the last two and a half years: The Broken Code. As  such, it's time that I give some thoughts on it:  

both this book, and the arc as a whole.  Spoilers for the latest book will be included,  

but I'll give warnings when we reach  those sections. It's safe to say though,  

regardless of anything else, this arc was a  wild roller coaster of ups and downs for me.

Let me begin where it all began: Lost Stars, and  I'll say right now that it was a really promising  

start. We're introduced to our three protagonists,  all of which have distinct personalities, goals,  

and obstacles in the way of those goals, and who  look like they could not only have strong roles  

in the quickly forming plot, but also dynamics  with each other and other members of their clans  

in the future. It presents a lot of intrigue, and  characters that are fun to watch while you wait  

for that intrigue to pay off. Starclan is shut  off, Shadowpaw is receiving strange visions,  

Rootpaw loves Bristlefrost who doesn't love him  back and loves Stemleaf who doesn't love her back  

and loves Spotfur, and at the end, Bramblestar  is seemingly revives...but he isn't himself. The  

possibilities were oozing out of the story, and  as a result I and many others got *very* excited.

The second book, The Silent Thaw, delivered  on that excitement. The imposter was cruel,  

decisive, and very intimidating, Shadowsight  inadvertently becomes the imposter's mouthpiece,  

helping him gain influence over all four clans  and drive out an assortment of beloved cats,  

Bristlefrost is manipulated to become the  imposter's spy in Thunderclan, and Rootpaw is  

being contacted by the real Bramblestar through  the ghost powers he inherited from Tree and the  

Sisters. Tensions not only in Thunderclan but  between the different clans starts to rise,  

and a rebel group forms in secret that includes  Rootpaw and eventually Bristlefrost, when she  

comes to understand all that happened. And just as  it was about to end, Shadowsight seemingly died.

Veil of Shadows was pretty good too, all things  considered. It had a couple very strange left  

turns like suddenly killing off Stemleaf,  Berrynose, and Rosepetal among others,  

and Bristlefrost's confession to Rootspring, but  the intriguing imposter drama, the clan tensions,  

and the workings of the rebel group as they plan  to face down with the imposter are all really  

interesting pieces to read about. Shadowsight's  semi-resurrection with Rootspring's help was  

somewhat anticlimactic, but I personally didn't  ever believe that they would permanently kill off  

one of the point of view characters in the middle  of the story so it still met my expectations.

Darkness Within on the other hand...did not. This  remains my least favorite book of the arc because  

it is so aimless. Very little gets done, and we  instead spend a lot of time building up a truly  

unrealistic level of bullying for Shadowsight  to give him sympathy without building him a  

character and make him sort of...kind of help  Ashfur out of left field at the end. A similar  

and even more unnecessary treatment is given to  Squirrelflight as Thunderclan's acting leader,  

which has no purpose except to say that we  need Bramblestar back. The rest of our time  

is spent on a journey with Rootspring, the  now capable warrior and sister-descendant,  

and Bristlefrost, who decided to drop  all of her personality and character  

arc potential at the door, trading  it in for bland romantic interest.

The Place of No Stars wasn't much  better. It had intrigue going for it,  

with the new Dark Forest lore and  confrontations with Ashfur to enjoy,  

along with the now fan-favorite character  Snowtuft. But it's a very circular plot,  

just going in and out and in and out of the Dark  Forest without much progression of any kind.  

By the end Squirrelflight was out of the Dark  Forest and Willowshine and Rootspring were in,  

but the goal of “go into the Dark Forest  to save cats who are stuck in there” that  

drives the actions in this book is exactly the  same as the drive that begins the next book.

And so we come to A Light in the Mist.  Spoiler warning of course, and you can  

skip to this timestamp or past this upcoming  “spoiler” chapter to avoid hearing about it.

I honestly enjoyed this book, certainly more  than the two that preceded it. It all took  

place over the course of a day or two, so of  course there were pacing issues, and plenty of  

moments to make you squint in confusion or groan  in frustration when it came to the reforming, or  

lack thereof, that the warrior code eventually  got and the lore of Starclan and the Dark  

Forest that is growing ever more complicated and  contradictory, but it was still a fun read. All  

of the characters, even some side characters,  seemed to have personalities and goals again,  

and there were a few genuinely moving scenes,  like Squirrelflight's declaration that she  

wants to fight Ashfur, and her subsequent  message to him through Graystripe, along with  

Bristlefrost's permadeath, and the aftermath of it  with Rootspring having to explain to her desperate  

parents that she is very much gone. Honestly,  I expected much worse. But most of those Dark  

Forest cats clearly don't need to be in the Dark  Forest, right? Starclan's judgement is absurd.

Many of both the strengths and faults  in this arc come from its characters,  

starting with Bristlefrost. I've already talked at  length about her before, so I'll keep this brief,  

but Bristlefrost was the character I was most  invested in from the beginning of the arc,  

as she had the most interesting mix of  strengths and weaknesses to me that could  

lead to a fairly obvious but really compelling  character arc...but this was never done,  

and she was instead systematically stripped of  every trait or possibility she had going for  

her until she was unrecognizable and only there to  love Rootspring. As for in A Light in the Mist...

