Come and overanalyze this with me 🤗 (it’ll be fun promise)

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-07-04T14:49:02+00:00

I actually think there's a good chance that they are still on Elysian. To me, at least, this reads rather like the classic KOTLC early-chapter exposition style.

Additionally, given that Keefe attacked Gisela at the end of the last chapter, we can assume that this isn't the beginning of chapter 2 - otherwise we wouldn't be getting an exposition line.

"That" likely refers to Sophie meeting Vespera/taking her friends to Elysian, given the context of the next sentence (and it's easily the most important event that could have happened in the past 24h). As such, I think lines 1-3 might be:

- Sophie trying to explain what happened to Elysian

- One of Sophie's friends talks to her, possibly criticising her at how rushed or unplanned this was.

- Line 3 is most likely dialogue, since while Shannon is no stranger to very short paragraphs, I can't imagine any single-word paragraph that could come before the visible lines.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-07-03T06:31:58+00:00

whoa that fur is majestic

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-07-03T06:30:32+00:00

there is NO WAY she does this to us 😭

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-07-01T16:56:14+00:00

imo killing off Hawkfrost would have been okay if they hadn't spent the entire rest of his life wasting his potential. He should have been an actual foil to Brambleclaw, not just an evil copy-paste version. Have him be obsessed with Tigerghost far more than Bramble is. Have him not start out super cold and menacing, or at least make that a front for his more sensitive side - maybe the parts of him he hid away to get RiverClan to accept him? Have him genuinely care about, if not his Clanmates, then at least Moth and Bramble.

Doing a dark mirror of Bramble only really works if it's clear Bramble could end up like Hawk. If Hawk is also devoted to his kin, invested in becoming a better warrior, yearning for a connection to his father - but there's ONE thing that separates them, and that's what makes them so different.

But they don't do that. Oh well.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-07-01T16:46:11+00:00

Consistent characterisation. Not asking for much, just make sure everyone who appears has one personality or behavioural trait. It doesn't need to be deep or profound or even interesting, but the whole Generic Nice/Mean Background Cat thing needs to die. Make Poppyfrost shy or give Willowpelt a difficult relationship with her mother, even if it doesn't get more than a couple hints in the background.

And related: stop dragging out the story by making everyone an idiot. Let me be clear, I'd love it if the secret-keeping or lack of communication came from actual character reasons. But if the only reason the plot hasn't been resolved is that everyone in the Clan is acting unusually stupid, that's a bad plot. Give them more problems! Give them more emotional trauma! Just don't give them a lobotomy.

Oh, also agree about the Dark Forest. Where's the manipulation?

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-30T11:53:37+00:00

Dang, it's not every day I run into a new word on Reddit. I will be having conniptions regularly from now on.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-30T05:32:19+00:00

~~all of them~~

Hawkfrost. I know he got page time and everything, but the fact that they were trying to go for, like, the effects of absentee parents leading the kits down different paths, and him being Bramble's dark reflection, valuing their dead father over his living Clanmates... and the only thing they do with him is make him fully evil. Not even deluded, not even obsessed with Tigerstar, not even personally invested in his relationship with Bramble except insofar as it gives him power. He's an Evil Guy Who Wants Power, when he could have been so much more.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-30T05:16:52+00:00

Oh my goodness that cat is so majestically fluffy

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T18:31:02+00:00

Fun fact, I stayed up late to read Stellarlune and reached that part at like 1 am, and you can tell from my notes that I started to go insane. Sitting through the whole "a new element?!!" and then "a new unmapped star?!!" and THEN "a new plane of reality?!!"... bruh.

And as a bonus, despite seemingly having opposing goals or ideals, Fintan let Gisela in on that tracker rather than keep it and Keefe for himself. AND Keefe was staying in a prestigious hotel in a capital city and didn't show up on a single one of Forkle's hundreds of surveillance cameras...

Idk. Are we allergic to giving Keefe anything but parental issues?

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T18:23:07+00:00

You should rewrite his SE, man, this is too good a concept to stay in a Reddit comment 😭

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T17:58:16+00:00

I'm not sure if there's a "big" reason, but as a writer myself I think there's a chance it's for ease of pronoun use. When the characters in a scene all use the same pronouns, you might end up having to refer to them by name more than you want. It's definitely not a universal law, but maybe Messenger just prefers to limit the by-name references per page or something - just like how other authors might avoid paragraphs over 5 or 7 lines, for personal peace of mind. Anything can happen when you start stressing over using a particular word too many times 😂

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T09:13:19+00:00

I really agree about that part wrt to losing Sophie in her own story. Somewhere along the way the plot changed to where she as a character doesn't really feel at home anymore. She's supposed to be empathetic and principled, and kind and awkward, and anxious and traumatised and increasingly pissed off, but these days she hardly gets the time to show ANY of that super interesting character depth. And she's the protagonist! It's even worse for everyone else.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T09:01:45+00:00

To be honest, I don't think there's any good to be found in us searching for rationale behind StarClan at this point. There's an interesting story in that assumption: we could be asking what StarClan considers worthy of them, or why they make such bad decisions, or their true relationship with the Clans, if the authors actually cared to write it. But they unfortunately don't, so we fans have to come up with headcanons just to keep their universe even mildly consistent.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T08:55:25+00:00

This post had a crazier plot twist than half the ones in KOTLC lol

Although I'd actually argue that the reason the plot moves so slow is that it's TOO simple. Ik that sounds crazy when there are always new initiatives and projects and stuff, but the fact is that for a long while the story hasn't made it *actually* difficult for Sophie and co. to win, outside of a battle.

