Paws of Stars is a completed Warrior Cats fanfiction written by Sunnyfall. It consists of seven books and rewrites the stories of the "Power of Three" and "Omen of the Stars" arcs with a focus on character development and enhancing the community of the world as well as shifting the lore of Starclan, the Dark Forest, and the powers that three of the main characters get. It sticks close to the tone and genre of the original Warriors book series and so stays lighthearted with no graphic content and a focus on adventure and characters.
The first book of Paws of Stars, "Rising Tides," was released on September 27th of 2020 and the last book, "Metamorphosis," was released on July 22nd of 2023.
It can be read here.
Paws of Stars Contains Examples Of:
- Alternate Universe: The whole fanfiction is an alternate universe, though it stays closer to the series it is based on than some Alternate Universes. Lore is different, characters are written differently or with more complexity, and the end of the story diverges completely from the path the original series was on.
- Anti-Villain: Many of the Dark Forest cats are like this. Though we do not know all of their stories, many of them were given sympathetic backstories, reasons for their deeds, or completely moral characteristics in the present-day as a way to show that the Dark Forest isn't just a place where evil cats go.
- Big Bad: Over the course of the whole arc, the biggest antagonists are the two leaders of the Dark Forest, Ebonystar and Tigerstar, who created and freed the Dark Forest respectively and subsequently formed an army of the Dark Forest cats and living clan cats to take over the clans with.
- Depower: At the end of the story, the protagonists give up their powers in order to break the barrier between Starclan and the Dark Forest, ending their war and changing the world but leaving all three of them without the abilities they had known since birth.
- Fight to Survive: The final conflict against the Dark Forest is this for every living cat. Because members of the Dark Forest cannot die and can be sent back to fight whenever they need, everyone alive must hold out against an endless force with the only goal being living long enough to figure out how to stop the fighting altogether.
- Hell on Earth: In the most literal way possible within the world of Warrior Cats, the Dark Forest, treated like Cat Hell, invades the living world. Some of them aim to take over the territories for their own gain while others just want to improve what they see as the flawed world of the clans but nearly everyone who comes down is ready to fight and even to kill.
- The Infiltration: Ivypool's story becomes this when she finds out that some cats in the Dark Forest, her mentor included, really do have awful intentions. She pretends to still be on their side and even climbs the ranks where she can to gain access to the information she and the three need to prevent or end the coming war.
- I Thought Everyone Could Do That: One of the protagonists, Dovewing exhibits this trope once she discovers her power in the third book. Until she became an apprentice, she believed that everyone was capable of hearing and scenting things as far away as she could, but most cats don't get distracted by a conversation three cats are having all the way across the lake.
- Literal Transformative Experience:
- Briarlight fits this trope after her back side is paralyzed when a tree falls on her. She needs to both exercise physically to keep herself healthy and work through her emotional problems caused by self-worth issues and an overbearing mother before she can truly be happy.
- Cinderheart could be said to fit this trope as well since, when her leg is injured falling from a tree, and then using it again before it has healed, she ends up learning to swim thanks to Jayfeather's guidance as a way to strengthen her leg without walking on it. This ends up becoming a favorite hobby of hers that she keeps for the rest of the series and even passes on to Dovewing.
- Love Triangle: This trope technically appears twice in this fanfiction.
- In the first case, it is only a reference to the series before this one where Squirrelflight was pursued by both Brambleclaw and Ashfur in The New Prophecy and eventually she chose to be mates with Brambleclaw after breaking things off with Ashfur. Ashfur has not forgotten, and this becomes the basis of his actions in and after the fire scene in the third book.
- In the second case, Dovewing and Tigerheart are good friends who eventually decide they might like to become a couple some day, but both have secondary love interests to whom they don't reciprocate feelings. Bumblestripe has a crush on Dovewing that she finds uncomfortable and Foxleap has secretly loved Tigerheart for a long time, but never confessed because he knew Tigerheart didn't feel the same way.
- Personality Powers: All of the three's powers fit this trope.
- Jayfeather is already highly perceptive about what other cats think and feel so his power of mind reading only solidifies that.
- Lionblaze is an emotional and inelegant warrior who throws himself into battle without regard for his own safety or that of his opponent most of the time. Being unable to be physically hurt matches well with this personality and style.
- Dovewing is an open-hearted cat who wants everyone to get along and for her to be free to pursue friendships wherever she finds them and her power of being able to hear, scent, and later see cats all across the clans lets her get some perspective on how similar they are that other cats don't have. It's unclear if she would have been as open-hearted without her power, as she never knew a life without it.
- Prodigal Hero: Hollyleaf ends up following this trope when she runs away from home after her actions in the third book to live in exile in the tunnels, but eventually returns home and helps her clan to drive out Sol. However, there are some complications as Hollyleaf doesn't want to be seen as a hero and confesses to her murder of Ashfur, launching her into a redemption arc with many of the cats who she loves not knowing how to feel about her.
- Prophecy Twist: Multiple versions of this trope occur through the story.
- The first example comes in the original prophecy "There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws." This prophecy's wording is identical to that of the original text, but its purpose has changed in the fanfiction. While Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Dovewing all have roughly the same powers as they originally did, their purpose is neither nebulous nor fighting the Dark Forest as all three cats assumed. Jayfeather discovers that he had accidentally led Half Moon to create the three without any purpose. The three getting their powers was the end of the prophecy; they weren't meant to be used for anything.
- Near the end of the arc, a second prophecy comes up saying that "Three must become four to battle the darkness that lies forever." Once again, this prophecy came from the original text but its meaning was changed substantially. Rather than there being a fourth cat to be part of the prophecy with the original three, the prophecy was trying to alert the protagonists that they needed to stop facing the problem alone and join with the four clans in order to defeat the Dark Forest.
- Stable Time Loop: When Jayfeather dives into the memories of Fallen Leaves and spends time in his ancient world, he unknowingly creates this trope when he tells Half Moon, who would become the founder of the Tribe and clans, about his, Lionblaze's, and Dovewing's powers, causing her to wait for them to be born and then use her own power as an ancestor to give them the powers described to her.
- To Hell and Back: The finale requires this, as the three realize that they need to enter the Dark Forest in order to stop the war in the living world.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: This is the goal of the Dark Forest within the fanfiction. Many of the residents and living cats recruited to train with them were personally hurt by the warrior code or clan culture and together, they wish to force the clans to change their ways and make a world where they can all be happy. Subverted in part as the highest ranking members of the Dark Forest don't care about this at all and only use the unifying moral goal as a way to recruit an army so they can fulfill their personal desires, claim power, or take revenge on old foes.
