Bluestar's Prophecy is the second
Warriors Super Edition, a
Prequel that takes place one generation before the first series. Chronologically, the book starts a few moons after the beginning of
Crookedstar's Promise, and covers roughly the same timespan.
Tropes that appear in this book:
- Abdicate the Throne: Pinestar, leader of ThunderClan, leaves the Clan to become a kittypet near the end of his life.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Snowfur only has eyes for Thistleclaw, who is violent and kind of a jerk.
- Arch-Enemy: Bluefur and Thistleclaw dislike each other almost from the time that Thistleclaw is born, which turns more toward hate as they grow up, and they end up becoming rivals for the position of Clan deputy.
- Back Story: This book serves as Bluestar's backstory, which was something that fans had requested for several years.
- Battle in the Rain: The battle between ThunderClan and WindClan toward the start of the book takes place in rain.
- Because Destiny Says So: Bluestar gets hit pretty hard by this: allow a bloodthirsty, needlessly violent cat to become leader and destroy your Clan... or fulfill a prophecy by abandoning your newborn kits in order to become leader yourself and prevent that tragedy?
- Betty and Veronica: Thrushpelt is the Betty and Oakheart is the Veronica; Bluefur prefers Oakheart.
- Big "NO!": Bluepaw makes one of these when her mother is killed in battle, complete with eight o's.
- Blood from the Mouth: Snowfur, when she's hit by a car.
- Cabin Fever: Rosetail comments that Snowfur seems to have den fever after spending so much time in the nursery after the birth of her kit.
- Career-Ending Injury: Bluepaw's mentor Stonepelt retires early due to a shoulder injury that didn't heal properly.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Tigerpaw brutally attacks a kit on Thistleclaw's command. That kit turns out to be Scourge, a cat who later kills Tigerstar.
- Thistleclaw was mentioned in Forest of Secrets and said to be Bluestar's rival. He's very important in Bluestar's Prophecy and even revealed to have been a major contributor to Scourge's Face–Heel Turn. In the fourth series, he's also later revealed as a leader of the Dark Forest, meaning that he was manipulating events in the forest and lake for a long time.
- Child of Forbidden Love:
- Bluefur and Oakheart's forbidden inter-Clan relationship results in three kits: Mistykit, Stonekit, and Mosskit.
- Oakheart reveals to Bluefur that the ThunderClan cat Windflight got his name because his father was a WindClan cat, making him the child of a forbidden relationship as well.
- Children Are Innocent: Tigerkit, who would later grow up to become cat-Hitler, is adorable and innocent as a kit.
- Combat Medic: Hawkheart of WindClan is mentioned to have been the fiercest warrior in WindClan before StarClan called him to be a medicine cat. His skills haven't been diminished, as he manages to kill Moonflower when she tries to destroy his herbs.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: The manga at the end of the book shows a classic scene from Into the Wild: Rusty joining ThunderClan.
- Continuity Porn: Scenes from later books replicated in full with detailed explanations of what was going on, lots of cameos of Field Guide characters, and backstories for all the major villains of the first arc. As well, the book did its best to give backstories to almost all the characters in the main group. This was kind of difficult. It even gave a large role to a character who was only mentioned once in the entire series and didn't get on the cast list in that book (Rosetail).
- Cute Kitten: The Big Bad of the Warriors series, Tigerclaw, was pretty cute as a kit before his mentor Thistleclaw trained him to be ruthless.
- Dark Is Evil: The main antagonist, Thistleclaw, is a gray tabby. Hawkheart, the violent medicine cat who kills Moonflower, is also gray with darker brown markings.
- A Day in the Limelight: This is the only book from Bluestar's point of view.
- Dead Guy Junior: Sweetpaw is noted to be named after Sweetbriar, the deceased mother of the ThunderClan leader Pinestar.
- Death of a Child:
- The ThunderClan apprentice Sweetpaw dies of illness.
- Bluestar's smallest kit, Mosskit, freezes to death on the way to RiverClan.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Thrushpelt does not get Bluefur.
