Outcast is the third book of the third Warrior Cats series, Power of Three.
Tropes appearing in this book:
- Best Friend: Brook and Night have been best friends from the time they were kits.
- Cave Behind the Falls: The Tribe lives in one of these.
- Culture Clash: The Clans and the Tribe are rather similar, but there's enough difference in them that they can clash at times - especially when the Clan cats insist that the Tribe try to live like them in order to drive off intruders.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Stormfur is a deconstruction of Mighty Whitey. He's a cat from the main group in the series who gets discovered by the Tribe of Rushing Water, a group with strange customs, initially is thought to be The Chosen One destined to save them, and even gets to date a native she-cat, and eventually chooses to stay with the Tribe. Plus he gets to train the tribe cats in his fighting skills to later save them from some rogues who they're utterly helpless against without him. But not only is he not really The Chosen One, but his strategy only ends up failing and leading to the deaths of many Tribe cats rather than saving the Tribe like he believed it would, and once he finally gets to come back and make up for everything by saving them for real, he and the other cats realize that, however they want to defend the Tribe, they don't want to force their culture on them or constantly be their rescuers.
- Discontinuity Nod: In the first series, apprentices would always travel to the Moonstone before becoming a warrior. Fans pointed out that the characters hadn't been doing it in recent books, even though the Clans had found a replacement for the Moonstone in their new home. Leafpool comments in a scene in this book, "We seem to have left that tradition behind when we came to our new home."
- Empowered Badass Normal: Lionpaw started out as a very strong, yet very normal, warrior. Then in this book, he starts developing the powers of invincibility, becoming exceptionally strong.
- Ensemble Cast: The Power of Three arc features three protagonists: Jaypaw, Hollypaw, and Lionpaw.
- Hiss Before Fleeing: In Jaypaw's flashback of Stormfur's memories, Stormfur does this when the mountain invaders win the first battle against the Tribe.
- Irony: One line in this book becomes ironic after you read Sunrise: While thinking about Crowfeather, Hollypaw thinks "I'm glad he's not my father!" Three guesses what gets revealed three books later.
- Leader Wannabe: Hollypaw decides that she wants to be the leader of her Clan someday, and spends some time thinking about what she can work on to achieve this.
- Medical Monarch: The leader of the Tribe of Rushing Water is called the Tribe-Healer (or just Healer). They serve as leader, spiritual leader, and medic for the Tribe.
- Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: Tribe cats, although most of the time they use shortened versions of their names.
- Not His Blood: When Lionpaw comes out of a rough battle completely covered in blood, his siblings panic, assuming that he's badly injured, and are shocked to discover that none of it is his own.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Fans suspected Spiderleg and Daisy of having a one-night stand when the characters suddenly have kits after barely speaking together. Even then, he barely looks at her and is incredibly awkward around the kits until others criticize him for not being a good father to them. The authors have confirmed that this is indeed the result of the characters having a one-night stand.
- One-Word Title: Outcast.
- Past-Life Memories: Cinderpaw has memories of her past life as Cinderpelt, but she has only ever shown signs of remembering them in her dreams, or recalls her past life subconsciously.
- Putting the Band Back Together: The chosen cats from The New Prophecy join back together to help the Tribe.
- The Quest: After two Tribe cats come to the lake asking for the Clan cats' help, a group travels to the mountains to see what they can do.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Originally, in Moonrise, the outcast Tribe cat Bird was a gray-brown she-cat with the full name "Bird Who Rides The Wind". Dawn had changed her full name and appearance, but this book attempts to correct that: she has her original description, but her name is now "Bird That Rides The Wind".
- Icewing had blue eyes in the Dark River allegiances, but now has green in the Outcast allegiances.
- In Dawn, Stoneteller told Cinderpelt that Tribe healers do not share dreams with their ancestors. In this book, a member of the Tribe of Endless Hunting visits Stoneteller, and it is not treated as anything out of the ordinary.
- Strange Salute: The Tribe's greeting gesture: extending one paw while bowing the head.
- Switching P.O.V.: Hollypaw, Jaypaw, and Lionpaw.
- Title Drop: "We were outcasts for a while, that's all."
- Training the Peaceful Villagers: Some Clan cats lead the normally peaceful Tribe of Rushing Water to battle against invaders. And then they teach them both diplomacy.
- Unfortunate Names: The apprentices joke about what kind of horrible name Firestar could give Berrypaw. They come up with "Berrystumpytail". Jaypaw then hopes that Leafpool won't name him after his blindness, and Hollypaw suggests he could be "Jayno-eyes".
- Un-person: When Stormfur and Brook were exiled, Stoneteller had declared that they were now dead to the Tribe, and when they return, he and others insist that they can't return because they're dead. Stormfur points out that just because Stoneteller says they're dead doesn't mean that they actually are.
- World's Best Warrior: Lionpaw, whose special power is Nigh-Invulnerability.
