the musical). Like the three Graystripe comics,  these were made as three pieces of the same story,  

released months apart from each other. It's  um…well I don't see many people talking about  

them in general, unless it's to make a joke about  the art. Still, we know so little about Sasha's  

relationship with Tigerstar, and honestly  even their kits, Mothwing and Hawkfrost,  

weren't given much backstory or exploration in  the arc they featured in, so this could be an  

interesting opportunity to dig into those  important characters. We'll see what they  

did with it. Oh and before we get in too far,  here's the page I'm redrawing for this episode.

Into the Woods was released on September 2nd of  2008, 3 months after Cats of the Clans and The  

Rise of Scourge, 2 to 3 months before Long  Shadows, and the same day as Eclipse. Now,  

putting aside the main series for a moment, 3  months since the last manga is an incredibly  

short timeframe for a fully illustrated comic  book, which explains part of why this entry is,  

yet again, illustrated by a complete newcomer to  the series: Don Hudson (even though it is still  

written by Dan Jolley). Let me be clear up front  that he is a talented illustrator and is still  

doing art today, colored and not, and often as a  part of comics. He has his own blog if you would  

like to look up what he is doing these days,  but a key factor you'll find easily enough is  

that he mainly just draws people or humanoids and  more modern environments like buildings, ships,  

and planes. Drawing an entire three part manga set  in the wild with only cats as the main characters  

would seem like an odd assignment to give this  particular artist, then, and you would be correct  

to think so. There is a fair amount of art in here  with inaccurate proportions or odd expressions and  

the cats in general aren't especially diverse or  interesting to look at, with several of them being  

difficult to tell apart. Many screenshots from  this and future Tigerstar and Sasha entries have  

circulated the internet as memes or examples of  comedy, which I won't be engaging in today, but  

which I also entirely understand the cause of. The  art in this manga series is not especially good,  

primarily because the artist was out of his depth.  I can't say why he was chosen to illustrate for  

Warriors, but it's what we have, and it's what  I'll be discussing for the day. As with the other  

mangas, this one starts with a note from one of  the Erins, this time explaining their fascination  

with and asking questions about Sasha and her  relationship with Tigerstar and their kits,  

noting in particular that Sasha had raised  her kits with good stories of Tigerstar and  

hinting that there must be a reason. We'll  see if this book can tell us what that was.

Moving on though, Into the Wood  has a speaking cast of 14 cats,  

where 11 of those are named characters, and  unsurprisingly given that *very* small number,  

the top 5 cats get 94% of the lines.  That said, I think it's time we get into  

the meat of this book. What actually  happened between Tigerstar and Sasha?

We begin with Sasha frantically running after  her twoleg, the one that remains alive anyway,  

as he is driven away to live in a home that  doesn't allow pets. Sasha is now alone,  

with her collar, no housefolk, and no idea of  what to do. Apparently, before, Sasha had a happy  

life with her old housefolk Ken and Jean, and each  night they would let her out to explore, but when  

Jean died, Ken got sick with grief and eventually  had to move out of the house, and a new twoleg  

arrives at the house to try and take care of her,  but Sasha had already escaped through an open  

window in an attempt to chase after her housefolk  and she can't get back inside. Without Ken, she  

doesn't really want to. Sasha talks to Shnucky,  her friend who lives nearby with other housefolk,  

and Shnucky immediately offers Sasha a place  with her housefolk, but Sasha really only wants  

her own housefolk back, and ventures into the  forest instead, where she rather smoothly finds  

a meal and a place to shelter herself. Oh, she can  hunt by the way, easily. This is no Millie moment.  

While hunting the next morning, she runs into a  tabby stalking the same mouse who backs down when  

she apologizes and introduces himself as Pine.  The narration tells us he's not sympathetic to  

the story she tells off-screen of being abandoned  by her twolegs but we don't see or hear anything  

that would suggest that except that Pine's first  reaction is that she needs to take off her collar  

to make sure cats know she's starting a new life.  Pine pulls it off her and Sasha doesn't stop him,  

but says a part of her wishes she had. Pine gives  her some more exposition about what a rogue is,  

how they're different from the clans, and how  neither group really likes kittypets, and then  

he leaves. What a good, useful character. Sasha  keeps the collar around as a reminder of Ken,  

but stays in the woods. In fact, she chooses to  follow the exposition she got from Pine and see  