- Disappeared Dad: Part of the reason Tigerclaw ended up evil was that his father was absent, due to Pinestar leaving the Clan to become a kittypet.
- Distant Finale: The last two chapters take place many seasons after the main story of the book, with Bluestar making a decision which causes the events of Into the Wild.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Thistleclaw orders his apprentice to attack and almost kill a kit who had accidentally wandered into their territory.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Thrushpelt spends most of Bluestar's Prophecy complimenting and helping Bluestar, but to his chagrin, she is not really interested in him like that. He remains her friend to the end, and when he realizes that the father of her kits isn't in the picture, he offers to step in, in order to help her avoid any awkward questions.
- Doomed by Canon: In the prequels, we never heard about characters like Snowfur, and of course the leaders have to be replaced by the ones we know later, so they have to die.
- Ear Notch: Bluepaw accidentally gives Goldenpaw a nick in her ear while training. Goldenpaw's mother Speckletail is horrified; Goldenpaw herself is thrilled to have her first battle scar.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Bluestar. Most of her family dies by the time she becomes leader, as well as having a father who neglected her and a forbidden relationship with Oakheart, leading her to give her kits to RiverClan. She's forced to watch them grow from afar with no memory of her as their mother. She becomes leader, and all is well until her first two deputies and her mate die, and she appoints Tigerclaw. After being betrayed by Tigerclaw, she becomes insane and paranoid. However, she dies happily with her mental state restored, shares tongues and gets closure with her kits, and knowing that Fireheart will succeed her as a great leader for the moons to come.
- Empathic Environment: The sky becomes cloudy and stormy before ThunderClan is about to attack the WindClan camp based on an omen from Goosefeather. When the ThunderClan warriors lose the battle and have to return home in disgrace, it starts to rain.
- Establishing Character Moment: Before meeting Stormtail, Bluestar and Snowfur's father, we learn that he's only visited his kits once since their birth, before they'd opened their eyes. When Moonflower waits in the camp with the kits until Stormtail returns from a patrol so that they can meet him properly, he makes an awkward comment about how they look better with their eyes open, and during the brief exchange with him, Bluekit thinks that he doesn't seem to like them much. He remains a distant father to them for the rest of the book.
- Fake Relationship: When Bluefur becomes pregnant as the result of a Forbidden Romance with a cat from another Clan, her Clanmate Thrushpelt - who she was friends with and who had unrequited feelings for her - offered to pretend that he was the father in order to help her out. Bluefur decided to not outright tell everyone that he was, but Thrushpelt still loved the kits as if they were his own and behaved as if they were, and both of them were fine with everyone assuming that they were mates.
- Family Versus Career: After Bluestar gets pregnant she realizes that having to raise the children will make her look like a less fitting candidate to be the Clan deputy than her rival, Thistleclaw. A bit unusual in that she decides to go for the career path instead of family, by giving away her children and making it look like they died in an accident.
- Fire/Water Juxtaposition: The message Bluestar receives from StarClan compares her to fire, but warns that even the greatest flames can be extinguished by water. Bluestar eventually dies from drowning, but survives just long enough to say goodbye to Fireheart (her apprentice) and her RiverClan children.
- Foregone Conclusion: As if the fact that how and when Bluestar dies is already known by the entire fanbase isn't enough, the book opens with her death scene rewritten from her point of view. A good part of the book works like this, too, such as her relationship with Oakheart, Mosskit's death, and the fact that all of the characters who aren't in the first books will end up dead.
- Foreseeing My Death: Toward the end of the book, it is mentioned that medicine cat Goosefeather predicted that he would die on the day of the first snowfall, and he did.
- Freudian Excuse: Tigerstar had a father who abandoned him to become a kittypet, and a mentor who taught him to be violent and evil.
- From Stray to Pet: Pinestar, the leader of ThunderClan, left the Clan to live out the rest of his final life as a kittypet.
- Gender Bender:
- Foxheart of ShadowClan was female in her original appearance, a story in Secrets of the Clans, which was plot-relevant because she was thought by her Clan to be the mother of Brokentail. In this book Foxheart is male. (This is corrected in Yellowfang's Secret, where she is female once again.)
