Warriors Super Edition #19: Darktail’s Judgement released earlier this month on Tuesday, September 8th.
After Darktail made a splash as a villain in the A Vision of Shadows arc, as well as Warriors Super Edition #9: Hawkwing’s Journey, Warrior Cats fans finally get the full picture of the character. As the first villain-centered Super Edition, I am pleased to say I loved it.
This article contains spoilers for Darktail’s Judgement, A Vision of Shadows arc, Hawkwing’s Journey, Onestar’s Confession, and a death spoiler from The New Prophecy. Always proceed with caution of spoilers from up to the current book.
The book’s blurb is as follows:
Explore the origins of infamous Warriors villain Darktail in this superlong stand-alone novel in Erin Hunter’s #1 nationally bestselling series!
Darkpaw is no ordinary kittypet. Raised in the Twolegplace by his mother, he eagerly awaits the return of his father, Onewhisker, a WindClan cat who promised to raise him as a warrior. But as the seasons pass with no sign of Onewhisker, Darkpaw begins to doubt that his father ever planned to come back for him.
Chafing against the boredom of kittypet life, Darkpaw’s hurt transforms into deep anger—at his father, at his Twolegs, and at the other kittypets who don’t treat him like the warrior he’s destined to become. When tragedy strikes, a hardened Darktail makes it his mission to hunt down the one cat responsible for all his misfortunes.
As a rogue, Darktail learns to use his influence—and strength—to recruit other cats in his pursuit of Onewhisker. But as his hunt intensifies, as well as the violence required to maintain his following, Darktail transforms into a villain who will haunt the Clans for seasons to come—and is forced to pay the ultimate price.
Having read the preview chapters back in July, I picked up the book at Chapter Four, page 53 at about 11% of the way through. I was thoroughly impressed with the preview and went into Darktail’s Super Edition with high hopes. I’d like to say it lived up to that initial impression.
As usual, I want to get technical issues out of the way. Somehow between the preview chapters and the publication of the full book, Thornclaw in the ThunderClan allegiances became Hedgeclaw. I wondered if the rogue named Hedge may have been called Thorn before, causing a “find and replace all” slip-up, but no, Hedge was always that cat’s name. I truly have no explanation for how this blunder occurred, but I find it kind of funny.
I also noticed that Feathertail is missing from the RiverClan allegiances. While she passes away in The New Prophecy, I thought these allegiances started at the conception of Darktail. Unless I misunderstand the timeline, Onewhisker and Smoke were together when Feathertail was still alive.
To me, the allegiances don’t make total sense anyway, as I mentioned in my review of the preview chapters. Darktail doesn’t meet most of the cats listed–he interacts more with who is alive during AVoS. The exclusion of SkyClan bothers me, too.
Plus, for some reason, they only have the “Cat View” of the lake territory and not the “Twoleg View.” I admit I haven’t looked at the maps recently, so I don’t know if this is common in the new books.
That aside, I have a lot to talk about.
It is so important that they established early on that Darktail felt he wasn’t useful or valuable enough for Onewhisker to take as a kit. It haunts him his whole life, making him feel as though he needs to be doing something to win love and companionship from friends.
His thoughts make it even more obvious why he turns to his strength as his one offering. Darktail cannot hunt. It is hilarious and smart. Giving him a huge disadvantage like that makes him arguably more impressive. Darktail has to manipulate and threaten cats into getting enough food for him (and his followers).
Certainly he isn’t being forced to be this horrible though. Darktail delights and derives pleasure from lying, battling, and killing. He is a textbook psychopath or sociopath (arguments could be made for either distinction, but he definitely seems to have Anti-Social Personality Disorder) with his near lack of guilt and excitement for violence. It was very eerie to be in his thoughts throughout the book, and I do like how it wasn’t trying to justify all of his actions.
Not to mention, Darktail has one of the highest kill counts in the entire series of one-hundred-plus books, if not the highest. He has around fifteen direct kills, as well as over twenty indirect kills. He doesn’t always kill in the same way, either. From battle wounds to drowning to purposefully pushing a cat down to dogs, Darktail is as inventive as he is ruthless.
I have to wonder if part of Darktail’s personality came directly from the surprise influence of Sol. As another fascinating villain, I was so happy to see Sol included in this story. It made sense given the proximity to SkyClan’s territory, and the timeline tracks well enough to work out.
Sol is the one who teaches Darktail to manipulate others for food, which strengthens Darktail’s ability to lie excellently. They even have a sort of father-son relationship that both of them acknowledge. The betrayal from Sol cuts Darktail deeply, especially since it was caused by manipulative a kittypet from his past.