My sweetheart was back! She was brave,  compassionate, independent, and selfless, clearly  

acting not just for herself or Rootspring, but  for every cat she came across. She and Stemleaf  

actually got along again, and she knowingly  sacrifices herself to save everyone. I'd love  

to ignore the previous two books' interpretation  of her, but she redeemed herself for me here.

Speaking of the guy she loves, Rootspring probably  got the best arc of the three protagonists,  

but it still wasn't perfect. He began as an  insecure, irritable young apprentice with  

wild and erratic emotional outbursts,  both positive and negative. However,  

as he matured and went through more formative and  dangerous experiences, he mellowed out and became  

far more serious, although, also more stock  and simple as warriors toms are concerned.  

The latter half of the arc didn't give him,  or anyone, much to do, which prevented us  

from seeing exactly what this new maturity  gave him. However, in A Light in the Mist…

While he isn't the focus by any means, he does  get to show off how he's grown as he tries to  

comfort her parents by summoning her spirit even  when he knows it won't work, along with boldly  

and matter-of-factly declaring his commitment  to her at the gathering to convince the clans  

to change the code...although, not by much, and  in a way that is riddled with its own problems.

Shadowsight meanwhile...well he fell flat too, but  in a very different way. His was the arc given the  

most attention, but it was done quite sloppily,  and with little care for his own personal  

character as opposed to how cruel the world around  him was. They didn't give him choices to make and  

obstacles to overcome so much as they gave him  a barrage of unfair and unrealistic experiences  

and expected you to sympathize with him  regardless of how you felt about his character.  

He also lacked positive relationships even more  than the other protagonists, which didn't give him  

time to show off much of who he was beyond  his suffering. Now, in the newest book...

He...somehow pulled an entire character out of  his hat. He has goals, worries, obstacles and a  

personality to help him get past them. He also  ends the book with a new and distinctive trait:  

being a medicine cat who can't, and in fact could  never communicate with Starclan, yet is still  

accepted in for all he's done as a healer, and  recently a warrior and even a savior of sorts.

There is one last character to  discuss, the antagonist of course.  

Bringing Ashfur back was a strong move for  the editors to make, as he did have a lot of  

unfinished business with members of the cast,  and his presence as a Starclan cat could give  

an interesting perspective, when comparing him  to the Dark Forest and rogue armies of the past.  

There is an awful lot of hand-waving when it comes  to his abilities and how exactly he is able to,  

for example, close the Starclan border so no one  can get through or control any ghost cat he comes  

across, but in concept he works fine, and there is  no doubt that he has a conniving and threatening  

presence throughout his stories, along with  a desperation and pettiness emblematic of his  

previous behavior towards Squirrelflight. Every  tragedy that comes up in this arc is effectively  

a consequence of his arrogance and vindictiveness,  which I honestly find to be great for a villain.

For the arc as a whole, there are a few general  notes, themes, and issues to cover, with the first  

being Starclan. The clans have always greatly  revered their ancestors and considered them far  

more benevolent, powerful, and necessary  than we've come to understand them to be,  

but in this arc, with Starclan missing entirely,  the clans seem to break apart and every cat grows  

very hostile, something the arc attributes  to Starclan being missing. Personally,  

the idea that their religion disappearing would  suddenly negate morality and compassion is not an  

idea I've ever been able to get behind, and this  arc isn't the first to have brought it up. On the  

other side of their afterlife, the Dark Forest  has new lore, inventing an emotion-based power  

system that allows strongly motivated cats to  heavily alter all worlds and members of the dead,  

and actively corrupts any cat who is in the Dark  Forest for too long. It's not something that was  

ever true before in previous appearances of the  afterlives, but the Dark Forest hasn't ever stayed  

consistent for more than an arc at a time, so  if it's used properly, I don't mind it much.  

Like all of the recent arcs, the Broken Code also  suffered from a huge dip in quality and direction  

after the third book, as well as not often showing  off or caring about side characters like Stemleaf  

and Berrynose, Myrtlepaw and Sorrelstripe, or  even family like Ivypool, Fernsong, and Thriftear.  

Characters only appear insofar as they are  directly needed for the story, and not for  

the sake of developing any relationships  between each other or the main characters.

Now it's time to leave the Broken Code  behind, and set our sights on what comes next:  

A Starless Clan, with the first book, River,  set to release this coming April. We don't know  

much about any of the cats who will soon be our  new protagonists, so I'm willing to give them a  

chance and see what is done with these relative  blank slates. Flamepaw, one of the trillion  

Firestar descendants who is going to struggle  upholding the legacy of a cat none of his peers  

or even his parents have ever met, Sunbeam,  a cat...in Shadowclan. Who will...struggle  

at... something in Shadowclan. And Frostpaw,  who will become a medicine cat apprentice in  

Riverclan, something that automatically makes  me excited. Finally seeing what goes on over  

there across the lake will almost certainly  be interesting, regardless of anything else.  

(But if Mistystar and Reedwhisker could both die  leaving Frostpaw to choose the next leader a la  

Code of the Clans, I would be even happier.) It's  safe to say that wherever the series goes next,  

I will be willing to come along for the ride.  Even the lacking arcs and material from the  

series have given us wonderful new elements  and ideas to enjoy and bounce off of, and I am  

confident that A Starless Clan will continue that  trend. Good luck, Warriors. I'm pulling for you.

Thank you for watching, and always  remember to challenge the world as it is,  

and work towards the changes you'd like to see.