- Though male in the Allegiances list and a few places in the actual text, Shellheart of RiverClan appears as female for part of one battle around page 300.
- Bluestar's dead kit Mosskit was originally mentioned as male in Forest of Secrets and Secrets of the Clans. After appearing as female in Cats of the Clans'' and this book, the authors decided that the kit's official gender would be female.
- Give the Baby a Father: Bluefur has a forbidden inter-Clan relationship with Oakheart, and ends up having his children. Thrushpelt - despite also having feelings for Bluestar - offers to help her care for the kits and let their Clanmates assume that Thrushpelt was the father, in order to help her avoid any awkward questions about her kits' parentage, which Bluestar accepts.
- G-Rated Sex: Oakheart asks Bluestar to meet him somewhere at night, saying he wants to get to know her better. After a romantic evening, Bluestar starts begging to let herself enjoy "Just one night!". Next thing you know, Oakheart is building them a nest, and the next chapter skips to the next morning. Soon after, Bluestar is pregnant.
- I Got Bigger: Tigerclaw was the runt of his litter: the smallest and weakest. Not only did he get older and bigger, but he also became a giant among the Clan cats.
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Thrushpelt is in love with Bluefur, but she doesn't like him back in that way. When he finds out that Bluefur is pregnant and can't reveal who her mate is, what does he do? He offers to pretend to be the kits' father, and he shows great love for them even if he's not their real father.
- Kid Hero: The book begins when Bluekit has just barely opened her eyes.
- Leader Wannabe: Bluefur wanted to serve her Clan as leader, enough that she gave up her kits to become deputy, because she knew that the next deputy would become Clan leader and that she was the right choice to avoid suffering for her Clan.
- Look Both Ways: Bluestar's sister Snowfur tries to chase some ShadowClan warriors across the road, but a car comes by and hits her.
- Love Triangle: Thrushpelt loves Bluefur, who only likes him as a friend. She and Oakheart fall for each other instead. Thrushpelt accepts it, though: once Bluefur gets pregnant with Oakheart's kits, Thrushpelt says that he understands and offers to claim her kits as his own if she can't share who the real father is (which the Clan would believe, knowing of their friendship and his feelings for her.)
- Mad Oracle: Goosefeather was often seen as this, and indeed, many of his prophecies and signs seem rather questionable. The problem is that there are some actual premonitions in there too, so everyone ignores him when he starts getting really bad feelings about Tigerkit's future.
- May–December Romance: Pinestar and Leopardfoot: he's already a leader nearly on his last life when she's born.
- Meaningful Name:
- Bluekit and Snowkit are named for their pelt colors.
- Thistlekit is named for his spiky fur, Rosekit is named for the pinkish-gray color of her tail, and Sweetkit is named in honor of Pinestar's mother Sweetbriar.
- Bluefur named her kits Mistykit, Stonekit, and Mosskit because she wanted names that remind her of the river and their father.
- Meaningful Rename: Several cats earn their warrior name in this book, and Bluestar earns her leader name. White-eye and Sparrowpelt also are renamed One-eye and Halftail.
- Named After the Injury: White-eye and Sparrowpelt, by the end of the book, have been renamed One-eye and Halftail after injuries they've received in their lives.
- Not His Blood: After a battle with RiverClan, Bluefur is worried when she sees blood on her sister's pelt, but Snowfur reassures her that it's not her blood.
- Oblivious to Love: It takes three different cats to get Bluefur to admit that Thrushpelt has feelings for her, despite the fact that he was frequently staring at her, inviting her on patrols, and cracking jokes that only seemed to irk her. Not to mention the fact that she didn't even realize her own not-so-subtle attraction to Oakheart until he confessed his love to her.
- Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Oakheart and Bluestar were from different Clans. Bluestar became pregnant with his kits, and he offered to join ThunderClan to be with her. However, she stood a good chance of becoming deputy - she wouldn't be eligible for the position with kits - and she felt it was her duty to become deputy since she felt the only other cat being considered for the position would lead the Clan to disaster. Though she wished it could be otherwise, she ended the relationship, and after her kits were born, she gave them to Oakheart to raise in RiverClan.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Bluefur and Oakheart decided to sneak out to spend one night together, but then Bluefur decided that her loyalty to her Clan was more important and that that one night would be their only one. Bluefur becomes pregnant shortly afterward.
