Fun fact about cat communication irl: adult cats only communicate to each other with pure body language. Maybe a hiss if they're threatened, or a vocalization to their kits or humans, but for the most part, they don't "talk" and don't actually need to hear each other to communicate. Warriors just need an excuse to have full blown conversations in ways their human audience can understand, and meowing is the obvious choice, apparently
honestly i feel like the lack of body language makes it super obvious that warriors is basically about fluffy humans bc its so obvious looking at cats that body language is primarily how they interact
More reasons why I think the “DISABLED CATS CANT BE WARRIORS” stuff the books keep saying is literal fox dung, especially if they can be autistic coded from an autistic person. Honestly the reason why I prefer fannon and the Clan Gen game over cannon because you don’t see them getting forced into the medicine cat or elder role,heck in Clan Gen can see them becoming leaders or deputy which I appreciate because it literally proves the books wrong! I remembered thinking that it was actually pretty sweet of one of my leaders to pick a three legged cat for their deputy, not because of something about them being three legged but because they believed them to be right for the job regardless of whatever permit conditions they have. I’ve literally watched a three legged cat climb up and down a flight of stairs and furniture, I can’t be convinced that being a medicine cat is somehow easier than a warrior, I’m sorry but I can’t.
@@magena120 honestly as someone whos seen the behaviour of disabled cats plus having a deaf cat myself, they do NOT give a fuck ab any disability they have lmao
I'm hard of hearing and Snowkit literally traumatized me. I went from being so excited, so hopeful, from seeing a deaf character in my favorite series! I was already imagining all the ways I would be able to see myself in Snowkit as he grew up. I was already seeing myself in the way all the hearing adults in his life talked about him like he was furniture, not an actual living child standing right there. It was tough, but I had hope it would all come together. And then he died. I remember feeling like a popped balloon. For a 10 year old to see themselves in a character because of that character's disability, only for said character to die in the most terrifying way possible followed by the book going "well what do you expect? he had it coming by being deaf" felt so alienating and scary. I will never forgive Warriors for what they did to Snowkit, and what they did to a hard of hearing kid who didn't deserve to have their favorite book series tell them that their disability made them as good as dead. Thanks for covering my boy. In a better universe, I'm hoping this video was longer and talked about all the great things Snowkit did as a proud, deaf warrior.
I never thought of this! And in retrospect that makes Snowkits death even more traumatising - I'm sorry you had to go through that, I keep remembering that this is a kids book, which is going to be influencial
Honestly I felt the same way- and I'm an able-bodied person. I'm gonna chalk it up to my impression on characters with disabilities, that being Toph from Atla. So I had high hopes for Snowkit, believing he'll find a way to adapt to his circumstances. As a kid reading about Snowkit got me interested and excited on how they will tackle him as a character and to just have him die like that and so suddenly made me very upset. ESPECIALLY when other cats acted so nonchalant about him dying. Not to the extent of you however, I couldn't imagine feeling that way as a child.
Hey, thanks for talking about your experience and thoughts with this! I was thinking the exact same thing, since I genuinely didn't remember the books being this harsh towards any disabled cast. It _sucks_
Him being deaf made him stand out as distinctive and unique which made him feel like he was going to be important or do something and NOPE HE JUST DIES. Snowkit deserved SO MUCH BETTER and he SHOULD HAVE LIVED. The story would have been objectively more interesting had he survived. I'm able-bodied and I can still see that Snowkit being deaf made him seem more important than all the background cats that had no defining traits at all. The writers had no excuse for not realizing.
As a deaf person, Snowkit's death was...incredibly disappointing. If he was just death fodder, *why* make him deaf? Why have Firestar and Bluestar constantly doubt he could be a warrior? Speckletail and Brackenfur almost seem to be portrayed as *unreasonable* or *naive* thinking that Snowkit could be a warrior and his death almost seems to prove them wrong? Plus there's never another deaf character beyond Snowkit (and the unnamed kit of Dappletail's, which again, also died). Also additionally, I hate the 'his hearing was restored in StarClan' so much, like bruh? He was born deaf, let him stay deaf. It's uncomfortablely close to the whole 'Disabled people are sad and unhappy unless they are abled' thing; Besides, I know many deaf ppl who choose not to wear hearing aids or cochlear implants and are perfectly satisfied with that.
Him getting his hearing back in StarClan did nothing but add salt in the wound. Don't get me wrong, I think it makes sense for some cats to be more abled in StarClan after they pass (I think it was said to be a choice disabled characters make when they enter), if I was Briarlight and I had the chance to use my legs again, I'd take it too. The difference is that Snowkit didn't even have time to become a character, AND his chances to be a warrior were unnecessarily doubted, AND he was, as you say, "death fodder". Man, what a grim term. I can imagine this whole arc of him growing up and the cats learning to communicate with him through physical motions. And cats already communicate through body language anyway so canonising that would not only be inclusive, but cool as hell! What a wasted opportunity.
This is like the moth’s wing thing. She just stops having ADHD randomly and as a person with ADHD myself that is just cruel to people who identified with her.
FR THO!! i dont understand how they introduced him in the book and straight away killed him. Like what was the point of writing in that he was deaf? at least let the hawk kill him.another book but its still cruel. He shouldve beengiven a proper chance
I remember being so disappointed that Firestar never gave Brightheart an apprentice. She was my favourite character and I just wanted to see her shine and maybe even get a chance to be deputy. I just wish she and all the other disabled characters were treated better.
I don't care what canon says Snowkit was dropped by the Hawk in a bush and he got adopted into a loving family or something else wholesome and he lived a perfectly fulfilled life
I suddenly need an AU where Snowkit gets to grow up. What new techniques could he create to help other deaf cats, the way Brightheart and Cloudtail learned to compensate for half blindness? What kind of relationships might he have had with other cats? Would he have been really good on patrol since he would be more used to using smells to identify things around him? Could Brackenfur have mentored him and developed tail-based sign language? What sort of outrageous shenanigans could have resulted from him meeting Jayfeather? I wish we saw more disabled cats learning to get along just fine with their disabilities without it just being 'uh, here, go be a medicine cat and/or die for the plot, thanks'.