My only regret from that portion of the book is not finding out what happens to Sol’s mate, Meadow. The Sol that fans know in Power of Three is a loner bent on ruining the Clans. He has met Midnight and never mentions a mate. Obviously, this is new information they didn’t know when writing the books then; however, I was hoping for even a tiny mention of Darktail finding something out to wrap that up. I may be forever wondering.
It would be blasphemy not to discuss Darktail’s mother, Smoke. I find her to be such a silently complex character. Her devotion to Darkkit/paw/tail was astonishing; she truly defined a “mother’s love.” After her undeserving death, she begins to appear to Darktail in visions and dreams. The incorporation of the river with two streams, one sunny with a mate and kits, the other lording over cats with blood on his paws, was a simple yet beautiful representation of his futures. Smoke being the one to present his options highlights how badly she wanted to steer him in the right direction, while also being the flame that stoked his hatred for Onestar and the Clans.
I may be singing the praises of this Super Edition, but it does have downsides. I found myself uncomfortable–in a bad, not literary way–during multiple parts of the story. The torturing of the rabbit made my skin crawl, and I felt it was too extreme. Another disturbing extreme was Darktail choking Smokekit until the little thing passed out. I’m glad the Kin flinched away at this obvious show of no-emotion-evil, yet the inclusion still made me grimace.
I heavily disliked Darktail’s beef with Sparkpaw, too, particularly the line where he thinks she is “asking for it” when he dreams about killing her. The phrasing is too reminiscent of the wording surrounding sexual assault and rape in our society.
Darktail’s manipulation of Sleekpaw/whisker, with her having a crush on him and him using that for his own gain, was hard to stomach. I appreciated how he clearly didn’t want to be with her, noting her age and his loyalty to Marigold, but still. The relationship between Needlepaw/tail and Rain always bothered me, too.
Possibly the most problematic part, though, is something the series has always struggled with: taking a tom’s mate or love interest and killing them for the plot’s development. Some fans have argued that having Marigold’s death as part of the story wasn’t useful and only perpetuated the issue that Warriors books kill she-cats all the time. Sure, it was relevant to Darktail that she died, as well as the way it happened. Killing her was his real breaking point into villainy; he knew he couldn’t turn back. I also love how she stalked his narrative so much. However, it doesn’t excuse the misogyny of these situations happening in this book and many others. Why can’t she-cats be the heroes (or villains in this case)? Why can’t their mates die or be killed by them horribly? It stems often from toms being more important main characters.
I was worried they might’ve made Darktail’s relationship to Violetpaw more predatory in his mind, but luckily it wasn’t. In fact, I wish they would’ve leaned more into how he saw himself in Violetpaw’s situation. While his attention on her is creepier in AVoS, hearing his thoughts about it relaxed that feeling.
The pacing was well done until closer to the end when they were at the lakes. Surprisingly, given some of the uncomfortable spots, I wanted to see more of how Darktail conquered and killed cats. I wanted some things to make more sense. The book started doing a lot of summarizing events instead like the takeover of RiverClan.
Still, I’m relieved the pacing was so good overall. I also noted how often cat-like phrases were being used again which made me remember the feel of the original, older books in the series. The addition of raccoons was somehow funny, terrifying, and unexpected (other than knowing about them from Hawkwing’s Journey).
As for the ending, I’m finding this book very quotable. It calls back to the Prologue, where Darktail ends up in the Dark Forest talking to Mapleshade. When he says, “’Maybe StarClan accepted me in the end,’” I got chills. Such a good full circle moment.
It didn’t officially end there, though. The Epilogue, not always included in Warriors books, was sad. There’s no doubt that Darktail deserved a Hell of an afterlife, but the Dark Forest is such a soul-sucking environment. From him not knowing how long he’d been there to giving up because he’s so tired, even I felt a small pang for Darktail. Would life have been different if Onewhisker accepted him? Or was he always destined for evil?
If you’ve made it this far, you might be wondering about the title of this article. Here’s the truth: best or worst means the same thing. He is the “worst” villain because in a sense he is the most cruel and crazy, and he is the best villain because of that as well. I wouldn’t say he is my favorite, yet he is one of the most interesting.
It won’t be long until I’m reading the next book in the Changing Skies arc. Keep an eye out for my review!
Check out the pre-order list of future Warriors books:
Warriors: Changing Skies #4: Guiding Light: October 6, 2026
Warriors Graphic Novel: The New Prophecy #2: March 23, 2027
Warriors: Changing Skies #5: False Dawn: March 30, 2027