what those clan things are, searching and sneaking  for the night before she comes across and spies  

on a patrol with three cats known as Rowanpaw,  Tigerstar, and Jaggedtooth. Sasha immediately  

thinks that Tigerstar is handsome. He has a very  cool, dramatic name. She cannot take her eyes  

off of him. Instantly, he's so much better than  the other two cats here. Sasha manages to break  

out of her shallow romance glasses for a moment to  contemplate that the clans might have to live in  

the wild but at least they have each other, which  might be nice. Quickly though, she shakes this  

thought away and says that if she can't have Ken  and Jean, she can't have anyone, a sentiment she  

apparently repeats to herself over and over during  the next day. But then she sees Tigerstar again,  

and catches a frog in front of him that  his patrol was failing to catch. She isn't  

especially confident in herself, but the look on  that handsome cat's face sure is priceless. Okay  

I want to cover this later but here's the thing:  Warriors has always had a problem with this but  

just saying “wow this cat is beautiful and / or  handsome” over and over again does not convince  

me that they have a connection. Please. Anyway,  Tigerstar calls off his immediately aggressive  

warriors because Sasha isn't a threat even though  she just took prey from in front of them. Yep,  

sounds just like Tigerstar. Sasha teases the  warriors gently and Tigerstar sends them home  

to talk to Sasha alone, warning her to not do that  again or he would let his warriors attack. Sasha  

is immediately convinced that he doesn't mean  any of that and actually cares about her. Uhuh,  

sure. Anyway they introduce themselves to each  other and Tigerstar gives her some exposition  

about clan life along with a get-out-of-jail-free  card to avoid his patrols in the future.

Tigerstar is now all Sasha can think about, with  his muscular body and his confident voice. While  

trying to chase a rabbit, she runs into Tigerstar  again. He insults her sloppy technique and she  

suggests he train her to be better. Instead  of answering, he asks where she lives and,  

remembering for half a second that Pine said clan  cats didn't like kittypets, she answers with her  

new makeshift den in the woods. As much as she  believes this is a lie, this is an accurate answer  

because she cannot get back into her house and has  made no attempt to even return to the twolegplace  

since she lost it. Oh and then we have a timeskip  page where Tigerstar and Sasha apparently meet up  

for many nights in a row. Sasha comes away telling  us that she thinks Tigerstar is polite, strong,  

and makes her feel safe. He also gives her prey  when she fails to hunt on a day and tells her  

about Shadowclan and clan life and Starclan.  None of this is in dialogue. We're just told  

that he told her in that time together. They're  attacked by a fox one day, Tigerstar fights it  

off single-pawed and Sasha is grateful despite  never being injured or remotely in mortal danger.  

Tigerstar continues to ignore her questions and  just go on talking about topics of his choice,  

he insults her for being a kittypet when he  finds her collar, tells her what she can be  

and that she'll never last on her own. All signs  of a great healthy relationship. Sasha dreams  

of her old housefolk and decides she can't be  ashamed of them. She goes out to hunt a bird,  

which she leaves for Shadowclan, and then a rabbit  for herself and then gets cornered, by two foxes  

this time, and Tigerstar saves her once again, but  this time Sasha joins him in fighting the foxes,  

and the two cats manage to beat two foxes on their  own. Sasha takes care of an exhausted Tigerstar  

and he says she's not like any kittypet he's ever  met and they start seeing each other again. Sasha  

shows Tigerstar the house she grew up in as a  show of trust and Tigerstar ignores her while  

she's talking and tells her that none of this  should matter to her because she's a forest cat  

now. They also say hi to Shnucky, who is very  scared of Tigerstar. Tigerstar is rude to her  

so I can't blame her. Shnucky tries to warn Sasha  about how dangerous Tigerstar might be as a strong  

wild cat and Tigerstar cuts her off to order Sasha  to come back with him. Sasha decides to never come  

back to the twolegplace just as Tigerstar wants.  Tigerstar brings Sasha to Shadowclan's camp,  

introduces her to the places and cats there, and  invites her on a hunting patrol. Russetfur is very  

nice and welcoming to her, by the way, while  explaining Tigerstar to be a good and strong  

leader for Shadowclan, although he is overworked  by stress from trying to put their broken clan  

back together. The rest of Shadowclan in general  is at least actually nice to her, complimenting  

her on her skilled catches and not putting up much  of a fight about her being there. Sasha stays in  

camp that night and goes on patrol again the next  day. Sasha also gets to witness Tigerstar confront  

and chase off some Thunderclan warriors and she is  impressed by how much control he has, while still  

being absolutely confident that he wouldn't hurt  them. She does pause to ask why the Thunderclan  

cats called Tigerstar a traitor but Tigerstar  explains that he was driven out by the jealous and  

weak leadership of the clan, and that Thunderclan  took those leaders' sides. Tigerstar then asks  