@@Lari_crescent_moon If I were an animator I totally would. Maybe a fanfic though if writing warriors fanfic ever strikes me. We could just boot out Brambleclaw from TNP and have Snowkit eventually become Snowstar. 👀
Theres like fifthy snowkit story in AO3 Also deaf cats mostly only happen to white cats with blue eyes. So as long as cats with blue eyes have babies with not white cats with not blue eyes its fine
@@scarfstrings.134 I mean sure but this book series long ago decided it didn't care about real cat genetics so theoretically anyone could pop out another Snowkit at any time lol.
I have a deaf character named Snowfoot, who’s partially inspired by snowkit but also inspired by typical snow shows that allow you to walk over snow without sinking. He’s gentle and whip smart, and his brother, Copperfoot, and his father Dimblaze are deeply defensive of him. He’s known for being an excellent fighter, due to his sharper eyes and inability to get distracted by distant screams and taunts. Notably, as part of my worldbuilding, he’s also a very good asset for his Clan against one of their enemies, EchoClan. EchoClan, who lives in a rocky, gorge filled territory, tends to fight by leading their enemies astray by sending echoes down valleys in misleading ways to separate their enemies. Snowfoot often leads battle patrols when fighting EchoClan bc he’s completely immune to this strategy, allowing him to keep his cats in line. His Clan also organized a kind of mock sign language to keep him in the loop, which kits basically grow up learning now. The cats are smart enough to do math and have an organized religion. They can take care of a deaf cat.
@@-w-1870 unfortunately, I haven’t made his story interesting enough for a full book, even a novella. He really is just a partial side character who happens to be deaf lol. I have typed up a little five chapter thing for him, since I was close to giving him a romance with an EchoClan she-cat, but I’m fairly sure I lost it😭
hoping for a video focusing on crookedstar and or rainflower as one of the few examples of a mother in warrior cats being **intentionally** written as abusive, or on a more positive side, crookedstar being one of the only disabled cats who doesn’t get shoved into the medicine cat role
Or dumped into the Elders' den. Finleap is a good candidate too. His character arc is one of the best in the entire series, in my opinion, and he is one of my favourite characters. He handled the loss of his tail so well and he gained the mental maturity to realize Twigbranch's wants were important to him as well. I would love to see him get his own book someday!
I think someone interesting to do a mini-talk about would be Flutterfoot. He’s a WindClan cat and has never appeared in a book outside of the allegiances. He has a very cute name and could lead into a conversation about other non-existent cats, or how WindClan is severely underused, or or the quantity > quality the books have adopted.
I wish Snowkit wasn't killed off cause like, you could do so much interesting things with him. Like, sure, there's the medicine cat choice, but I like to think of like a Toph-esc idea where he uses like vibrations or something to tell if someone or something is close, or you could do like how cats sign and stuff. It's just so cool to think about and saddens me that it was never ment to be
I always saw him as the final straw for bluestar. I dont think his deafness was really ment for anything but mild drama with his poor mom. If he lived im absolutely sure he would have made a fine warrior.
I actually believe Snowkit could have been trained to be a warrior if he had lived. Cats in real life communicate nonverbally through body movements, such as the curvature of their tails. If someone in ThunderClan had adopted a tail gesture system like Speckletail tried to teach him and used some other forms of nonverbal communication, Snowkit could have become a warrior, though it might have taken an extra moon or two to ensure he could communicate with other warriors freely with this system. Just because he was deaf does not mean some type of system could not have been introduced to still communicate with him nonverbally.
Snowkit dying always annoyed me. Because even if he would be at a disadvantage in combat or hunting (which, doubt) - being a warrior is supposedly more than that anyway? He could've been a mentor or a camp guard easily. They could've had it that he often helps the queens (especially since he likely would've been very fond of his mother after how persistent she was??) or travel with the medicine cats when gathering herbs or to visit starclan. He could've been really interesting even as a background feature, honestly.
I would love to see a main POV warrior character who is deaf, partially because it would be so intresting to read their perspective. Like, they would have to rely a lot more on body language, maybe developing a kind of secret code: which could be used for sending messages if there was a tense scene! With all the the wild stuff that happens I think Warrior Cats Sign Language would hardly be the weirdest thing to happen. Also having a warrior whose deaf could just be really lovely representation. That's all.
Maybe you should do YellowFang next! I haven’t seen you do her, but I personally like her as a character and I think she’s pretty interesting! But what I Also like is she was the last female medicine cat in Shadowclan (from what I counted, it also makes it more interesting)
I will never stop being pissed about snowkit's death. He's specifically singled out as having a distinctive trait, which gives him more importance than other more meaningless background characters. And then he F***ING DIES to a COMPLETELY CONTRIVED EVENT. There is NO ACTUAL REASON he couldn't have grown up and become a perfectly competent warrior and done LITERALLY ANYTHING.
I mostly remember cloudpaw (kit?) going “Well I’m sure glad that I wasn’t born deaf, being white with blue eyes!” And Fireheart going “uh huh” and not really listening.
i remember distinctly thinking a lot about snowkit, especially since i had a little bit of time to think about him as i couldn't read for the rest of the school day. I was so curious to find out how they would deal with this kit who is deaf, like they did with jayfeather, only for the literal next scene being him snatched away by a hawk and his mother screams in sorrow bc even though she has protected him for so long already, it wasnt enough. it made me so sad
I'm so glad that you talked about him! I immediately found snowkit very interesting and was hoping to read more about him. How he interacts with others and every day things, how he'd grow up and how he would be trained. I was and am still pretty sad and disappointed when he died just like that.
