Spitting Shit || Warriors Rants/Analysis

SkyClan, my Favourite Disaster.

Just as a little disclaimer, I know Tennelleflowers has a video on this, but I haven't watched it, so I hope this isn't too similar! I also haven't run this through grammarly so let's ignore all the typos and grammar mistakes.

Before the more recent books in the A Vision of Shadows and The Broken Code series, SkyClan was very unpopular throughout the fandom. They were left out of fanmade content, and pretty much disliked by the entire fandom. They were even excluded from the official merch when it was released. The only bit of positivity SkyClan recieved was for the character Egg, simply because his name was a meme. However they're more well liked due the recent books in the AVoS and TBC series and Hawkwing's Journey. But why were they the object of such hate for so long? And why do they still receive more hate than the other Clans?

It comes down to two reasons. One is that they have pretty much no unique worldbuilding to the other Clans. They developed a very different culture through living in the gorge, but initially they're not all that interesting as a Clan. They share the same territory as ThunderClan. They're not shown to have different attributes (you can say the same about all the Clans in the later arcs.) They're literally ThunderClan with nice legs. They can jump high. That's it. It can be compared to Harry Potter. All the houses are loved. When the books first came out, Hufflepuff wasn't developed like the other houses. Ravenclaw was at least "the smart house." Hufflepuff was just "a bunch of duffers." So it was no surprise that no one connected with Hufflepuff - because there was nothing to connect with. It was only later when HP became popular and JK Rowling actually developed Hufflepuff when people began to fall in love with it. That's why worldbuilding is so important in a society with categories. If you want readers to love all of those categories, they all have to have something the other categories don't have. And SkyClan didn't possess that.

This is very important because there's very little worldbuilding within the Clans themselves that seperate them from one another. They share the same social structure, the same lifestyle, and the same ideals. They're said to have different traits, but we're never shown this in the series, with the exception of ThunderClan and ShadowClan in the original series, with their traits pinning them as the good guy and bad guy tropes respectively. The only thing that can justify the Clans being seperate groups is their territory differences. Even back in their history, what caused the tribe to split into Clans was originally territories. So the fact that SkyClan shares the exact same territory as ThunderClan weakens them as a society.

Within books and shows, when introducing something to the original group, usually a new character but in this case a new societal group, the new addition must stand out, compliment the original characters/group, and be likable. Introducing something new is a big risk, because it permanently changes the pre-existing dynamic, and can upset fans. Avatar: The Last Airbender did this really well with the introduction of Toph and Zuko into the gaang. They were both likable characters who added something new to the group without taking anything away from the original dynamic. Zuko was only part of the gaang for about ten episodes, and four of those were the final wrap up, which is more plot focused and the group is split. But when you imagine the gaang, it feels like he's been there forever. SkyClan's lack of uniqueness as a society is one of the biggest things that fails them. To make the risk of introducing a new Clan pay off, that new Clan should've stood out and be interesting, but SkyClan was just ThunderClan's kid sibling, even down to their territory.

But what about the culture they developed when they lived in the gorge? They had daylight warriors and new names; making them stand out. So why were they still so widely disliked? The issue here is that they strayed so far from Clan traditions and customs that to readers they didn't feel real. This wasn't helped by their separation from the other Clans. And this worldbuilding wasn't bad worldbuilding, but it wasn't appealing. The names seemed ridiculous to many readers and the concept of daylight warriors didn't fit with normal Clan ideals. Now I think daylight warriors worked perfectly with SkyClan's system, and the names fit too. But it isn't appealing to readers, and in writing that's just as important as functionality. You can make the most functionable world, but if it isn't likable, then you're fucked. RiverClan is one of the most well-liked Clans, despite the fact that they have the least plot relevance, arguably even less than SkyClan when you take AVoS and TBC into account. They're so popular because they swim! Most people enjoy swimming, and find it a fun thing to imagine, and write about. This boosts RiverClan's popularity through one little piece of worldbuilding, all because it appeals to readers. SkyClan's wacky names and temporary warriors gave them a unique culture, but ultimately made them feel like a mockery of the Clans, which was worsened by their physical and plot seperation and the fact that they were introduced secondary to the original Clans. I personally like the idea of the daylight warriors back in the gorge, and some of the names were cute! But many fans were opposed to this because it made SkyClan seem more like a caricature of the original Clans then one of them.