Warrior cats!!

[zawieja]

There are a few fandoms I've seen that seem to like to embrace their "peak" 2000s internet era. Warrior cats seems to be one of them, so I think a small discussion about it on this forum is a must!

For people who might be unfamiliar with it, Warrior Cats is a terribly long book series about, well, groups of feral cats, written by Erin Hunter, who is secretely a few authors in disguise. A lot of kids enjoyed these books, and since they are still being released, this fandom is still going strong and still gets an influx of new fans.

I see older fans having a lot of nostalgia for the old youtube animations or old internet culture, including art accounts or tumblr blogs dedicated to it.

So, how about you?
✦ Have you been a warrior cats kid? Are you still a fan?
✦ Have you used to play RPs on the forums? Maybe even kept a blog or a website? Youtube account with animation?
✦ Or have you made your own characters, self-inserts, imaginary clans?

Please share!

˗ ˏˋ ❀ ´ˎ ˗

Personally, I've been a fan for I don't know how long. 15 years or more! So I've seen a lot, drawn a lot, and tried to write my own fanfics that never got anywhere :P I've never interacted with the other fans all that much. I've tried to RP on the forums but it was never quite my cup of tea. I still make lots of fanart for it! I've also somewhat recently revisited my childhood creations, took some of the ideas, made them make sense... It was a lot of fun! Here is the self-insert character I've remade from the time when I was 10, Blackfeather! When I was 11 I used to draw very bad quality comics about her saving the clans from some weird-red eyed loners.

[sokil]

OH NOW WE'RE TALKIN'!

the warrior cats series was one of my absolute favorites as a kid!!! i think i started to read the series when i was about eight years old; my mom bought me a copy of into the wild (i think she might've also gotten fire and ice alongside it, but i don't recall) and thought i'd be interested in it. either way, i read those two books alone over and over again before finally getting the rest of the original arc. i'd often go to the library since they had a lot of warriors books - even some of the graphic novels (or are they considered manga?) and super editions! i never read too many things outside of the main series, but i did really like the scourge novel and the ravenpaw's path series. i spent loads of time reading all the lore, watching AMVs/animations and any other warriors related videos i could find on youtube, and even did some warrior cats roleplaying back in the day on a few warriors-centric forums. i don't remember if i ever created my own clan, but i definitely had a handful of characters that i created...sadly i only sort of remember one, which was a white cat with black paws named jet (yes, i did really like blackstar xD).

this was all around ten years ago, though; over time i gradually moved onto other things and the warriors forums i used to hang out on have all died as far as the books go, i believe the last i read was arc 3? i still have all of my old books and that might be as far as the ones i own go up to. i've noticed that warrior cats has become even more popular in recent years, and it's definitely inspired me to get back into reading the series again! ^^ i even saw that the series had been translated into the language i'm learning, which played a part in me wanting to reread them. either way, there's definitely a lot of catching up i have to do with the series

while i have warrior cats animations on the brain, i must point out that the SSS warrior cats animated series was one of my favorite things in the whole world back then. definitely recommend checking it out if you've never seen it before!

and one more classic, because how could i not share this:

[MrsMoe]

I LOVED WARRIOR CATS AS A KID!!!!

Sadly, I don't think they hold up very well as an adult. I find the first arc to be pretty bland, which is ironic considering it was the only arc I ever completed. But yeah, I used to watch warrior cats-related anything on youtube back during the early 2010s. I spoiled SO MUCH for myself, but I didn't really care. I loved the animatics, the fanart slideshows, and even those goddamn crack videos that were everywhere.

Also, I spent a lot of time on warriorcatsrpg. PLEASE tell me someone here remembers that site 

[glitterpigeon]

oh I was obsessed with warrior cats! arguably it got me into art! my friend and I would roleplay it constantly on the playground, making a lot of ocs and building these elaborate narratives. before I knew other people wrote fanfic, I was writing my own on loose sheets of lined paper I shoved into my backpack! I also did a lot of rp online, and I still remember some of the people I did it with (I will always miss you, ava...) one time I bound all of the warriors ttrpg into a book!

it's also one reason im against putting children into strict "reading levels" that tell them what they are or aren't good enough to read. I was told I wasn't allowed to read the books because I wasn't good enough (I couldn't really read at the same level as my peers until I was like. 10) but I really wanted to read the books so I ignored this and read them anyways. it turns out challenging yourself and doing things that are hard is actually very important for learning! i went from barely being able to read to being better than most people and loving to read in a year, after years of struggling.

don't let anyone tell you you can't learn something! try to engage with art you don't understand yet! embrace mystery, uncertainty and confusion!

[zawieja]

my mom bought me a copy of into the wild (i think she might've also gotten fire and ice alongside it, but i don't recall) and thought i'd be interested in it. either way, i read those two books alone over and over again before finally getting the rest of the original arc.