Could you talk about Tawnypelt next? I think she has a really interesting storyline, being tigerstar's offspring, switching clans, allying with thunderclan (in the later series)… and I think it could make for a good video. :)
One of my biggest problems with Warriors is how ableist they are, especially if you look at how real disabilities affect real cats versus how they're treated in canon. I learned this when I wrote a cat character without a leg (completely unrelated to Warriors) and actually looked up how cats function when missing a leg! Turns out, incredibly well! Why the fuck is Cinderpelt confined to the medicine den when she is fully able to hunt and fight (just like real cats) and doesn't even have to worry so much about overeating, due to the fact that her leg is still there?? Either Erin Hunter doesn't do any research on their disabled cats (problem) or they know perfectly well that they can function just fine, with or without accommodations that can be afforded due to being in a society, and just do it anyway to fulfill some sort of narrative (also a problem)
I totally forgot that they made Snowkit hearing in Starclan. Like it’s bad enough that he was yet another disabled character that was told that he “couldn’t be a warrior” and that he was killed off, but did they ALSO need to make the part of his “happy” afterlife him no longer being disabled??? I already have bad feelings about them doing that to characters who acquired disabilities, but a kitten born disabled and living in literal heaven wouldn’t be able to be “cured” in death, because it was how he was born. Likewise, if Starclan makes you appear when you were happiest (which is the excuse for most other disabled characters being “cured” in Starclan) that doesn’t apply to someone who never experienced life while hearing. Also, imagine how upsetting that would be to a literal child, to die and then wake up with an entirely new, loud sense, without any warning,
I have a personal concept for a fic/future storyline where Snowkit was able to wriggle free from the hawk and fell into a lake, where he was able to swim to dry land and eventually (by whatever means) grows up and travels a Lot and makes it to the lake, where he ends up befriending an apprentice in secret (secret of the apprentice, who doesn’t want to lose their new friend by telling the leader about this random rogue near their territory) and eventually he’s found out, and is recognized by Bramblestar and returns to the clans.
I got a tiger plush, and I named him snowkit in honor of Snowkit. I literally had to explain to my parents why the name, and they were heartbroken about snowkit. I feel like if snowkit became a warrior, he would be snowtuft
I loved this talking video! It really dived into Snowkit. I always loved Snowkit, I was so sad when he died. I would love to see you do a talking video on Heathertail. It was interesting what happened to her with Lionblaze and Breezepelt. I’d love to see you dive into her POV.
watch us make an au where snowkit lives but hes just a guy. like, he just vibes. someone adopts him and teaches him ways to communicate and they both (re)join TC
erin's just did not feel like writing a deaf character living a happy life and his community making accomodations for him so they decided to kill him instead lol .
I think someone could make the argument that Snowkit's death makes Brightheart having to prove herself to Firestar even more important because he has established that he severely underestimates the ability of cats with disabilities. However, while someone could make that argument, I don't think it tracks. If the writers really wanted the narrative that Brightheart has to prove herself to Fireheart and her clan, you don't need to kill off Snowkit or even for him to exist. You could just have clanmates whispering about previous cats with disabilities who passed away due to their disabilities. And again, no one calls out Fireheart on this and... I don't think the event with Snowkit is ever referenced in regards to Brightheart's injuries? In hindsight, it's just an ableist plotpoint. I keep hoping they will introduce a deaf warrior in recent books to "make up for it" but I don't think they ever will.
The only time I can think of where kits are threatened by a bird is when Crookedpaw saves the other kits from a heron(?) by shielding them with his body. It doesn't feel like an actual threat outside of like. plot device.
I wish Snowkit lived and became a warrior. He wasn't completely deaf. He was able to talk a little. I think all he needed was extra time. I'm convinced he was only playing with his mom. Because he simply wasn't ready to train because he's still a kit. Not because of his deafness. I think what should of happened was apprentice him at the same time as denmates. Than have him taken out with his mentor with the other apprentices and mentors. He would have picked up what he needed to do.
I have a great solution to the whole “Firestar is a lying backstabbed and never gave Brightheart an apprentice” problem: In uuuhhhhh Leafpool’s wish (I think) it is mentioned that Birchpaw is scratched by a badger directly under one of his eyes, almost blinding him. In my AU, his eye is scratched, and he is given to Brightheart as an apprentice, and then also that sets up Birchfall and Whitewing’s relationship because he was her moms apprentice :D
It could be pretty interesting to have a deaf warrior cat protagonist now that I think about it… a book (or at least a chunk of chapters within a book) written from the perspective of a warrior who has to use their sight and smell rather than their hearing to interact with the world around them would be very very interesting!!
It would have been really interesting to have a deaf cat in the series! It would be so cool if they gave us the perspective of a deaf cat next arc, but I highly doubt that will happen…
speckletail on doctors "no stop caring about my kit rn" firestar "are you sure?" "i don't believe in doctors" 1:15 1:52 "it doesn't matter what sandstorm wants. She is mean" got me
"b-but deaf cats don't survive long in the wild!!1!!1" deaf cats also aren't usually part of a commune that can make ways to COMPENSATE for their disabilities (like Speckletail communicating with her tail) so i don't really see how that's relevant. this series doesn't do much in terms of realism so i don't see why they draw the line at not being able to hear. would he have an EASY time? of course not, but that's what would make him INTERESTING
suggestion: can you talk about why mapleshade might be so popular? or your opinion on who should've been in the 3, Hollyleaf, Dovewing or Ivypool? if u haven't already of course, its a bit of a generic question
The sad part is that, according to research about dominant white cats, the ones that have blue eyes, have an excessively high chance of deafness. I dont know how true this is, but just imagining snowkit with this irl, just makes me uneasy, as he was still very young and didnt deserve this😿
Yeah no, no one can convince me that Firestar is canonically ableist. I DON'T CARE IF THE AUTHORS TRY TO DENY IT, HE IS ABLEIST. No one: "S'all right" words I will remember
Hey Moonkitti could you do a mini-talking about Brambleberry or Willowbreeze since they are both huge roles in Crookedstar’s promise and I’d love to see your thoughts and views about them. If not it’s okay 😊
I feel awful for him. He could have trained and served his clan somehow, he would have to learn a bit differently but he could have been a fine warrior. Poor little bean. Probably would have been an amazing character.
snowkit dying was completely everyone around him's fault, everyone decided to argue and not focus on snowkit because he was deaf. nobody bothered to protect a clearly vulnerable kit becuase they were testing him.
