[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.