Warriors Fanfics: Specialized Writing Guide

Powers

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POWERS IN FANFICTIONS

To start, I will list powers I have seen from skimming through fanfiction on both Wattpad and DeviantArt. None of these powers are from spoofs, crossovers, alternate universes, or satire. All have been taken from fanfics with intent to write serious, like the canon stories:

- moving at impossible speeds / short range teleportation

- healing any injury with love or other positive emotions

- injuring other cats out of hatred or other negative emotions

- invisibility / supernatural obscurity * *

- conjure shields / force fields for self or others * *

- flight * *

- travel in the realms of Silverpelt or the Dark Forest * *

- reincarnation / rebirth

- secrete poison / poisonous blood

- supernatural strength * *

- shape-shifting

- seduce any cat romantically (always given to females)

- conjuring / reflecting light with eyes to hinder opponents (yeah, that is a thing)

This is not every example I found, just the ones I found at least twice. The ones with * * next to them are by far the most popular powers I have seen. Some of them are even in canon now. Surprisingly, fight is very popular in this fandom. Traveling to Silverpelt is unsurprisingly popular (screw you, Jayfeather).

Nonetheless, I have spotted a big problem with these. In the context of the Warriors universe, these abilities are overpowered. Many of the abilities in canon are overpowered, too. This is not because the characters are weak, but because they are cats. Cats can only do so much, so give one the ability to never be injured in battle and you have a pretty big power spike for the universe's power level. Even the first and most basic power, the nine lives for leaders, was pretty strong. Firestar would have lost to Scourge in a fair fight, and that would have been the end of the plot.

How is this simple nine lives power balanced? Every leader has it, so long as they believe in StarClan. In general, the only way to balance these supernatural powers is to give equal or greater power to the antagonist(s). If that is not done, the protagonist (and by extension the audience) has little to fear in terms of failure. But sometimes it is not as simple as giving both friend and foe the same powers. Think about how many powered cats ThunderClan had. Now think about ThunderClan, and how it is the most popular clan, the most powerful clan, the 'main' clan. And not just because our protagonists are there. No other clan has nearly as many cats with powers as ThunderClan has. They are heavily favored. They are overpowered. It makes for predictable subplots (or even main plots) in canon and the ThunderClan-like clans in fanfics are not much better about this in regards to using powers. If a cat cannot be hurt in battle, their actions can be justifiably reckless. If a cat can walk in Silverpelt whenever they want, they would be wise to all potential threats and troubles. These powers are not very well conceived because giving an opponent equal invincibility or premonitions does not enhance our narrative, like a plot device should (think about a protagonist and antagonist with invincibility).

So looking at the powers on the list and what I just said, why even use them? And how would they be best balanced in our fanfics?