The specifics of who we are willing to let go varies from reader to reader,

but nearly everyone agrees that the clans have gotten quite large.

Cats from the first series are still alive,

and many newer cats are practically faceless strangers thanks to the lack of attention given to them.

Today I will be exploring the phenomenon of death in the Warriors world,

especially as it pertains to the current state of the series,

but I should point out that I won't be going over who in particular I would like to kill off to fix this problem.

If you're interested in something like that,

Moonkitti discussed the subject a while back in a video I will link to in the description,

and right now at the top-right of the video.

In Thunderclan alone, through the main arcs

(and unfortunately discounting Dawn of the Clans since it disrupts the chronology),

here is the population growth since the first book.

For the first two arcs, Thunderclan had a cat total somewhere in the 20's.

It oscillated back and forth with various deaths and new births but it stayed relatively consistent.

But as you can see...here, it didn't stay that way.

See here? This point? This is The Sight.

Even with a couple offscreen deaths, the population shot up by ten whole cats,

creating the big Power of Three apprentice generation that we all know and love.

But that generation clearly came at a cost, especially since there were no major deaths in the whole arc.

A couple of times: with the battles in Outcast and Eclipse as well as the green-cough outbreaks in The Sight and Long Shadows,

there were opportunities to kill cats off,

but those opportunities weren't taken, and the arc only set a standard that would grow over time.

The rest of Power of Three and even Omen of the Stars did manage to keep the population about even;

The Last Hope actually finishes with 37 cats.

But A Vision of Shadows bumps that number back up and more,

with two sets of protagonists and many litters of legacy kits that serve next to no purpose.

So clearly there is a problem that has been growing in the past fourteen years.

But where did it come from?

This is a series about wild cats who have to constantly fight each other over territory or ideologies,

and when they aren't fighting each other they're fighting disease or other animals or even their own evil afterlife.

Even when they get surges of kits,

they should be able to phase out the older generation and be just fine.

But there are several complications making that unlikely at best.

The first and quite possibly largest is marketing.

Warriors is a massive series where a majority of the fans haven't read even close to all of the books.

But the first arc is a set most of the fans can be trusted to have read,

and the further you get from that the less recognizability a character from a given book will have.

The cats from the first series or two, up through Omen of the Stars at best,

are thus the most popular and most well-loved.

It's in the Erin's interest to use as many early characters as they can,

and part of that has to do with keeping the older generations alive and in focus.

They can't continue with exactly the same cast either, though.

Romance and family have become running themes in the series.

If none of the cast got together and had kits, it would imply a lack of close relationships between these characters.

Not to mention that the clans would begin to feel very static,

and there would be no new kits to make into apprentices for our protagonists to train and bond with.

So the old cast stays, and the new cast grows.

It sounds like a win-win, but of course we know what that led to.

Of this arc's 48 Thunderclan characters, 16 of them have had no characterization at all in their time in the series,

and even those that have been mentioned in the arc haven't been given much depth.

Making Thunderclan as a whole a blank slate leaves most of the conflicts feeling hollow,

as they rely on you caring about what happens to our cast.

So it would seem obvious that at this point, cats need to die or otherwise be rolled out,

and the new characters that have stayed in the background since their conception

need to be brought into focus enough to make the readers empathize with them,

and to give story opportunities based on their individual strengths and flaws.

However even in The Broken Code, an arc with the potential to be one of the most brutal in the series,

very few cats have died, and none of the old cast has been shuffled out.

Veil of Shadows has been the only book to officially kill cats off

and the only cats to die in Thunderclan were Stemleaf, Rosepetal, and Berrynose,

all cats used to some extent in the currently running story.

And in a perfect display of our lacking attachment to Thunderclan,

Bristlefrost isn't particularly rattled by any of these deaths.

In order to show this point more directly,

I'd like to read some short passages from Rising Storm and Veil of Shadows,

the first involving the death of Yellowfang, and the second involving the death of Stemleaf.

Although the entirety of Chapter 27 is dedicated to the slow buildup of Yellowfang's death,

I will just read this short segment from the end.

(Text Shown on Screen)

And now for Stemleaf's death.

(Text Shown on Screen)

In the case of Stemleaf, they didn't share a last conversation or even a last phrase.

The battle simply raged on until Bristlefrost noticed Stemleaf was dead,

and then after a short paragraph of remembering what her relationship with him could have been about two books ago,

rather than what it was in the present,

she faints and from that moment on Spotfur is the only one to bring up his death.

With Yellowfang, Fireheart addresses how close they have become,

Yellowfang reminisces for a moment on how she wished it could have been different,

but then brings herself back to reality with the knowledge that Brokenstar was her punishment,

and soon Starclan would judge her.

Yellowfang has already given up and just wants to thank Fireheart one last time for all he has done,

but Fireheart clings desperately to her life,

pleading for her life to be judged favorably even after he knows in his heart she is gone.

Stemleaf was Bristlefrost's friend, ally, and first crush.

Berrynose was the deputy she replaced and mirrored in her time under the Imposter's rule.

Rosepetal was her mentor.

But she doesn't have this connection or desperation seen with Fireheart and Yellowfang with any of them.

The only cats that truly fill her thoughts are Squirrelflight, Bramblestar, and later, Rootspring,

because they are the key players in the plot.

The latest material has corrected the problem a little by sending two background characters away to be kittypets

but we don't ultimately care about their loss since we never got to know them,

and the Erins are still reluctant as ever to kill off any of the old cast.

Graystripe had an entire super edition about the clans changing and him being an elder,

thinking it was time to move on.

This would have been a great time to send off his character with a bang,

ending with a momentous death after a reunion with some favorite old characters.

But this book ended with him heading back to Thunderclan and contained no death at all.

So what options are there to solve this problem?

Well the answer seems simple:

kill off cats, mostly from the older generation, and start developing the younger characters,

and that is what ultimately needs to be done.

But as I said, the marketing aspect of the series makes that a hard sell.

The newer characters, no matter how well written,

will never get the popularity of the older characters who have been around for decades.

However, I would argue that if you want to keep the audience you have in regards to the newer books,

and maybe even create material good enough to bring on some few fans,

your best option is giving something new, in the form of new characters you truly give focus to.

I'm sure none of the Erins will ever see this,

and they are unfortunately the only ones who can make the choice to fix this problem,

but I hope that, going into the end of this arc and beyond,

they will consider letting go of their old favorites and try to make someone new for us to love.

Thank you for watching, and always remember

that Sorrelstripe's should have feelings too.