It has now been one week since Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #3 released on Tuesday, September 30th. It was the finale of the first arc adaptations and had plenty of plot to squeeze in, covering events from A Dangerous Path and The Darkest Hour. The graphic novel was split into three parts like its predecessors, “Part One: Tracks of Fear” (pages 7-95), “Part Two: Firestar” (pages 96-190), and “Part Three: The Darkest Hour” (pages 191-263). This was the most intense of the three graphic novels, with lots of blood and tears among the characters. It was also the debut (and end) of fan favorite villain, Scourge.
As with the others, this was adapted and illustrated by married duo Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter. Their art is always the highlight with how expressive and beautiful everything is. A lot of hard-hitting scenes were made even more amazing by their illustrations. I’ll always be grateful to both of them for bringing this series to life. It is a testament to how much I love their graphic novels that I’ve spend so much time comparing it to the original books.
Check out my two reviews of the first and second graphic novel adaptations to get the full scope of my thoughts!
This review contains huge spoilers for The Prophecies Begin books and the graphic novel adaptations.
If I could simply gush about the art and include a million screenshots of all my favorite scenes, I would. The artistic tactics they used throughout the three graphic novels, but especially this one, are fantastic. From blocking intense character scenes out with solid colors on the cats to flowing full-page spreads with Fireheart/star as the focus, I stopped reading hundreds of times to take it in. Many of the StarClan omen and prophecy pages were some of my favorites, especially the depiction of the “tiger” and “lion.”
A lot of iconic scenes flourish with the art. The pack of dogs are demonic and terrifying with glowing yellow eyes and slathering jaws. Their straight-forward murderous intent is outlined with the frantic “pack pack, kill kill” words surrounding them. One of the most chilling scenes is when Swiftpaw and Brightpaw are discovered, killed or brutalized by the dogs. The smears and scratches of blood surrounding them give the best hint at the true destructive power of the pack.
Death and injury scenes in general were done well. Brightheart’s healed injuries are tasteful, making it obvious she lost her eye and a majority of her ear, along with including other scars, without making her too grotesque for young readers. They sanitized a lot of the deaths by not directly showing any of the killing injuries and shadowing or blacking killing blows. While this made some of them lose their impact, like Tigerstar’s disembowelment, I understood the reasoning. I imagine the rating for the books would’ve skyrocketed if they showed anymore than they did.
As for the deaths in the big battle with BloodClan, I found they were done tastefully. A small change was made to Darkstripe’s death that I approved of, too. Instead of Graystripe immediately coming to Firestar’s rescue, Longtail is the one to knock Darkstripe back. Giving a small moment for Longtail to shine felt appropriate for his character, before Graystripe came in for the kill. I was initially worried that Longtail was going to take Graystripe’s spot, which would’ve taken away one of Graystripe’s recognizable moments.
Whitestorm’s death comes quickly after that, just like in the original books. The devastation on Firestar’s face, as he loses yet another guiding light, broke my heart. I was relieved to see they kept the apprentices attacking/killing Bone afterwards too, in the background.
Nothing was more epic than the sequence of Firestar’s first death by Scourge, followed by Firestar returning to kill him. Scourge’s frantic blow coupled with the light leaving Firestar’s eyes made me catch my breath. The beauty of the StarClan sequence lends power to his return, fire at his paws as he launches himself back at Scourge. The broken collar at the top of page 254 was an excellent representation of Scourge’s death and the splintering of BloodClan.
Despite my endless praises, some of the changes and cuts did take away from the story. In the previous graphic novel, I noted that a few plots were not included. After finishing this one, I see that they were fully cut. The ShadowClan sickness, with Cinderpelt helping find a cure with Littlecloud and Whitethroat, was limited to mentions of the sickness and Nightstar’s passing. Tigerclaw’s rogue attacks, including him ruthlessly killing Runningwind, were also taken out. Runningwind did die—he had to to give Firestar a life later, after all—but was announced to have been killed on the Thunderpath instead.
Similarly, Gorsepaw’s death at the paws of Tigerstar was cut and changed. Instead, the poor apprentice dies to a BloodClan warrior. While I feel the Cinderpelt and ShadowClan sickness plotline was okay to cut for time’s sake, cutting out Tigerstar’s kills lessened his impact. In the books, he comes off as conniving and aggressive; in the graphic novel, he comes off as more of a charismatic annoyance than anything. Even him killing Brindleface and planning the dog attack felt more removed without seeing him directly involved.
As for Scourge, I didn’t realize it was possible to love him even more, but Riess and Goetter’s art and depiction of him did just that. His tiny size, his freaky reinforced claws, his teeth collar, and his icy blue eyes were a perfect capture of my image for him. His face, eye, and fur shapes enhanced the insanity of his character, lending to evil and cold expressions. For the short time he’s included in the Warriors story, his eerie confidence and ruthlessness make him one of the best villains. This graphic novel version of him makes that all the more prevalent. He out-shadows Tigerstar.
Speaking of taking away a cat’s kills though, Stonefur’s death was changed. Since Darkstripe hadn’t been exiled from ThunderClan yet, he was not involved in Stonefur’s death. In fact, the rescue of Mistyfoot, Featherpaw, and Stormpaw was conducted solely by Graystripe, even though Firestar and Ravenpaw help in the books. They shortened and summarized the rescue and Stonefur’s death instead, which wasn’t that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.
The final event that was cut entirely was Snowkit’s death. In fact, he doesn’t exist at all and Speckletail isn’t really around either. Considering the ableist implications of a deaf kitten being carried away by a hawk, I do get why it was taken out. It also wasn’t super important to any plots, so there’s no real loss.
Smaller moments and subplots were well-done. I was happy to see how they included Tawnypaw’s rejection of ThunderClan, even adding in a couple extra scenes directly with Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw. Background reactions are always fun to spot too, like Darkstripe’s pride in Tigerstar or the many battle scenes. Any cute couple moments between Cloudtail and Brightheart or Firestar and Sandstorm, or friendship moments even, had me giggling with glee.
Character and relationship development took a hit in these adaptations, but we’ve been graced with cute panels at least. Bluestar’s character arc was one of the best adapted into art. Her meltdowns were punctuated by great dialogue and art. And of course, her death scene when she tells Fireheart he is the “fire” that will save the Clans softened me to her story as it did originally. Seeing her reconcile with Mistyfoot and Stonefur was heartwarming, too.
I’ll continue to scream from the rooftops that the WACA team should’ve adapted each separate book into its own graphic novel, but all in all, these are wildly successful in my eyes. I can see them being a gateway into the fandom for new readers. For current fans, I hope they love it as much as I do.
Check out the links below for the upcoming Warriors books.
2025:
Warriors: Changing Skies #2: Hidden Moon: November 4, 2025
Warriors: The Prophecies Begin #1: Into the Wild Collector’s Deluxe Limited Edition: November 4, 2025
2026:
Warriors: Changing Skies #3: Chasing Shadows: March 31, 2026
Warriors Graphic Novel: The New Prophecy #1: June 30, 2026
Warriors: Super Edition #19: Darktail’s Judgement: (details to come)
