i wasnt super into warriors as a kid even tho i did know of them and read a handful, so im treating this as a first time read so

why did this actually go so hard tho??????? like theres definitely a lot wrong with it but its still fun and fast paced (i read the whole book in one sitting on a low spoon day when i was exhausted) and its really easy to get into the story. firepaw definitely suffers from main character/chosen one syndrome but i still loved him. 

theres a lot of bad shit politically - i saw another review calling it 'protofascist ideology' and i absolutely agree. the whole 'the clan is more important than you' thing has real gross implications both within shadowclan and thunderclan. firepaw not being allowed to even see his old friends anymore but the clan leader actively knowing and interacting with loner cats is real culty. most of the characters are also extremely flat and completely blur together cause there's nothing apart from name and physical appearance to differentiate them. ive seen a lot of people say the character names are hard to follow and yea i get it, they can definitely get confusing especially when you add in different clans having the same naming conventions. ik a lot of people also dont like the writing (like saying 'purred' and 'meowed' instead of 'said') but im attributing my love of the musical cats and the fanfiction ive read for said musical for my disregard of that lol

also feels like the author tried to force romantic feelings onto firepaw??? like he got a crush or smth on another character and it felt so forced and unnecessary. imo it just felt like firepaw was mostly interacting with male characters so the author was like 'oh dang lets make him crush on this female character for no reason to fix that' even tho theyre literally cats ya know. 
 

Rereading these for the first time in like >10 years and the first book knocks it out of the park! I totally remember why I used to play as Warrior Cats all the time when I was a kid. 
The worldbuilding is so fun and inspiring, and it’s your classic “kid enters new culture and is trained to be a warrior and struggles through hardship to find community and becomes a part of something greater than himself” story, but it’s done really well. 
It’s a bit brutal at times and cats kill each other left and right, but it somehow also has that childlike wonder and play that’s so inspiring. 
Can’t wait to continue with the well-written first series and then revisit how things completely go off the rails after that!