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  • Riverclan has a strange place in the fanbase.

  • It's probably the most popular clan among fans, with more people calling it their favorite than any other.

  • But it's also probably the most disliked of the main clans,

  • with plenty of people pointing out it's issues and how it never lives up to the image its fans see.

  • I...stand on both sides honestly.

  • I love Riverclan for what it could have been, and what it has been to me,

  • but because of my love I'm angered by how bad Riverclan has become.

  • It's already a bad sign that their best representation is in a field guide.

  • Secrets of the Clans treated Riverclan just as well as the other clans.

  • Their leaders and medicine cats were all, in their brief descriptions, interesting characters.

  • Riverstar came up with the system of mentoring apprentices.

  • Crookedstar had an interesting story to tell with how he got his name and injury in the first place.

  • Mothwing trained as a warrior before becoming a medicine cat,

  • was direct family with two main series villains, and she didn't believe in Starclan.

  • And even Dapplepelt, the first Riverclan medicine cat,

  • was unique in that she went into the job of a medicine cat with the attitude of a warrior.

  • The clan as a whole was portrayed as strong and adaptable,

  • unique in their plentiful supply of prey and passtime swimming in the river that other clans detested.

  • They were said to collect little shells and feathers to decorate their dens,

  • purely aesthetic items that they only had time for because hunting was so easy,

  • and their territory had the defense of the river without even doing border patrols.

  • Of course, the natural allure of swimming is appealing to many human readers without any clan culture attached.

  • When your other options arebeing in the dark,” “running,” orbeing in or under trees,”

  • swimming seems the most exciting, unique and frankly fun option for anyone fantasising about *being* a warrior cat.

  • I've started with this because it's what I believe a lot of fans clung to in their early days when choosing a favorite clan.

  • Not what place they hold in the story, but how interesting it could be, either to live there yourself or to use it in a story of your own.

  • Because in the narratives we do get in the series, Riverclan is boring at best and actively harmful at worst.

  • Crookedstar's Promise, the prequel Super Edition, probably did the best job.

  • The clan culture was intricate and many of the characters got good moments to show their personalities and values even if they weren't main characters.

  • But even in this iteration, many of the interesting quirks from the guide were removed.

  • No one collected shells or feathers,

  • and even though they had a couple instances of fishing for fun, they didn't seem to have more free time than any other clan,

  • and they struggled with getting enough food multiple times, so we never got to see the benefits of them being well fed or safe.

  • And since Bluestar's Prophecy had already shown many battles over Sunningrocks in the time period, where Thunderclan won,

  • what we did see of Riverclan's battle prowess in Crookedstar's Promise was lacking at best.

  • The original arc continues this trend.

  • Thunderclan, and Fireheart, needed to be the heroes,

  • so Riverclan was shown as losing their deputy and other warriors,

  • bowing to Brokenstar's pressure,

  • needing Thunderclan cats to hunt for them,

  • and joining Shadowclan multiple times as evil underlings,

  • either to take down Windclan when it was already weak, or to take over the forest and turn on their own clanmates to do it.

  • Still, there were moments like Riverclan taking in Thunderclan after the forest fire where they showed strength and promise.

  • Shadowclan recovered from being the designated bad guys,

  • so there's no reason Riverclan couldn't do the same, given time and effort.

  • But what followed instead was the New Prophecy, a detriment to every character and clan but especially to Riverclan.

  • The series featured a main cast of cats from every clan, and a villain from Riverclan,

  • which should have given them ample time to develop.

  • But Feathertail and Stormfur are both more connected to Graystripe and the Tribe then they are to Riverclan,

  • and even when they aren't they barely show off any personality traits before one dies and the other leaves the cast.

  • Hawkfrost meanwhile is more focused on being Tigerstar's son than anything else,

  • and most of his plots revolve around Brambleclaw in Thunderclan or Mudclaw in Windclan.

  • He certainly did something in Riverclan, but we have no eyes in the clan to see that, so the clan itself was left to rot when he died.

  • And of course, once The New Prophecy was over, Riverclan was across a massive lake from Thunderclan, rather than right next door.

  • Almost every character we were given any details on was killed off or left behind,

  • and with the clan across the lake from the POV characters they never bothered to introduce any new characters.

  • Leopardstar died, leaving us with Mistystar, Mothwing, and sort of Willowshine

  • as the only three characters remaining in Riverclan among a sea of faceless strangers.

  • Occasionally in Power of Three, Omen of the Stars, and A Vision of Shadows

  • they would mention bad things happening to Riverclan as a reminder they were still there,

  • but no progress was made on characterizing the clan

  • and they never had moments of saving cats anymore, instead of being saved.

  • But the Erins had another chance to make Riverclan cool with Dawn of the Clans.

  • It had a completely new cast with no borders between them yet,

  • so there were plenty of opportunities to introduce Riverclan's cats and form their clan culture nicely, like they did with the other clans.

  • They even had Secrets of the Clans to work off of,

  • since a few interesting details about the first leader and medicine cat were already there for them.

  • But even under these ideal circumstances, Riverclan got next to nothing.

  • River Ripple, who becomes Riverstar,

  • never moves to being anything other than a wise, mysterious stranger, even to the warrior ancestors.

  • He's said to be elegant and knowledgeable about about his own territory,

  • but other than being nice and calm at a basic level we don't see any of his personality or story.