Funnily enough I was rereading the same two books over and over again but for a different reason... Nothing after fire and ice was translated to my language for years 

i've noticed that warrior cats has become even more popular in recent years, and it's definitely inspired me to get back into reading the series again! ^^ i even saw that the series had been translated into the language i'm learning, which played a part in me wanting to reread them. either way, there's definitely a lot of catching up i have to do with the series

while i have warrior cats animations on the brain, i must point out that the SSS warrior cats animated series was one of my favorite things in the whole world back then. definitely recommend checking it out if you've never seen it before!

and one more classic, because how could i not share this:

I hope you will have fun with it again!  It's not the best series, but it can still be enjoyable if you just let it be fun and not expect top-tier writing. Fifth arc is definitely my favorite, maybe you will get to it some day! And I agree, SSS animations were absolutely amazing back in the day, and they still hold up very well  Generally speaking, the animation scene coming from warrior cats fans is really amazing and unlike any other.

oh I was obsessed with warrior cats! arguably it got me into art! my friend and I would roleplay it constantly on the playground, making a lot of ocs and building these elaborate narratives. before I knew other people wrote fanfic, I was writing my own on loose sheets of lined paper I shoved into my backpack! I also did a lot of rp online, and I still remember some of the people I did it with (I will always miss you, ava...) one time I bound all of the warriors ttrpg into a book!

it's also one reason im against putting children into strict "reading levels" that tell them what they are or aren't good enough to read. I was told I wasn't allowed to read the books because I wasn't good enough (I couldn't really read at the same level as my peers until I was like. 10) but I really wanted to read the books so I ignored this and read them anyways. it turns out challenging yourself and doing things that are hard is actually very important for learning! i went from barely being able to read to being better than most people and loving to read in a year, after years of struggling.

don't let anyone tell you you can't learn something! try to engage with art you don't understand yet! embrace mystery, uncertainty and confusion!

Aw, playing warrior cats on a playground sounds like a lot of fun, I'm happy for you that you got to experience that!  Yes, most people wrote elaborate narratives without knowing what fanfiction even is back then.

I learned english just because I really wanted to read more of  these silly cat books, so I definitely agree! When kids - and even adults - are very motivated, they will pull through and learn a lot along the way~

[EdenInTheGardens]

Ohohoh !!! I loved warrior cats too, despite never getting very deep into all of the books (because only the first few were at my school library), but that didn't stop me from making original characters or roleplaying online, mostly on skype.

What I really loved was the warrior cats MAPs (multi animator project) on youtube, like Roxanne , and because I didn't have access to most of the books and didn't know how to speak english yet, it was the main way I got information on what happened in the most recent books.

I had plenty of thoughts about Warrior Cats and the things I would have changed about it, so when I was younger I had plans for a fanfic where i'd change some things to suit my taste better (with all new clans and cats), but I never did it either, still it was very cool to see all the fanfictions and fan clans people did and still do !

I've also seen that Into the Wild got a graphic novel adaptation recently and I haven't checked it out yet but I do really like the art style, so i'm excited to see where this will go !! 

[Wildcat]

OG Warrior Cats fan here! Loved the books since I was what, six? I stopped reading after the fourth series though. I still keep up with via proxy on Tumblr with fanart. The arc with Ashfur is CRAZY.

Anyways, I still have all of my books back home. I remember going online and roleplaying as my Warriors OCs online on independent websites such as Kugyay and whatnot before the Warriors forums were a thing. Speaking of which, my Warriors fanon univerese was both convoluted and completely bonkers.

I also really miss those old AMVs people used to make, such as flightfootwarrior's AMVs. Everyone makes MAPs these days. I also used to be obsessed with Warriors trollfics. Anyone remember Starkit's Prophecy?

[Audball]

I'm going through the first series right now actually!

In middle school I read most of the first book and liked it as much as I could back then (I was so anti-reading back then, the fact that it was a book at all already deducted a LOT of points from it. ), but now I'm giving it the chance I should've given it back then! Even though the books never held my interest then, I still would occasionally be where warrior cats fans were (i.e. that warrior cats roblox rp game, back when all the cats were made of cylinders. )

I've just finished book two of the first series and oh my GOSH I love it so much.

I also didn't remember how violent the series was lol. Nothing I don't think kids would handle but I didn't realize how brutal it got!

[DiffydaDude]

I LOVE WARRIORS!!!
I just got back into the books, oh i havent read them since 5th grade but i already wanna be a warrior cat. anybody wanna hang out and talk abt warrior cats stuff?
Im waiting for my library to get ahold of fire and ice so i can read that one.
Also my warriors OC is named applefoot! Hes red and white and is a young warrior.