- Origins Episode: This book serves as Bluestar's.
- Passing the Torch: Halfway through the book, Pinestar, leader of ThunderClan, runs off to be a housecat and passes the torch to Sunfall.
- Perspective Flip:
- Since Bluestar's Prophecy, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, and Tallstar's Revenge all take place during roughly the same time frame, there are several scenes seen from a different point of view in each book.
- The scene where Thistleclaw sends Tigerpaw to attack a kit (who would turn out to be Scourge) was first seen in The Rise of Scourge from the kit's point of view; now we see it from Bluefur's.
- The manga at the end is an iconic scene from Into the Wild, but now we see it from Bluestar's point of view rather than Rusty's.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Thistleclaw, as an apprentice: He fought a dog. And won.
- Please Wake Up: Bluepaw does this when her mother Moonflower is killed by Hawkheart in the attack on the WindClan camp. The sequence is made even more heartbreaking when Bluepaw must relay the news to her sister Snowpaw.
- Predecessor Villain: Thistleclaw. He was the mentor of Tigerstar, the Arch-Enemy of Firestar's mentor Bluestar, and the cause of many major events in the series (such as the rise of Scourge, although he wasn't intending that).
- Prequel: Bluestar's Prophecy, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, and Tallstar's Revenge all take place about two generations before the original series.
- The Prophecy: Like fire, you will blaze through the forest. But beware! Even the most powerful flames can be destroyed by water.
- Rapid-Fire "Shut Up!": Bluepaw has a moment where she thinks "Shut up! Shut up!" when Sunfall starts to confront her about her antisocial, suicidally reckless behavior.
- Secret Relationship: Bluefur/Oakheart.
- Series Continuity Error:
- In the original series, One-Eye is listed as the oldest cat in ThunderClan. However, Smallear, Sparrowpelt (Halftail), and Speckletail are already warriors in this book - Smallear in fact is White-eye's mentor, making him clearly older.
- Lilystem is listed as Oakheart and Crookedstar's mother in this book. Crookedstar's Promise shows that Rainflower is their mother.
- In Code of the Clans (which was published just before this book), in the story "Pinestar's Secret" when Pinestar leaves, Leopardfoot confronts Pinestar about leaving her and the kits, and then afterward the last thing Pinestar does is talk to Lionpaw and tell him what his warrior name would be. In Bluestar's Prophecy, these two things happen in the opposite order.
- Near the end, Bluestar says she's lost seven lives. It should be six - in Into the Wild, she lost her seventh in the rat attack, her eighth was in Fire and Ice to greencough, and her ninth was in A Dangerous Path in the gorge.
- Seriously Scruffy: Goosefeather almost never washes himself and has extremely bad breath, possibly due to his role as the Mad Oracle, and the fact that his prophecies are often misleading.
- Shipper on Deck: Both Rosetail and Larksong ship BlueXThrush.
- Shoot the Medic First: ThunderClan leads an attack on the WindClan camp with the priority of attacking the medicine den and destroying their supplies, which is viewed as underhanded and cowardly. However, WindClan's medicine cat used to be a warrior, and he kills the cat who attempts it.
- Shout-Out: Fuzzypelt is named after Fuzzy Felt
, a toy Vicky remembers playing with when she was little. - Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Bluestar's Prophecy reveals that Tigerclaw, the massive, strong Big Bad of the series, was the runt of his litter: he was too weak even to feed, and wasn't expected to survive his first night. His mother chose the name Tigerkit in the hope that he'd become strong.
- Simultaneous Arcs: The four "prequel" Super Editions feature roughly the same timeframe from four different points of view. There are several direct scenes that the books share, sometimes featuring the characters talking to (or at least noticing) one of the others.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Thistleclaw and Oakheart are both said to be arrogant pricks...though Oakheart later turns out to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Smells of Death: Bluefur learns that death has a scent, and that that's why some of her Clanmates rubbed herbs like rosemary and mint on her mother and other cats' pelts when they died.
