A week and a couple of days have passed since the Warriors team announced the name of their ninth arc, Changing Skies. Now, they’ve announced and revealed the cover of the first book in this arc, The Elder’s Quest. Along with this reveal, they give the book’s blurb.
The launch of a brand-new arc in Erin Hunter’s #1 bestselling Warriors series find the Clans navigating an ominous prophecy that foreshadows the destruction of the Moonpool, and the end of the Cats’ connection to StarClan.
As Leafbare approaches, a new danger threatens the Clans. Twoleg construction has encroached on Clan territory, poisoning the stream and making prey especially scarce for SkyClan. Meanwhile, their leader, Leafstar is struggling with a loss of vision while trying maintain authority over a Clan that increasingly doubts her ability to lead.
In ShadowClan, Tawnypelt senses peril as the Twoleg construction threatens the Moonpool, but she can’t get anycat, especially her son, Tigerstar, to listen. Frustrated with the younger cats who don’t respect her, she decides to take matters into her own paws.
In the midst of the chaos, Moonpaw, an apprentice struggling to understand the mysterious voice in her head, thinks that she might be having visions. But the voice becomes increasingly sinister, and Moonpaw wonders if’s a sign of darkness on the horizon.
Now, I won’t lie; I’m disappointed in this announcement. With nothing to go on but the title and my crossed fingers, I hoped that A Starless Clan would reach over and connect to Changing Skies (as I discussed in my article “Warrior Cats Arc 9 Name Announced”). I was also very hopeful that we’d get more of our ASC protagonists, namely Frostpaw. This does worry me for the sixth book of ASC since I don’t believe they can wrap that dilemma up so quickly, but I digress.
Back to the news at hand. The main reason I’m disappointed is the chosen POVs. While Leafstar is one of my favorite characters and Tawnypelt is a strong character, both of them have had multiple chances for the spotlight in the series. Tawnypelt was one of the prophesied cats in arc two, The New Prophecy, and she received her own novella, Tawnypelt’s Clan (in the Path of a Warrior collection). Leafstar was one of the prominent features in the Super Editions Firestar’s Quest and Squirrelflight’s Hope. She also has a POV in SkyClan’s Destiny, as well as having her own manga/graphic novel collection, SkyClan and the Stranger. I understand the reach for nostalgia and how important it can be to have varying POVs, including older characters since that has never happened in a main arc book, but why them? Why not an older character who hasn’t had a POV yet? I see, based on the description, that Leafstar is being used to potentially set up her death or failing leadership, but I don’t get the choice of Tawnypelt.
Then, of course, there’s Moonpaw. Their name has obvious significance, considering the threat to the Moonpool’s safety, but I noticed how they cleverly hid what Clan Moonpaw is from. We also have no bearing on her parentage. While I’m hoping she might be from WindClan (Crowfeather is on the cover, along with Tawnypelt and Leafstar in the center), following the trend of other arcs, I assume she’s in ThunderClan. We’ve never had an arc that didn’t have a ThunderClan POV, so if this one does not, it’d be quite a shock. It’s also very possible that Moonpaw is the child of Nightheart and Sunbeam, two protagonist’s from ASC, and members of ThunderClan.
This brings me to another disappointment: the authors ignoring RiverClan and WindClan, almost solely focusing on ThunderClan, ShadowClan, and SkyClan in their main arc POVs. Even Frostpaw, originally a RiverClan resident, spent most of A Starless Clan away from RiverClan’s home.
As for the title of book one, The Elder’s Quest seems to imply Tawnypelt will be questing once again. I am assuming she’s an elder by now, especially the mention of “younger cats” not respecting her, thus she might be the one referenced in the title. I am also guessing that this quest might bring her back towards the forest territories, considering the “old friend” they’ve continued to hint at would live back there. I predict Crowfeather might join her on the journey or at least be important too. Personally, I’m tired of the endless journeys cats take in the arcs, so this also doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm.
Lastly, I am a bit tired of the constant threat of Twoleg construction and how often it moves or threatens the Clans. If this causes them to move again, it’ll feel too similar to The New Prophecy. If only SkyClan has to move, I’ll also be confused, considering how much trouble they went through to get them to settle at the lake territories. I’m also considering the idea that the Clans might split up, half going back to the forest and the other staying at the like, but I’m not sure what would even cause that to occur.
The plots set up in general are redundant. Not only the Twoleg’s threatening a Clan (SkyClan again, because when will they catch a break?), but Moonpaw hears a voice that grows “sinister.” Shadowsight had a similar character plotline back in The Broken Code. I expect the arc will try some different things that readers don’t know about, yet this blurb doesn’t promise much difference.
At the very least, I’m glad that my friends and I were correct to assume that StarClan would be important again in this arc, though I should’ve realized that “skies” would also refer to SkyClan. I’m trying my best to be positive, but this is such a wild turn from my previous predictions that I’m finding myself a little shell-shocked. I’m still hopeful the arc will be good, as most of them are, but I’m warier than I was before. Although this has been a mostly negative reaction, I want to be clear that this is all based on very limited information, so I expect my reaction may change.
There’s a positive in all of this: all of the POVs will be female characters! This has never been done before in Warriors arcs, so that is exciting.
As with previous reveals, warriorcats.com will most likely have a few chapter blurbs for fans to read before the book comes out in January 2025.
Since my last article, I have been informed that the fandom is claiming ChS as the acronym for “Changing Skies” and have adjusted my language. Previously, I joked that CS would look stupid, and it appears the fandom agrees.