  • He doesn't even get to participate in the big battle that spurs them to form official clans in the first place.

  • And unlike the other clans which split and were built based on their different values and relationships with each other,

  • the few cats that join River Ripple do so because...

  • they like water.

  • He likes water.

  • Yahoo.

  • He gets a little more characterisation through his backstory in the bonus scenes,

  • but it never impacts his story in the main series, and certainly not the culture of the group he forms.

  • Both Dappled Pelt and Shattered Ice practically disappeared when they joined River Ripple,

  • such that Shattered Ice is remembered more for his invention of Windclan's tunneling than for anything in Riverclan,

  • and even in the super edition about creating the medicine cats,

  • Dappled Pelt doesn't get to do much of anything to make her and Riverclan unique.

  • So in the past as well as the present, Riverclan can't seem to get off the ground.

  • Where does that leave us now, in the Broken Code?

  • Well, as you might expect, not good.

  • The Broken Code focuses on a possessed clan leader making trouble not just for his clan, but all the others as well.

  • To show the effects of this, the team wanted a big climatic battle in Veil of Shadows,

  • with all five clans involved to show how far the fake Bramblestar's influence had spread.

  • It was also preferable that our protagonists were the underdogs in this conflict,

  • meaning the two clans on the side of the rebels, Shadowclan and Skyclan,

  • would have to fight against all three of the others, Thunderclan, Windclan, and Riverclan.

  • Harestar dies in this battle, and comes to understand that Bramblestar was fake, retracting his support of the leader.

  • But, I assume just so they could continue the conflict for three more books,

  • Mistystar decides she still believes that codebreakers are a problem despite knowing Bramblestar wasn't himself.

  • She decides to banish those who fought on the side of the rebels and dishonor Dappletuft, who died on their side,

  • refusing to even sit vigil for her or wish her well in Starclan.

  • Mothwing, who was already mistreated by Mistystar when she was outed as a codebreaker earlier in the book,

  • can't stand by while her leader wrongly exiles her own clanmates, so Mistystar banishes her too.

  • Mistystar is a half-clan cat herself, and went through great pains to become Riverclan's leader despite her heritage.

  • Then when she found out Mothwing didn't believe in Starclan, she had a whole novella about learning to accept her friend regardless.

  • But none of that is present in the Mistystar of The Broken Code.

  • This Mistystar isn't nothing anymore. She's unquestionably the antagonist, making Mothwing into a victim once again.

  • At this point, Mothwing is the sole surviving character in Riverclan who has a personality while being sympathetic.

  • But even that, evidentially, couldn't last.

  • In Darkness Within Mothwing has been generously taken in by Shadowclan

  • and proceeds to meticulously criticize every action Shadowsight takes

  • and weasel Puddleshine and Tigerstar into demoting him

  • on the grounds that his apprenticeship finished too early and he needs more training.

  • There's a few issues here.

  • First, Shadowsight's siblings were already warriors when Lost Stars started and he doesn't earn his name until The Silent Thaw.

  • He had plenty of training.

  • Second, after demoting him, neither Puddleshine nor Mothwing actually trains him anymore!

  • He's relegated to doing less than an actual medicine cat apprentice would, only allowed to take care of Ashfur.

  • And third, on a meta level it is entirely contrived.

  • The real reason presented for every cat treating Shadowsight badly is because he caused Bramblestar's death,

  • but every cat is aware at this point that it was entirely Ashfur's fault.

  • Having every cat suddenly hate and mistreat Shadowsight is only convenient because it makes him seem like a victim,

  • and drives him towards helping Ashfur in the final pages of the book.

  • But when a situation like that comes at the expense of every character around them, it's contrived.

  • Mothwing acts entirely out of character in this book, which is especially obvious since we just got her novella last *April*.

  • This is extremely bad since Veil of Shadows just made a point of Mothwing being the victim to Mistystar's cruelty.

  • To have her turn around and also be an unquestionable, manipulative, and out of character antagonist

  • is damaging not only for her, but for the entirety of Riverclan,

  • since she was the only cat left who was both recognizable and sympathetic in her clan.

  • Riverclan is in a really bad state,

  • one that's only been growing worse since through the series, but especially since The New Prophecy.

  • They were one of the four, and now five clans around the lake.

  • Reasonably they should be equals to any of the others,

  • but they've been denied this at every opportunity.

  • Even the Tribe gets more focus than Riverclan,

  • despite the fact that it takes days to journey to the mountains while crossing the lake would be a short walk for any of our protagonists.

  • I dream of a world where we could get a Riverclan point of view in the modern times

  • to see what's going on there and get some amount of strength back into the clan.

  • This would be especially helpful after a soft reboot, if one ever happens.

  • All the weakness and aggression could be gone, and Riverclan could be a blank slate again

  • that could be utilised better than it was in Dawn of the Clans.

  • But in reality, I'm not sure any of this will happen ever, let alone soon.

  • So even though it is my favorite, I have to accept that

  • Riverclan is the worst clan.

  • Thank you for watching, and always remember that

  • water isn't a personality trait.

Riverclan has a strange place in the fanbase.

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B1 中級 美國腔

河族的衰退 - Sunny's 演講 - 貓戰士分析(Riverclan's Decline – Sunny's Spiel | Warriors Analysis)

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    WarriorsCatFanWhiteClaw 發佈於 2024 年 02 月 18 日
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