Please talk about hawkheart the windclan emdicine cat! I think it’s interesting that he was portrayed so differently in bluestars prophecy and tallstars revenge.
I want to write a fan fic about Snowkit surviving, getting old, and having a fear of the sky. The thing is, I'm not deaf, so I'd never be able to get the narrative and pov right
Because of the new books it was also 100% confirmed snowtuft was a different character, no one talks about how he said he remembered being ShadowClan (for old Maps and theory’s I understand they didn’t have this info but anyone who says thinks this NOW is just making fan fiction)
While we're on the topic of white cats: Cloudtail for a talking video would be great! He's one of my absolute favorites and really underutilized. I think if the team were better at plots, and consistent characters, he would've been a good mentor to Jaypaw.
i saw an AU where somebody said "what if the hawk dropped snowkit in a twoleg garden?" and theres was art of him with a bandana on and scars on his side from the hawk, i thought it was a good idea at the time and i still kinda do.
I want more Snowkit lore. You wanna know why? Because even though he only has one line, the line is "s'all right" and that is the best line ever. What personality he could've had
@@uni5396. I have an idea for an au where SpeckleTail kills the hawk but dies in the process. SnowKit is still alive but he had to watch his mother die to save him. He grows up feeling lesser than his clanmates and they carry on his beliefs through their actions. SnowKit gets treated horrible by his clanmates as they think he's the reason for SpeckleTail's death. Even BlueStar treats him horrible as she believes he is the message from StarClan that theyve turned their backs on ThunderClan. The apprentices feel bad for him though so they train him in secret. Basically SnowKit ends up as a badass and later takes on the name of SnowSpeckle to honor his mother. That's all i have for now but i might make it into a story or comic someday.
As always worth noting that people use "survival of the fittest" to justify the treatment of disabled characters in series like warriors incorrectly. Survival of the fittest being used to refer to disability is a modern, eugenicist reframing of the term that has no relation to what the term actually means. To be "fit" refers to ability to reproduce (aka adaptations to the environment that make it better suited to thrive than those without). Anyway I always found it a bit weird that they were like "see he's not taking training seriously" when like. he is a child. The whole thing is just baffling and uncomfortable
it's made weirder by the fact that one of the big points of arc 1 is that kits younger than 6 moons shouldn't be trained like... what did you expect???
I would’ve loved if he had grown up to become a main pov, similar to how Jayfeather is with his blindness. Like if he had been one of the cats to discover to the lake territories would’ve been amazing.
I’ve always loved Snowkit! It’s cool they included a deaf character in Warrior Cats, even if he was short lived, I hope one day that we get another deaf character that actually lives till adulthood and DOESN’T become a medicine cat so we can see their struggles to become a warrior despite being deaf, I hate the ablest writing when they just ship cats off to the medicine den or just kill them off, it sucks and a deaf warrior that’s a pov character would be a good change of pace!
that thing idk if there will ever be another disabled character who could become a warrior since i dont think we've had a new disabled cat since squirrelflight's hope for obvious reasons
I really like this fanfiction called Snatched: The Story of Snowkit. In the fanfiction Snowkit is dropped by the hawk and lands in a different forest filled with some loners and SkyClan descendants. Then he’s tasked by StarClan to help this group create a new Clan there. He gets to learn sign language and also read lips
That one was so good! And there was one where he used his tail to read the vibrations in someone's throat. And he got the name Snowhawk. Or maybe that was the same story? I don't remember, its been a minute. I've got to go find it and read it again.
Hey Moonkitti! Can you please do a mini-talk about Thrushpelt? He had a crush on Bluefur and didn't flip out that Bluefur liked someone else, unlike AshFur. When Bluefur told him that she was pregnant, he automatically took on the role of the kit's father, and I'm not sure this is Canon or not, but I think Thrushpelt took care of Mosskit in StarClan. When the kits went missing, it was said he mourned like a father. He is also an underrated character and is just a good boy.
I think the scariest thing about Warriors and disability is how absolutist and cruel it is. Briarlight, Deadfoot and Jayfeather are the only ones given any sort of chance to prove themselves. The rest are thrown into the elder's den and all but forgotten. And then you get the insulting 'but in starclan they are healed!' mentality. This along with the abusive nature of some romances really makes me ponder wtf the writers are thing at times.
I think that's a reach, to be fair. There's also Nightstar, Crookedstar, Jagged Peak, Gray Wing, Finleap, One-eye/White-eye, Brokenstar, and Shadowsight (although they did randomly stop talking about Shadowsight's seizures). As far as StarClan goes, I'm not sure why a spirit would have bodily limitations. As a disabled person, I think that would suck a lot lol
@@joltyflare Shadowsight’s seizures were handled so poorly. They held him down and treated it like it was the correct procedure to do. Which, is incredibly dangerous not only for the person having the seizure but the people trying to restrain them. Keep in mind warriors is a kids franchise. Young kids probably don’t know what the CORRECT thing to do in that situation is and will take it at face value. Also just because warriors has a few good cases of disability representation does not mean we should ignore the bad cases. There was literally a scene in Squirrelflight’s hope where Sandstorm basically pointed at Briarlight and said “Look at how happy she is now that she’s not disabled!” As if being disabled is a fate worst then death. Which is awful. Snowkit was only k!lled off for...tension I guess? They didn’t NEED to make him deaf and then turn around when he was k!lled and say that this is it what the audience should have expected. That was completely unnecessary. And I personally think it’s bad that they made it so starclan cats would not have disabilities because healing disabled characters is already such a bad trope. And if we’re going by the lore that starclan cats appear as they were most happiest in life. That sort of implies that disabled people cannot be happy (I apologize if im reaching a bit). Also, if a character is disabled upon birth why should they be healed in death? And I personally find it uncomfortable how warriors will rename their disabled characters to point out how their disabled. One-eye. Deadfoot. And while Lostface and Crookedjaw aren’t as bad sense they showed that it was wrong and the characters were upset by it. They even changed Lostface’s name (luckily) it’s still something to consider.
