you. Settle down for this one: popular creators are not the only people who have opinions.

I know, it's a tremendous revelation. But while commenters have, over time, been given

a reputation for being shallow, argumentative, uninformed, or hateful, I have also consistently

seen people who reply to videos with thoughtful insight, evidence, personal stories, and investment

in the topic at hand.

As one person, there is only so much experience and passion I can give to back up certain

topics. I can't speak with accuracy to what people might love about playing Warrior Cats

Ultimate Edition, how engaging A Vision of Shadows and its characters are, the excitement

of alternate universes where a character has been made evil, or, as is our topic for today,

the place that fanfiction has in our fandom. With that in mind, today I am starting a new

series called “Hand Off The Mic,” where I ask people in Youtube and my Discord to

share their feelings, opinions, stories, and / or evidence around a specific topic and

do my best to share as many of them as I can with you now, only chiming in myself to provide

context or transition between pieces. And to make that title more literal, I will be

asking my Patrons and some friends to voice these comments. Now, it definitely might sound

odd that Fanfiction is a topic I know so little about. I spent 3 ½ years writing Paws of

Stars, after all. But outside of that context, I hadn't written fanfiction at all before,

and I don't read or know much about it either. Today, I hope to get a wider view of what

engages people about fanfiction (on the sides of creation and reading) and what types of

fanfiction are even out there. And to do that…I'll need to turn to all of you.

Fanfics overall are great, but with Warriors you can really see them shine! With dozens

of semi-important and hundreds of background characters as well as many dropped or forgotten

plot points and many that the fandom doesn't enjoy, fanfiction gives Warrior Cats fans

a chance to really show off their creative minds. The groundwork of Warriors is also

great for writing, whether wanting to use existing characters or come up with entirely

new ones it will fit right in! An easy to understand line of succession combined with

a natural for us way of thinking (because of the cats pretty much being people with

their emotions and intelligence) makes it a very appealing world to write a story in.

The ability to expand upon various characters, either those who were in the spotlight but

didn't live up to their potential, or those who never got spotlight in the first place,

was definitely a common theme through a lot of comments I saw, and I imagine the focus

on plot and lack of characterization across a lot of Warriors does spur on the desire

to see more characterization in the fandom. And it's definitely a great point that Warriors

is an easy world to write in, with simple but explicit rules and mindsets for the characters

that don't differ too much from our own. But that simplicity also gives rise to expansion…

Warrior Cat Fanfictions are just my favorite part of the fandom! They add interesting lore

to make them unique and the worldbuilding especially interests me. But what really shines

for me are the characters, because I just love reading about their personalities and

their thoughts and feelings! Rewrites or AUS are probably my favorite part of WC fanworks,

because they can add new plot points or lore tidbits that are different from the original

source, and make it more interesting!

For some, like Arki (apologies if I mispronounced that) the opportunity to add onto lore and

worldbuilding, to flesh out the world or plots in a way that makes the story fresh and unique,

is also a strength of fanfiction, and it's one I definitely undervalued before seeking

out your opinions.

I believe Warriors fanfiction, synchronous with roleplaying, is one of the most unique

and creative outputs from the fandom. The series itself has provided an easily accessible

format that caters towards fans building their original worlds and characters. Creating my

own characters and imagining them in the world of Warriors was one of the aspects that first

drew me into the series. The process of creating your own character is relatively simple and

standardized (two-name process, pick a Clan or make a new one, and choose a preset rank

or role). I was always passionate about writing growing

up, and I think Warriors was some of the very first fanfiction I ever wrote!

… Overall, I believe Warriors fanfiction is

one of the many highlights of our fandom. There are so many directions that you can

take with the series' foundations, and I've always been fond of the wonderful community

behind it. Though interestingly enough, I tend to read AU/canon divergent fanfiction

for other fandoms, but I tend to stick with original content for Warriors. Perhaps because

I find more enjoyment in what writers can broadly take with the series, but that's just

my own two cents.

I definitely saw opinions on both sides of that divide: whether more canon compliant,

AU, or original fanfiction was favored is something that differed quite a bit among

different people, so it's likely a matter of determining what you're looking for.

But there's another concept in here that I heard a few times as well.

I really like fanfiction, not just because many a time it can be better than the actual

books, but also because many of my OCs were originally just fanfiction characters, and

by the 300th change or so, they had become their own selves.

Transplanting characters into or out of Warriors based on how accessible the universe is and

how obvious its simple structure is seems to be a key factor in many peoples' relationships

to fanfiction. I've seen how much writing fanfiction can get you attached to certain

characters, and using that medium to get yourself excited about OC's for other work is a very

cool extension of that. But not everyone goes into fanfiction with the aim of building new

worlds and casts.

The Warrior Cats Fandom is so rich because of fanfic and headcanon. It's through these

avenues that we create such strong connections to certain characters. Heathertail, Breezepelt,

Nightcloud, Brackenfur, Poppyfrost, Sandstorm, and so many others are made distinctive by

popular head canons and Fandom portrayals surrounding them. The basis may be there but

the Erin's rarely act on the stuff they lay down, a lot of the background favorites and

even some of our protagonists are better because of fanfic, headcanons and Fandom content related

to them. That being said this same logic also leads to the Fandom somewhat rewriting certain

characters when people then take it as truth when reading the books but that's a whole

separate can of worms.

As Spectorwing brought up, fanfiction can be just as much an avenue to expand on existing

characters, giving them supporting arcs or even roles as protagonists that go beyond

what the Erins had in mind for them. It's also very true that, because we have such

a creative fandom, eager to expand on those characters, we often come across cases where

the fandom idea of a character is accepted as truth, and many don't even know what

the canon portrayal is, or that it is different from what the fandom talks about. This can

create disparities in discussions, as I've mentioned in past videos, but if we look out

for that, there's nothing wrong with getting creative.