- Snow Means Death: One of Bluefur's kits, Mosskit, freezes to death in the snow when Bluefur is taking them to RiverClan to stay with their father, Oakheart. Later in the book, Goosefeather also accurately predicts that he'll die on the day of the first snowfall.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Bluefur ends up pregnant with her lover Oakheart's kits. Due to them being in different Clans, and the fact that she needs to become Clan deputy in order to prevent Thistleclaw from getting the position and leading the Clan into unnecessary wars, she has to leave her kits with Oakheart and not acknowledge her relationship with him or her kits for the rest of her life.
- Starts with Their Funeral: The prologue of Bluestar's Prophecy is Bluestar's death. The book then goes back to recount the story of her life.
- Stop Drowning and Stand Up: Bluefur attacks the enemy warrior Oakheart, but misses and falls into a river. Bluefur begs for Oakheart to save her, but he laughs and tells her to stand up, because she was "drowning" in shallow water.
- A Storm Is Coming: Featherwhisker forecasts rain for a few days, and it starts raining just before the battle with WindClan.
- Sudden Name Change: They considered doing this with Bluestar's mother in Bluestar's Prophecy. She was mentioned with the name Moonflower in Secrets of the Clans, but that was considered to be something of a mistake because the moon is significant to the Clans and they really wouldn't name a kit after it. When working on Bluestar's Prophecy they intended to name her Duskflower, even answering an "ask Erin" question on warriorcats.com using that name, but in the published book she appeared with her original name, Moonflower. Vicky later explained that at the time she answered it they were planning on changing the name but ultimately decided to keep the original name since it had already appeared in the books and just have the "moon" name be a one-off thing.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Bluefur is unaware that she is pregnant until another she-cat points it out.
- There Should Be a Law: Played for laughs when Bluepaw suggests that there should be something in the warrior code allowing you to put thistles in your denmate's nest.
- Together in Death: As Bluestar lies dying, her deceased mate Oakheart comes to lead her to StarClan, where she can not only be with him, but with her mother, sister, and kit as well.
- To Win Without Fighting: Sunstar decides to take back Sunningrocks from RiverClan by walking into their camp with a patrol and announcing that Sunningrocks is ThunderClan's territory now, and that any RiverClan blood spilled in an attempt to re-claim it will be on their leader Hailstar's paws. As Sunstar had planned, every Clan knows how strong ThunderClan is at that point, and RiverClan doesn't make an attempt to re-claim it after that.
- Tsundere: Bluestar in her youth. She was extremely proud, ambitious, and independent. Her "deredere" and "tsuntsun" sides were most frequently seen with her mate Oakheart. She hated his cockiness and arrogance right from the get-go, but fell genuinely in love with him and never did with another despite her difficultness.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
- Tigerclaw, big bad of the entire series, is seen in this prequel as a sweet, innocent, adorable kit who loves his mother and grows into a well-meaning but aggressive apprentice thanks to his Axe-Crazy mentor.
- Thistleclaw even qualifies, once promising his nursery denmates "I'll make sure the wind doesn't blow you away."
- Wax On, Wax Off: Bluepaw's training in Bluestar's Prophecy. Much of it focuses on boring tasks like gathering moss and cutting into smaller parts, to teach her patience, concentration and good control of her claws. Although, judging by Leopardpaw's reaction, it's possible her mentor just told her that so that the menial tasks would feel more important.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Stormtail was this when Bluestar was a young warrior.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Bluestar with water. The prophecy about her even said the only thing that could destroy her was water.
- Would Hurt a Child: Tigerpaw, under the orders of his mentor Thistleclaw, nearly killed a kittypet kit for straying onto ThunderClan territory. The only thing that stops him is Bluefur.
- Wrong Line of Work: Spottedpaw starts training as a warrior, but from early on she's very interested in herbs and eventually switches to being a medicine cat apprentice.