@@birdseatingbirds5897 No, the books are targeted towards a young audience, young adults just happen to read the books too. Many children fantasy books are known to be violent, take a look at Wings of Fire or Percy Jackson, that doesn’t automatically make them made for adults.
@@onyxtheowl24 It used to be believed that holding someone down with a seizure was the correct thing to do. People nowadays are getting educated not to, but its still a common misconception and piece of incorrect medical advice given out. I noticed the moment they described holding him down that the Erins were never taught the correct way to deal with a seizure, but it could also have just been when they were doing the research the sources were messed up. And as someone who is also disabled, I think its important to consider the difference between physical disabilities and other kinds of disabilities. Because physical ones tend to be the ones that aren't as held to identity and desired to keep (there are exceptions, such as being deaf). But telling everyone that they can be just as happy being disabled as not, if they are not feeling happy about being disabled, feels really sucky. Its a disability for a reason, and it doesn't always feel great to have. Mental disabilities are usually different in that they are sometimes very core to a person (provided its not some disorders, that do have cures or can be treated to a state of minimizing symptoms which is preferred). But acting like some disabilities aren't better off going without isn't a message you need to throw on everyone, when people with those disabilities can speak for themselves.
the fact that fireheart basically says ‘how that kit is deaf sooo upsetting he cant be a warrior’ is infuriating. there was no reason to make snowkit deaf, he was just kill fodder. its just salt into the wound of ableism constantly apparent in warrior cats.
i feel like as a deaf person snowkit is just a huge slap in the face and i can’t stand snowkit fand because a good 98% of them are literally hearing or abled people who feed into the idea that a deaf person could not function in a normal society because of one thing they simply cannot do; hear. i think it wouldve been fine if snowkit was deaf and had lived a good life as a warrior or had died fighting for what was right for his clan or himself. he was not a character. he was a plot point. any development wasn’t considered for him. the fact that so many hearing people feed into this stereotype that deaf people are helpless creatures makes me want to drop the community entirely. it feels like as a deaf person i do not have a sense of belonging in this community. they love snowkit but if you make a deaf warrior they’ll lose their mind on you because its unrealistc or “they wont be a good warrior because they cant hear. they need to be a healer.” absolutely mind-boggling.
@@streetmurder I'm an able-bodied person- but I wholeheartedly agree with you dude. I legit cannot understand how people of this Fandom will say a deaf cat functioning in the society of warrior cats is impossible and or that they can never be a warrior when it's so untrue on so many levels. It's not only just irl cats, but just the whole nature of saying you can never be capable just because of a disability when we see so many people with them do incredible things even on their own. Deaf and blind cats irl are just as capable of being able to hunt and or play or even fight, animals, especially cats don't give up so easily, even animals who have lost function in limbs, they will keep going regardless.
@@bobtheball5384 For me I think if they develop the blindness as an apprentice or a warrior it could really work as they develop sign language, but if they are born with it I don’t think it would be possible due to the fact of they don’t know what all these tail twitching means, kind of like watching someone do math but since you can’t hear you don’t know what the symbol means. I am able bodied and I do not speak for any deaf people. I think a deaf character would be great and I Absolutey don’t think they are helpless, look at the skyclan cat for example. But cats born with it leaves them with no way to hear what it all means.
He says that with Cinderpelt too. I wish Fireheart had tried harder to make it so that Cinderpaw could train to be a warrior. Cloudtail was fiercely adamant about Brightheart becoming a warrior, and Longtail was angered that Swiftpaw wasn't being made a warrior. I know he was needed to be Cloudpaw's mentor and all but, like, it's a bummer we didn't see him fiercely defend Cinderpaw's status as a future warrior. Even if it didn't work, I would have liked to see him try harder.
@@M3RK_Crash I mean. A child learning sign language is the same as a child learning any other language? Babies don’t come out of the womb knowing how to speak perfect English, they’re taught it by their parents as they grow up. Sign language would be the same, the only difference is that the input is sight instead of sound.
I honestly find it funny that they avoid the fact that tail signals are a thing with this....heck Shadowclan has a whole entire kitty sign language with their tails, and the other clans have some form of tail signal cue. Snowkit should of lived and I feel it would be interesting if he lived.
I've actually asked this a while back on the Warrior Cats subreddit If Snowkit's death counts as Fridging or not I'm honestly not but sure but I think it does count for those of you who don't know what Fridging is it's basically where a character is killed off only for the purpose to hurt another more important character If you want a more in-depth explanation there's a video by overly sarcastic Productions about Fridging
the only reason I wouldn't say it was fridging is because their wasn't really a character in this situation. Typically fridging uses a well established character to go off of. But at the same time, I think in technically yes-ish? He dies solely to create drama with sandstorm and fireheart by not having enough apprentices to go around.
I would say it is fridging because a marginalized character was killed to create drama and push Fireheart in a certain direction. Snowkit is essentially dehumanized (decatized?) and not treated like his own character, but rather as an object to advance the plot.
also “don’t ever care about my son again” killed me 😭 but yeah, snowkit is a character i like but it’s a huge yikes that he’s teh only deaf character that i can remember in warriors. they totally could have had a deaf kit who survives and makes a warrior
Ikr! I mean it’s a fictional story, Ofc they could have made a deaf cat a warrior! And it would have been interesting to have a disabled cat actually rise to deputy or leader, and see the struggles they would have to face to achieve this.
Featherkit was also a white, blue-eyed kit born to Dappletail. He was a definite side character though, and 'probably' died to foxes. Yeah, they didn't even give him a actual death. So they killed both of their deaf cats when they were kits.
