this is just speculation, but i believe they need to give these characters the "special" things because the series would lose its fanbase if they dared to branch out. the fans are cheering for certain cats and if nothing cool happens to them, interest in reading the books quickly dissipates.

so.. in short, it's a marketing tactic. but it's still unfortunate if that's what's going on since it implies they can't sell books without having fan-favorite characters be the protagonists.


- their pandering. ugh, it's disgusting. this goes along with the other issues but is still deserving of its own category since it's gotten to be such an annoyance and extremely obvious. these books have been going on a long time and if the books past the first or second series are any indication, they've run out of ideas that are in line with their original concept (and are now using supernatural things as crutches, more on that later.) ending the series would potentially upset any fans who are hanging on but is arguably the best course of action when all they're doing is producing more books which either include downright ridiculous plotlines or recycled ones merely to keep the series alive longer - i.e. rake in the most money they can.

i don't have any concrete proof of this, but it's not a bad guess when the direction of the books is all over the place. this suggests they don't have ideas or motivation and are trying to squeeze the most money possible out of their audience before bringing it to an inevitable close.


- lack of experience with romance writing. this used to get passed over when i'd review the warriors books because they are action/adventure novels, not romance novels. however, the erins have included so much romance and drama (particularly in the newer series) that i can't ignore the issues anymore.

as you mentioned with fire/spotted, they don't give relationships a chance to foster and instead cut directly to "yay we like each other now we're mates!" the characters they throw together have no chemistry, but that could be a problem that circles back to my first point - not giving your cast living personalities.

the erins seem to want fans to care about this romance between characters that means nothing to anybody since they skipped the climbing action stage and jumped straight to the climax - being mates.

leafpool and crowfeather? i don't mind if you ship them, but the relationship itself made no sense and didn't have buildup. all of the warrior canon couples just give the impression that the erins were storyboarding and thought 'hm we need more pairings, these two aren't related' and bam- mates. or in the crow/leaf situation, they probably used a randomizer because they wanted a cross clan relationship.


- using the supernatural, powers, reincarnations/possessions, and prophecies as a crutch for actual plotting. this is probably my biggest complaint because i don't like how they steered away from the first concept (think about the older special editions and the first series.) beyond that, they began using starclan, prophecies, the dark forest, and powers as a substitute for having a plot - in fact, sometimes it was their ONLY plot. the power of three was completely centered around powers. clan problems were sprinkled in, but the erins relied so heavily on the power plot that it was the basis of the series ... i know that might be some folks' cup of tea, but i greatly preferred when supernatural things were well.. uncommon, and they were reserved for rare occasions when absolutely necessary. i think the intrusion of these elements distracts from what the books are supposed to be about, which is cats fighting for survival against a hostile world/each other.

- - - -

i'm not trying to pick apart their writing. i enjoy(ed) the books and think the concept is solid, but the execution has gotten sloppy over the years. whether this is due to a declining fanbase (forcing them to cater to remaining fans) or author burnout, i have no idea. maybe neither.

i feel cynical writing this, so here's some stuff that the erins do right: tell an adventure story, pacing, and they keep their books original.. for better or worse.

[bobtail]

"Dusltpelt" - Dark River

"the plashing of the waterfall" - Outcast

"He gaze travelled" - One of the Prophecies Begin books

"Stormfur" - Bluestar's Prophecy

[FadingEchoes]

Honestly the base idea for the series is great, bu the execution definitely leaves something to be desired. They get so many facts confused I wonder if the Erins communicate at all.

[Phoenix Flames]

I can name one of the mistakes, but I forgot which book it was in. So, at the end of one of the chapters in the second arc in the series, when Firestar and Sandstorm were in Firestar's den, they were talking about Firestar's thoughts about Sandstorm and called Sandstorm a 'he' instead of a 'she'. And, in one of their books, they called Firestar 'Firestorm'.

[BEAR.]

favoritism is a huge issue with the series

see tigerstar 2.0 and dovewing for an example

[Mango]

favoritism is a huge issue with the series

see tigerstar 2.0 and dovewing for an example
Yes Tigerstar 2.0 def...how so Dovewing?

[russet]

FadingEchoes
ravepaw.
just.
ravepaw
ravenpaw is my favorite cat so uh
yes

[meraki]

heck i haven't read the series in 4 years but i remember there was like an entire page that was messed up

sandstorm and greystripe were retiring and greystripe made a speech and said;

" [Greystripe says,] 'I'll never forget Silverstream or Stonefur,' he went on, 'and I can scarcely believe that my daughter Mistystar is now leader of Riverclan...' " page 452

im pretty sure mistystar isn't greystripe's daughter

[Hopekit]

heck i haven't read the series in 4 years but i remember there was like an entire page that was messed up

sandstorm and greystripe were retiring and greystripe made a speech and said;

" [Greystripe says,] 'I'll never forget Silverstream or Stonefur,' he went on, 'and I can scarcely believe that my daughter Mistystar is now leader of Riverclan...' " page 452

im pretty sure mistystar isn't greystripe's daughter

I don't think so? I think Mistystar is Bluestar's kitten.
And Stonefur is Mistystar's deceased brother so yeah, he isn't Graystripe's kitten either.

[fresh]

Dovewing and Heathertail have a different eye color for each author. Enough said.

[seasalt]

Don't they mess up almost all the time though?

[Momotaro]

I think they are much better when they have no magic.

Or only Starclan.

Dawn of the clans was one of the best written books because of that.

[Zan Partizanne]

No matter what we just cannot forget RavePaw

Also they revived Heavystep after he died