I've always been a huge fanfiction reader and writer since I was a kid, and so I love

seeing all the creativity of the warrior cats fandom. I especially love stories that expand

upon certain characters that didn't get enough screen time or development, or had potential

for interesting storylines in canon that were never realized. For example, my favorite character

is Violetshine, so I love looking through the Violetshine tag on Archive of Our Own

and seeing all the ways people fill in the gaps where her canon story would have benefitted.

I have a whole fic that's just a series of drabbles about her because I love her so much

and think she's so fascinating. I really wish the narrative explored her dynamics with other

characters in her life. I also wrote an entire standalone fic abt her resentment toward Rowanclaw

bc I've always liked seeing her resentful streak toward Sleekwhisker and the rest of

the rogues from Darktails Kin, so I wanted to see that extended toward other cats responsible

for her trauma.

This is a great example of why I wanted to make this series, because I very publicly

much do not like Violetshine, but I constantly see people in my comments and across the internet

who love her because of what she represents or what she could be, and I know what that

feeling is like because of my relationship with other characters. If you love Violetshine

or Clear Sky or Brambleclaw or Onestar or Stonefur or Gullswoop or anyone that you think

could be better if given a better or more prominent story to exist in, go look and see

if fanfiction exists with them, or write some yourself! And speaking of, let's turn to

some people speaking as fanfiction authors to hear their takes.

Oh I love making Warriors fanfiction. I've always wanted to write an animal pov book

but never knew where to start. I found it super easy over the years to just plop in

some of my characters in the Warriors universe to see how they react. Over time, the universe

would change more and more until I got something totally different from the original idea.

I have sooo many warriors oc stories that inspired so many things. I feel like the Warriors

universe in particular shares many tropes that make people want to self insert or create

characters in that universe. For example, just like Harry Potter and Avatar, Warriors

has different 'factions', each with different 'qualities' to choose from. (If you like

being dark and evil, choose Slytherin or the Fire Nation or Shadowclan.) Though I think

that one of the biggest things that generates so much fanfiction/AUs is that Warriors is

a series that is inherently filled to the brim with plot holes and untapped potential…This

just makes is so easy for one to go in and 'fix' these stories, or make new ones

that stem from the inconsistencies or unfairness.

This is a great distillation of one of the biggest reasons Warriors is so appealing to

a young-adult demographic, and also why it makes for an easy fanfiction world. The separation

of groups into factions with different characteristics is a staple in a lot of media for that age,

since it helps to categorize both characters and readers into easy-to-understand groups.

And certainly, the...well known affinity for plot holes, contradictions, and wasted potential

across a lot of Warriors certainly has a role to play in motivating people to write more

about it.

Speaking as someone who is really entrenched in Warriors fanfiction, as both a long-time

writer (over 10 years) and reader of it, I think part of what makes Warriors fanfic unique

from others lies in the interplay between the fandom and the canon. Our fandom is a

long-lasting, large, interactive community, allowing for frequent exchange of ideas throughout

the entire fanfic process (trading AU ideas before fic writing, during writing, and analyzing

it retrospectively.) The fact that official outlets like the Warriors website encourages

fic (with things like the short story contest) is notable too, especially with how many other

authors/companies actively dislike fanfiction. Also, the canon itself is conducive for fanfic.

I like to think of canon as a “sandbox” to play in. There is just so much material,

with so many characters, spanning such a long range of (in-Warrior world) time, there are

so many opportunities to spark ideas, many of which can be vastly different from each

other. These can fill in the gaps of missing or unexplored time, or dive more deeply into

obscure characters. Even the flaws of canon I think encourage creativity as people work

to “fix” them.

SedatedDreams makes a great point we haven't heard much yet: in addition to the world itself

working well for fanfiction, our extremely long-standing and vibrant fandom provides

lots of chances for new ideas to be brought up, and with so many people there's a higher

chance for any ideas to be recognized and made a reality.

To see some of those ideas, I've gone through all of the comments on both Youtube and Discord

and found every individual fanfiction recommended by anyone. I then put them in a google doc

linked in the description, each with a short description of what the story is. Next to

each story I also listed the author and person who recommended it, and for works recommended

by multiple people…like um, Paws of Stars, because I was the one asking for comments,

I have simply listed all the names. Go check some of these out if they spark your interest!

Also if you have any fanfics you have read or are writing that weren't on this list,

drop them in the comments of this video and I will add it to the document.

I started thinking about how many Warriors fanfics really were 1st arc focused as opposed

to others. So I looked at the top 100 Warrior fics on AO3 which had the most kudos, sorted

them into types and this was the result! I think it's pretty interesting, and you can

really see how much TPB dominates the other types.

It is interesting, knowing this and looking back on the recommendations that people made

for popular fanfictions. It makes sense, as well, considering that a large portion of

especially the younger or less-invested fans have only read the first arc, and even for

those that have read beyond it, it's much harder to find people to discuss Pebble Heart

and Lightleap with than Brackenfur or Snowkit, who are honestly much less prominent and developed

in their stories than the respective modern arc cats. It's a fact of life that the fandom

and Erins will always have more focus on the first arc than any other, but maybe this is

encouragement to go out and write something with another arc in focus, or one of the super

editions or guide book time periods. The world is your oyster in this case, so if you have

an idea or a little-known cat you want to make shine, you have the power. Go out and

get to it. I believe in you.

Works like Paws of Stars is like glimpsing at how greatly the authors and story team

for the series proper would benefit from having longer periods of time to write and refine

these stories.

Wait no not Paws of Stars this is about other people. Shoe, shoe.

Part of the reason there's this explosion of creativity in the fandom is to fill in