@@MagicalKittyCatsCrookedstar essentially. I guess having a broken jaw could count especially his struggles as a kit and not being able to be an apprentice at the same time as his brother
ngl if they instead made it so Snowkit had to stay back in the nursery when he was 6 moons old, got attacked by a hawk like a moon later, and got named an apprentice for fighting it off, it would have been sick as hell
On the topic of deaf cats being able to catch prey irl: my cousin has a deaf cat, and she brings mice home every second day or so. Also, there are many cues a deaf cat could respond to - cousin's fiance uses taps on the ground to get the cat's attention, or tapping on the food bowl to tell the cat its dinner time; this is can be a cat-by-cat situation. I'd like to mention that my cousin's cat is a grown, female version of Snowkit-
I was interested in the way that speckletail was so overprotective of Snowkit because I think she could tell he was deaf. She clearly wanted him to be perceived as a regular kit even with his disability, and she was against anyone trying to speak about how her Kit can’t become an apprentice. He clearly showed that he could, even though he was extremely close to his mom and preferred to play with her than try to be an apprentice. I love aus where he does survive and becomes a big part of the clan that isn’t being a medicine cat
I really love the aspect of mentorship in warriors, btw. It's such a unique bond that presents many opportunities for friendship and skills building from both warrior and apprentice. Being a mentor means you are not just a young willy nilly anymore, it means you're entrusted with helping to raise a new clan member and for some time, you become the moving force in kits forming of relationships around the clan, both with its fellow apprentices and with new warriors. You become their new center figure in life to decide their fate and adapt their abilities to warriors life's needs. Drama about mentors making up exercises and strategies and teaming up for group lessons and learning how to work with their apprentices special abilities and disabilities was also plenty fun.
Looking at the logistics of him, the hawk thing makes sense as a stand alone freak accident. Not as a part of a longer ongoing muddied series, but if a very tiny short story happened and it was that scene alone re-formatted to be a stand alone short story, it would make sense, if THAT makes sense? A pure white kitten seemingly left alone in the middle of a clearing that's only there because a fire burned through the area, giving the bird better access to a new hunting spot, and the kitten can't hear the yelling or the hawk or anything. That'd be a short tragic story with a moral somewhere along the lines of you have to help those who need it the most / don't assume everyone has the same ability to do xyz as you / etc etc. But in the long run of the series, it leaves a very weird after taste.
I’d argue even then it’s pushing it a little? That clearing had multiple adult cats walking around shortly before they noticed the hawk already swooping down, I don’t think it would’ve taken that risk knowing there was a threat for honestly what seems like very minuscule reward depending on how big or old the animal is? Not trying to argue but it just definitely has me questioning the logistics of it concerning how predatory birds work.
I'm taking ASL in high school right now, and OH GOD does Snowkit's death upset me even more now. As mentioned in the books, white cats with blue eyes are more likely to be born deaf. I think we could introduce a character who is born deaf, joins the Clan and show them that they can hunt and care for themself without issue, and then have their own little family where being deaf is a trait passed down through generations. If Deaf people can have their own community, why can't anthropomorphized cats living in the woods? Heck, if they're forced out of their Clans, they can form their own where they use their ways of communication. The football huddle was started by a Deaf team after all, so maybe the other Clans would learn something from it.
I think the biggest reason is… he wouldn’t be able to learn what they meant. Of course you are learning sign language but you can hear making it easier to learn, most death people have some sort of hearing aid or developed it later so they have a basic understanding of reading or signals. Snowkit was born purely death which would be next to impossible to teach due to the fact of him not knowing what anything means.
@@M3RK_Crash Not to be "that guy," but it is spelled deaF, not deaTH. Deaf means you cannot hear, death means something/someone is dead. Ex: "Most deaf people use a hearing aid or develop it later so they have a basic understanding of reading or signals. Snowkit was born fully deaf."
Ok, oral language is not inherently easier to learn, in fact, sign language and speech when taught to infants show no difference in how fast they learn the language - it’s hard for you and me because we do not know ASL, like it’s hard for me to learn Italian when I don’t speak that language currently. ASL isn’t even the only non verbal form of communication out there - guess what we’re doing right now. Animals already use body language to communicate to one another, especially cats because they only meow to communicate with their owners, and deaf cats communicate fine with other cats, like deaf people can find ways to communicate with others even barring ASL. (This isn’t in response to the original commenter but to the person below them)
@@ZirconiaGacha yeah, the vibrations themselves are also proven to help those with problems regarding their bones, tiny fun fact. Cats if anything are highly specialized in touch and smell, their eyesight of course being pretty good and their hearing indeed being sensitive, but that sensitivity is often in regards to defense against predators, and even then with their whiskers giving an added bonus in overall vibrational awareness in a given area it’s likely they’d more easily adjust to being deaf whether they were born with it or gained hearing impairment over time.
"Snowkit then responds with his only line in the series,"
(Ad plays)
Snowkit: Liberty mutual
Snowkit: Virbo
Snowkit: This is a Nissan-
Snowkit: I can’t believe that *we* were actually put on pause-
Snowkit: PC Optimus points app
Snowkit: *silent ad for League of Legends*
Fun fact about cat communication irl: adult cats only communicate to each other with pure body language. Maybe a hiss if they're threatened, or a vocalization to their kits or humans, but for the most part, they don't "talk" and don't actually need to hear each other to communicate. Warriors just need an excuse to have full blown conversations in ways their human audience can understand, and meowing is the obvious choice, apparently
honestly i feel like the lack of body language makes it super obvious that warriors is basically about fluffy humans bc its so obvious looking at cats that body language is primarily how they interact
More reasons why I think the “DISABLED CATS CANT BE WARRIORS” stuff the books keep saying is literal fox dung, especially if they can be autistic coded from an autistic person. Honestly the reason why I prefer fannon and the Clan Gen game over cannon because you don’t see them getting forced into the medicine cat or elder role,heck in Clan Gen can see them becoming leaders or deputy which I appreciate because it literally proves the books wrong! I remembered thinking that it was actually pretty sweet of one of my leaders to pick a three legged cat for their deputy, not because of something about them being three legged but because they believed them to be right for the job regardless of whatever permit conditions they have. I’ve literally watched a three legged cat climb up and down a flight of stairs and furniture, I can’t be convinced that being a medicine cat is somehow easier than a warrior, I’m sorry but I can’t.
