Lessons Popular Culture Has Taught Me

Heroes Have Vunerabilities: Warriors

  It was around the time I read my first Warriors book during my fourth grade year that I truly came to appreciate the process of storytelling in fiction.  With the right balance of great characterization and high stakes, you can make a story even about feral cat colonies as interesting as Harry Potter or any other iconic books in the young adult genre.  I fell completely in love with the motivations of house cat turned warrior FireStar in the first arc of the books, which only peaked my interest for the rest of the book series.  Although I do not love every entry in the Warriors book selection, I respect each one for at least having some of the magic it gave me when reading Into The Wild for the first time.  It is hard for me to not find one thing I like in an otherwise mediocre book entry in the series, since the authors in my opinion always sneak in one likable aspect inside an otherwise problem-some book.  This can be in the form of FireStar's internal conflict with his faith in FireStar's Quest, the rise and the fall of the inter-clan friendship of Heathertail and Lionblaze, and Cinderpelt's tragic slow acceptance of death when fighting the badgers.  Every book in my opinion has something to still give the audience, even if that aspect is small.

  However, the most admirable part of Warriors in my mind is a lesson I still take to heart when coming up with my own potential stories; heroes can have vulnerabilities.  Not one Warrior's character, even Lionblaze, does not have one defining trait that makes them immune to their own self-doubt.  FireStar has the weakness of not being born with clan blood, thus being judged by multiple purebred warriors as nothing but a weak house cat.  This leads him to question himself constantly in the first arc as to whether or not he is truly living up to the promised prophecy he is destined to fulfill in order to protect ThunderClan.  BrambleStar follows his intuition much too closely, causing himself to accidentally put others in danger, especially his mate Squirrelflight.  This makes BrambleStar feel guilt ridden and question as to whether or not he is not the spitting image of TigerStar after all.  Lionblaze even questions constantly his desire to become the strongest warrior, listening to past traitors TigerStar and Hawkfrost for tips on training due to their "blood relation".  Every main character Warriors has ever focused on has their self-doubts, which helps to further develop them for the plot later.  By doing this, each character to me feels strangely human, and not just some random feral cat.

  The character I feel defines this trope the most though is a character that has a polarizing reputation.  While this cat has its fans, there are some who despise the cat for their decision making being reckless and to an extent selfish.  In the first arc where they were introduced, they grew to many unlikable due to their sudden bout of insanity for two whole books, only to be resolved in a single chapter.  Despite the mixed reaction this cat receives, I still find enjoyment in them for displaying a heroic character becoming the victim of their own self doubts, becoming to many a villain of their own making.  For those who didn't guess already, the cat I am mentioning is the Russian Blue former ThunderClan leader BlueStar.

  After TigerStar had attempted to take BlueStar's life in Forest of Secrets, an old trait of her's seen in BlueStar's Prophecy reemerged to its absolute climax; distrust.  TigerStar to her was a respected warrior whose sudden murder attempt on the leader left BlueStar in complete shock, similar to how she reacted when her mother Moonflower was killed in battle and when her beloved sister was run over due to a series of events that in BlueStar's mind could have been avoided.  In this shock, BlueStar entered a state of self-isolation in her den, only letting her nephew Whitestorm and deputy FireStar near her in fear of being betrayed again.  To BlueStar, everyone else became a murderer out to kill her and the chaos would only continue.  In this fearful state, BlueStar lost her faith in StarClan, and stopped recruiting new warriors besides Cloudtail.  Those who questioned her either lost her trust completely like FireStar, or were scorned for their attempted heroism in the case of Brightheart.  In BlueStar's case, her self-doubt ruled over her life making the leader a shell of herself. 

These events occurring in the Warrior books is a strong parallel to people in real life who are trying to recover after some type of traumatic event.  While some seek the companionship of others, the rest isolate themselves and turn into their own worst enemy.  It is a dark truth that I am shocked was presented so well in a book series about cats, let alone a book targeted at a young audience.  The only other BlueStar-like example I can find is in Steven Universe: Future, which is another can of worms meant for another day.

  As famously said in The Killing Joke comic book, "All it takes is one bad day for the sanest man to be reduced to lunacy."  The same can be said for BlueStar here.  One terrible betrayal led to her distrusting everyone, and in many aspects becoming a villain herself.  Her vulnerabilities led her away from the path of heroism, becoming to many just another insane old cat.  It is a cautionary tale about letting self-doubt or the environment around us consume us from the inside out.  BlueStar's downfall is additionally a strong example of heroes having vulnerabilities, in this case not being able to fight it off as FireStar, BrambleStar, and Lionblaze had done.  Unfortunately, these things happen to even the bravest hero, especially a well-written one.  BlueStar's story is a testament to writing a complex character that people can take seriously, having elements of real life people written in her character.  The most complex characters are from this case alone the most flawed.

  The situation gets even more complex when BlueStar in A Dangerous Path comes to realize her mistakes in the last moments of her life.  Seeing her clan in peril from the dog pack awakens the old spark that had laid dormant inside of her for so many months.  Remembering the reason she fought to become ThunderClan's leader, to protect her clan from perils such as these, BlueStar ran into the heat of battle determined to make things right.  In her moment of clarity, BlueStar gives her life to protect her clan, and falls to a watery grave heroic.  In that instant, BlueStar found a reason to fight her self-doubt and died a legendary warrior of ThunderClan.  Though her actions from the months of self-doubt cannot be erased, she still fought like a hero in that crucial moment, dying the hero she was trying to avoid.  It is a strong example of not only freeing oneself from their heavy vulnerabilities, but finding redemption in its purest form. 

  It is characters like BlueStar in Warriors that reminds me of the complexity a hero is meant to maintain if they are to be a strong character.  They cannot win every battle, especially with themselves.  There is a kryptonite to every heroic figure, which if overcome makes for a potentially strong climax to any story.  Heroes like villains are not born into this world.  They have to be made, and then constantly fight their own insecurities to do what is right.  This is true in fiction and in real life.