Warriors Fanfics: Specialized Writing Guide

Powers

August 11, 2019

This section highlights the use of supernatural powers in canon and in fanfictions. It also goes over good ways to use powers and how they can be used incorrectly or suboptimally.

Before reading this section know that I, Tyto, am against the use of confirmed supernatural powers in my fanfics (by 'confirmed' I mean powers that are not up to interpretation, superstition, or belief). In my opinion, powers trivializes many of the problems certain characters face and adds unnecessary power creep to the canon world. But just because I think they are bad does not mean they are. That being said, many Warriors fanfic writers choose to use powers, secret fighting techniques, or the like. They are not as ubiquitous as prophecies, which are seen in nearly every single story, but they are common enough to be a major element of the fanfic community. Unfortunately, powers tend to be very hit-and-miss, even in canon.

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POWERS IN CANON WARRIORS

We start with the first arc, The Prophecies Begin. Here, there is only one supernatural power: nine lives given to leaders by StarClan (one could argue that omens granted to medicine cats count, but for me it does not). No one else had anything. It allowed them to shoehorn in a good deal of filler about how leaders lost lives and why they might be on their last ones, but it was a very sparing use of power. It was not without its flaws, however. During Firestar's fight with Scourge, we knew Scourge had lost when Firestar's next life kicked in. That was the point, of course, but much of the suspense of the fight was removed because we have seen this in action before. No character should have been upset when he was killed during the fight. Even the readers knew at this point. Unfortunately, it goes from good to bad in the very next arc.

While the list of powers in canon is not very long, they shake up the distribution of power greatly throughout the story, at the same time contributing very little themselves. This list of powers includes things like the ability to walk through dreams, invincibility in battle (a horseshit power), ultrafine hearing, predicting the future, and spiritual connection. The power creep (pun intended) started in The Power of Three and never went away until A Vision of Shadows. It snowballed pretty far out of control, to some mixed opinions. Nonetheless, the community loved them.

Why all of this, though? In Omen of the Stars, the final arc of the original books, StarClan cats are literally among the living fighting Dark Forest cats, who are doing the same thing. There are several other powers added in. But none of that really means anything. Many power additions do not help Firestar kill Tigerstar, so it made many of these additions feel hollow. Argue all you want. Lionblaze's invincibility did not do one damn thing for Firestar. It was partly the fans. Fanfiction had been using powers longer than the Erins, so they figured adding them to canon would satisfy them. And it did. There is another literary reason. The main premise of Warriors was so limiting that they had to add a major plot device to keep things interesting. I have largely debunked this throughout the guide, as there are plenty of ways to make Warriors appealing without relying on such plot devices. But the Erins did none of that (I am not saying I am better than them).

Worse yet, it all disappears in A Vision of Shadows, and we are to practically pretend that StarClan goes back to staying in Silverpelt and invincibility does not exist. The Erins really dropped the ball on this plot device. It makes sense that powers are used incoherently in fanfics as well.