The cats in the books can speak many H U M A N languages that’s how we understand them in the books
@@magena120 honestly as someone whos seen the behaviour of disabled cats plus having a deaf cat myself, they do NOT give a fuck ab any disability they have lmao
This is a common misconception! Most cats do chat to each other occasionally
I'm hard of hearing and Snowkit literally traumatized me. I went from being so excited, so hopeful, from seeing a deaf character in my favorite series! I was already imagining all the ways I would be able to see myself in Snowkit as he grew up. I was already seeing myself in the way all the hearing adults in his life talked about him like he was furniture, not an actual living child standing right there. It was tough, but I had hope it would all come together. And then he died. I remember feeling like a popped balloon. For a 10 year old to see themselves in a character because of that character's disability, only for said character to die in the most terrifying way possible followed by the book going "well what do you expect? he had it coming by being deaf" felt so alienating and scary. I will never forgive Warriors for what they did to Snowkit, and what they did to a hard of hearing kid who didn't deserve to have their favorite book series tell them that their disability made them as good as dead.
Thanks for covering my boy. In a better universe, I'm hoping this video was longer and talked about all the great things Snowkit did as a proud, deaf warrior.
I never thought of this! And in retrospect that makes Snowkits death even more traumatising - I'm sorry you had to go through that, I keep remembering that this is a kids book, which is going to be influencial
Honestly I felt the same way- and I'm an able-bodied person. I'm gonna chalk it up to my impression on characters with disabilities, that being Toph from Atla. So I had high hopes for Snowkit, believing he'll find a way to adapt to his circumstances. As a kid reading about Snowkit got me interested and excited on how they will tackle him as a character and to just have him die like that and so suddenly made me very upset. ESPECIALLY when other cats acted so nonchalant about him dying. Not to the extent of you however, I couldn't imagine feeling that way as a child.
Hey, thanks for talking about your experience and thoughts with this! I was thinking the exact same thing, since I genuinely didn't remember the books being this harsh towards any disabled cast. It _sucks_
Weird how dead and deaf look nearly identical in spelling…
Him being deaf made him stand out as distinctive and unique which made him feel like he was going to be important or do something and NOPE HE JUST DIES. Snowkit deserved SO MUCH BETTER and he SHOULD HAVE LIVED. The story would have been objectively more interesting had he survived.
I'm able-bodied and I can still see that Snowkit being deaf made him seem more important than all the background cats that had no defining traits at all. The writers had no excuse for not realizing.
As a deaf person, Snowkit's death was...incredibly disappointing. If he was just death fodder, *why* make him deaf? Why have Firestar and Bluestar constantly doubt he could be a warrior? Speckletail and Brackenfur almost seem to be portrayed as *unreasonable* or *naive* thinking that Snowkit could be a warrior and his death almost seems to prove them wrong? Plus there's never another deaf character beyond Snowkit (and the unnamed kit of Dappletail's, which again, also died).
Also additionally, I hate the 'his hearing was restored in StarClan' so much, like bruh? He was born deaf, let him stay deaf. It's uncomfortablely close to the whole 'Disabled people are sad and unhappy unless they are abled' thing; Besides, I know many deaf ppl who choose not to wear hearing aids or cochlear implants and are perfectly satisfied with that.
My theory was that one Aron was like "wow what if blind kit" and the all the other arons were like "yeah good idea" and then killed him off
Him getting his hearing back in StarClan did nothing but add salt in the wound. Don't get me wrong, I think it makes sense for some cats to be more abled in StarClan after they pass (I think it was said to be a choice disabled characters make when they enter), if I was Briarlight and I had the chance to use my legs again, I'd take it too. The difference is that Snowkit didn't even have time to become a character, AND his chances to be a warrior were unnecessarily doubted, AND he was, as you say, "death fodder". Man, what a grim term.
I can imagine this whole arc of him growing up and the cats learning to communicate with him through physical motions. And cats already communicate through body language anyway so canonising that would not only be inclusive, but cool as hell! What a wasted opportunity.
This is like the moth’s wing thing. She just stops having ADHD randomly and as a person with ADHD myself that is just cruel to people who identified with her.
FR THO!! i dont understand how they introduced him in the book and straight away killed him. Like what was the point of writing in that he was deaf? at least let the hawk kill him.another book but its still cruel. He shouldve beengiven a proper chance
I remember being so disappointed that Firestar never gave Brightheart an apprentice. She was my favourite character and I just wanted to see her shine and maybe even get a chance to be deputy. I just wish she and all the other disabled characters were treated better.
Technically he did give her Jaypaw. But then the writers fucked it up and threw him in the med den
I don't care what canon says Snowkit was dropped by the Hawk in a bush and he got adopted into a loving family or something else wholesome and he lived a perfectly fulfilled life
I suddenly need an AU where Snowkit gets to grow up. What new techniques could he create to help other deaf cats, the way Brightheart and Cloudtail learned to compensate for half blindness? What kind of relationships might he have had with other cats? Would he have been really good on patrol since he would be more used to using smells to identify things around him? Could Brackenfur have mentored him and developed tail-based sign language? What sort of outrageous shenanigans could have resulted from him meeting Jayfeather? I wish we saw more disabled cats learning to get along just fine with their disabilities without it just being 'uh, here, go be a medicine cat and/or die for the plot, thanks'.
You should make a M.A.P of it
@@Lari_crescent_moon If I were an animator I totally would. Maybe a fanfic though if writing warriors fanfic ever strikes me. We could just boot out Brambleclaw from TNP and have Snowkit eventually become Snowstar. 👀
Theres like fifthy snowkit story in AO3 Also deaf cats mostly only happen to white cats with blue eyes. So as long as cats with blue eyes have babies with not white cats with not blue eyes its fine
@@scarfstrings.134 I mean sure but this book series long ago decided it didn't care about real cat genetics so theoretically anyone could pop out another Snowkit at any time lol.
@@pixelapocrypha you could still make the map call for it tho
You just wouldn’t animate a part
If you wanted to ofc
We knew him for five whole seconds and we still remember him all these years later
Snowkit was the character we needed not the one we deserved. The authors really just massacred my boy.
More than I can say for most of the main characters 😭😭😭😭
True, I forgot about a load of cats, even important ones, but snowkit I still remember well
I have a deaf character named Snowfoot, who’s partially inspired by snowkit but also inspired by typical snow shows that allow you to walk over snow without sinking. He’s gentle and whip smart, and his brother, Copperfoot, and his father Dimblaze are deeply defensive of him. He’s known for being an excellent fighter, due to his sharper eyes and inability to get distracted by distant screams and taunts.