Sasha if she would join Shadowclan. She asks for  time and he gives her one day. In that time, Sasha  

comes across Pine again, who is sick and weak in  the cold. Seeing that this is the life of a rogue  

immediately convinces Sasha to accept Tigerstar's  offer. However, as she is coming back, she hears  

Tigerstar discussing his plan to unite with  Bloodclan and take over all the clans, including  

his…uh…*plan* to send dogs to Thunderclan's camp  and kill Fire*star*. Uh hold there for a second.  

If Firestar is the leader right now, as they have  said in two scenes of this book, the dog attack,  

the one that killed Bluestar, definitely needs  to have already happened. But I guess who cares  

about consistency or timelines, right? That'll  probably be the worst mistake we ever get in this  

series anyway, haha. Anyway, Sasha, realizing  how evil Tigerstar's plan is, runs away to her  

den. Tigerstar comes to ask if she wants to join  Shadowclan after their agreed-upon day and at  

that point…the book cuts off. This is not really a  cliffhanger as we know from her fear and narration  

after running that Sasha absolutely won't join  Shadowclan, but I guess we don't know how much  

Tigerstar has guessed Sasha knows and how much  he will do to her, so fine. Drama, suspense.

Now to discuss some things. First of all…what  is love? (Baby don't hurt me.) But honestly,  

what does this book think love is? What is  romance? The Erin in the opening note even  

explicitly said that this story was an interesting  avenue to explore because it might explain what  

Sasha and Tigerstar saw in each other and  what their relationship was like. This book,  

entirely about the happiest period of their  relationship, shows us none of this. On Sasha's  

side, we have a cat who only likes Tigerstar  because he's very handsome and has a cool voice,  

and on Tigerstar's side…I literally cannot tell  you what Tigerstar liked about her. Are we sure  

this is Tigerstar? Why did he not throw out the  kittypet as soon as she stepped on his territory?  

Why did he not allow his cats to fight her when  she stole his prey? Why did he *want* this random  

outsider to get his special attention and  join his clan? Why did he care? She's not  

talented by clan standards; he's not using her  for her skills. He just treats her favorably for  

absolutely no reason we are given. I know I'm  a hard sell on relationships to begin with but  

this is ridiculous. We don't know why either of  them like each other or treat each other in the  

ways they do at the start and the entire period  where they are meant to be bonding is narrated  

over with flash forwards and exposition, flash  forwards and exposition that cannot be enhanced  

with rich expressions or telling poses because  of the artist's limitations. This is especially  

frustrating because Sasha having something to like  about Tigerstar and Tigerstar having some reason  

to treat Sasha differently are key to us believing  the manipulations that are taking place in this  

relationship, the ones that would lead Sasha to  believe Tigerstar really is a great cat and for  

the shock and dismay to hit when Sasha eventually  finds out Tigerstar's true history and intentions.  

People in abusive relationships do often react  like Sasha, covering for warning signs they see  

in their partner and ignoring their friends' poor  opinions of them, and on the other side trying to  

separate Sasha from her home and friends, getting  her indebted to him through saving her life,  

and telling her just enough secrets for her  to trust him without looking into him further  

are all things that stick out as hallmarks of the  abuser's side of a toxic relationship. But all of  

this feels fake and forced even with that because  there is no honeymoon period. There is nothing  

either of these cats see in each other that would  explain why they got together at all. Tigerstar  

is never nice to her, not in the way that Ken  and Jean or Shnucky were or even in the way  

that Shadowclan are. There is never anything that  tells us why Sasha wants to stay with Tigerstar,  

or even in the woods considering her grief over  her twolegs leaving is handled so sloppily.

A lot of this book can be summed up in one word:  shallow. Sasha is clearly in a bad relationship  

but we don't know how she got there or why  Tigerstar wants her in the first place. She's