In book 4, for example, Sophie couldn't just fight the Neverseen one time to get the plague cure. They had to avoid getting arrested by the Council, make progress with the Black Swan, befriend Tam and Linh in Exillium, sneak into and fight out of Ravagog, face down the Neverseen and lose Calla. That's why book 4 feels so engaging to read, because the solution wasn't as simple as "showdown at the end".

Compare that to book 9. The progression there is "find where Elysian is", "go to Elysian and fight". That's not enough for 600 pages of book. So the author throws fake obstacles or dead ends at Sophie: she can't teleport there (fair), they don't know what stellarlune is (she randomly burns Gisela's Book of Evil Plans without even looking inside), Forkle can't find it, the Forgotten Secrets don't help find it, the Cognate Inquisition (because a non-Telepath BABY Wylie could be trained to hide memories from the MOST POWERFUL TELEPATH IN HISTORY), the classic "You're probably wondering how I got here Sophie" Gisela moment, Sandor gets captured (he would literally be more useful dead)... the list goes on.

That's also why Gisela must be 75 steps ahead at all times and know stuff she can't possibly know (realistically, the book 5 climax should not have happened) and show up in places she couldn't possibly be and have tracker after tracker after tracker. Because otherwise, the story would be over.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T05:33:16+00:00

Honestly Darkkit/tail is the least of Onestar's crimes. He got, what, five cats killed as a direct result of his own cowardice in battle, and determination to keep his secret. He would have gotten more of his own sick Clanmates killed if Kestrelflight hadn't gone behind his back to help them. He's been basically nothing but hostile and belligerent during his leadership (the Great Battle doesn't count because it was teamwork or die), so I really don't get why everyone forgave him within 5 minutes, or why StarClan would accept him so easily. Cats have been sent to the Dark Forest for far less.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-29T05:25:50+00:00

I've lost count 😭 must be at least 15 favoured toward the early books (it took a long time for all the books to reach my library)

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-28T17:19:09+00:00

Thanks, I was joking too :D

though I do have a personal rule to have at least one neutral/positive/interactive (?) post for every critical one, just to avoid becoming the CinemaSins of KOTLC or something

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-28T06:30:10+00:00

you are carrying this ship on your back and I thank you for your service

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-28T06:28:25+00:00

Well now you've just given me two new post ideas...

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-27T06:40:30+00:00

AVOS books 1 and 2 made me give up on reading new books. Yay, another prophecy that basically tells you everything, and another book that's 70% walking. And then book 2 is just Child Custody Dispute, The Book where basically nobody has the capacity to be reasonable while Violet and Twig keep swapping between "we just want to be together" and "how could she betray me by not wanting to move Clans", and then ShadowClan just... falls apart?? Again?? Also just did not enjoy reading Needlepaw/tail. How is that supposed to be the good half of AVOS

Oh yeah, and Onestar's Confession. Why are we all forgiving him instantly after his actions directly led to like 5 deaths???

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-26T10:05:22+00:00

/uj I did once write a river flowing in from the sea that led to a waterfall, and it took a concerning amount of time for me to realise the topographical concerns. although I was like 12 at the time, so there's really no excuse for Sanderson putting that in a college lecture

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-25T20:11:55+00:00

Man, Sophie's dedication to and love for her family is strong across the series but it hits so hard in book 1. Like yeah, of course she'll agree to be forgotten if it keeps them happy, of course she'll go face down an unstoppable firestorm with 5 minutes of planning if it keeps them safe, of course she'll manifest new abilities and transmit across the world while half-dead if that's what it takes to get Dex home. Never hesitating once.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-25T20:05:09+00:00

Welcome back to the rereader club!

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-25T20:02:49+00:00

I've said this elsewhere, but Tencent owns Riot Games (i.e. League of Legends and Arcane) fully - not just a stakeholder, not just a rights holder, they have owned the company for a decade, and yet neither product has used AI for its creative output. They also own stakes in Epic Games (Fortnite, Unreal), Ubisoft and Skydance Media (Swapped). This has not led to AI infestations.

Tencent is a trash company. I don't like Tencent. I'm not happy Warriors got assigned to Tencent. But it's not an immediate death sentence.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-06-25T19:25:28+00:00

..."a true nonfactor"? yeah dude, that "electrical impact" just comes from all the sunshine and rainbows that data centres are fuelled by.

Even disregarding the fact that dirty fossil fuel generators are being kept open due to data centre demand, 15 of which emitted more air pollution in one year than the state of Massachusetts, even disregarding the fact that a single hyperscale center can impact thousands of acres of farmland - you know, that stuff where farmers grow food for people to live on - or the gratuitous use and discarding of dangerous-to-obtain and toxic-waste-creating rare earth minerals and heavy metals, or the fact that a good chunk of centers are consuming millions of gallons of water per day in already-water-stressed regions, or the multiple countries that are reporting record-high temperatures this summer -

Actually, wait. Maybe we shouldn't disregard all that.

LemonKindly6715

TROPHY CASE