Notably, as part of my worldbuilding, he’s also a very good asset for his Clan against one of their enemies, EchoClan. EchoClan, who lives in a rocky, gorge filled territory, tends to fight by leading their enemies astray by sending echoes down valleys in misleading ways to separate their enemies. Snowfoot often leads battle patrols when fighting EchoClan bc he’s completely immune to this strategy, allowing him to keep his cats in line.
His Clan also organized a kind of mock sign language to keep him in the loop, which kits basically grow up learning now.
The cats are smart enough to do math and have an organized religion. They can take care of a deaf cat.
I would unironically ready an entire book about Snowfoot👀
@@-w-1870 unfortunately, I haven’t made his story interesting enough for a full book, even a novella. He really is just a partial side character who happens to be deaf lol. I have typed up a little five chapter thing for him, since I was close to giving him a romance with an EchoClan she-cat, but I’m fairly sure I lost it😭
Even real life deaf cats can grow up to be independent!
hoping for a video focusing on crookedstar and or rainflower as one of the few examples of a mother in warrior cats being **intentionally** written as abusive, or on a more positive side, crookedstar being one of the only disabled cats who doesn’t get shoved into the medicine cat role
Or dumped into the Elders' den. Finleap is a good candidate too. His character arc is one of the best in the entire series, in my opinion, and he is one of my favourite characters. He handled the loss of his tail so well and he gained the mental maturity to realize Twigbranch's wants were important to him as well. I would love to see him get his own book someday!
I think someone interesting to do a mini-talk about would be Flutterfoot. He’s a WindClan cat and has never appeared in a book outside of the allegiances. He has a very cute name and could lead into a conversation about other non-existent cats, or how WindClan is severely underused, or or the quantity > quality the books have adopted.
I wish Snowkit wasn't killed off cause like, you could do so much interesting things with him. Like, sure, there's the medicine cat choice, but I like to think of like a Toph-esc idea where he uses like vibrations or something to tell if someone or something is close, or you could do like how cats sign and stuff. It's just so cool to think about and saddens me that it was never ment to be
I always saw him as the final straw for bluestar. I dont think his deafness was really ment for anything but mild drama with his poor mom. If he lived im absolutely sure he would have made a fine warrior.
I actually believe Snowkit could have been trained to be a warrior if he had lived. Cats in real life communicate nonverbally through body movements, such as the curvature of their tails. If someone in ThunderClan had adopted a tail gesture system like Speckletail tried to teach him and used some other forms of nonverbal communication, Snowkit could have become a warrior, though it might have taken an extra moon or two to ensure he could communicate with other warriors freely with this system. Just because he was deaf does not mean some type of system could not have been introduced to still communicate with him nonverbally.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t Shadowclan have a system of tail signs as well?
@@Jashinist-followerit does, and the other clans have something similar, too.
Snowkit dying always annoyed me. Because even if he would be at a disadvantage in combat or hunting (which, doubt) - being a warrior is supposedly more than that anyway? He could've been a mentor or a camp guard easily. They could've had it that he often helps the queens (especially since he likely would've been very fond of his mother after how persistent she was??) or travel with the medicine cats when gathering herbs or to visit starclan. He could've been really interesting even as a background feature, honestly.
I would love to see a main POV warrior character who is deaf, partially because it would be so intresting to read their perspective. Like, they would have to rely a lot more on body language, maybe developing a kind of secret code: which could be used for sending messages if there was a tense scene! With all the the wild stuff that happens I think Warrior Cats Sign Language would hardly be the weirdest thing to happen.
Also having a warrior whose deaf could just be really lovely representation. That's all.
Maybe you should do YellowFang next! I haven’t seen you do her, but I personally like her as a character and I think she’s pretty interesting! But what I Also like is she was the last female medicine cat in Shadowclan (from what I counted, it also makes it more interesting)
I will never stop being pissed about snowkit's death. He's specifically singled out as having a distinctive trait, which gives him more importance than other more meaningless background characters. And then he F***ING DIES to a COMPLETELY CONTRIVED EVENT. There is NO ACTUAL REASON he couldn't have grown up and become a perfectly competent warrior and done LITERALLY ANYTHING.
I mostly remember cloudpaw (kit?) going “Well I’m sure glad that I wasn’t born deaf, being white with blue eyes!” And Fireheart going “uh huh” and not really listening.
The answer as to why hawks aren't an issue during winter is pretty simple; they migrate
i remember distinctly thinking a lot about snowkit, especially since i had a little bit of time to think about him as i couldn't read for the rest of the school day. I was so curious to find out how they would deal with this kit who is deaf, like they did with jayfeather, only for the literal next scene being him snatched away by a hawk and his mother screams in sorrow bc even though she has protected him for so long already, it wasnt enough. it made me so sad
I'm so glad that you talked about him! I immediately found snowkit very interesting and was hoping to read more about him. How he interacts with others and every day things, how he'd grow up and how he would be trained.
I was and am still pretty sad and disappointed when he died just like that.
Could you talk about Tawnypelt next? I think she has a really interesting storyline, being tigerstar's offspring, switching clans, allying with thunderclan (in the later series)… and I think it could make for a good video. :)
One of my biggest problems with Warriors is how ableist they are, especially if you look at how real disabilities affect real cats versus how they're treated in canon. I learned this when I wrote a cat character without a leg (completely unrelated to Warriors) and actually looked up how cats function when missing a leg! Turns out, incredibly well! Why the fuck is Cinderpelt confined to the medicine den when she is fully able to hunt and fight (just like real cats) and doesn't even have to worry so much about overeating, due to the fact that her leg is still there?? Either Erin Hunter doesn't do any research on their disabled cats (problem) or they know perfectly well that they can function just fine, with or without accommodations that can be afforded due to being in a society, and just do it anyway to fulfill some sort of narrative (also a problem)
I totally forgot that they made Snowkit hearing in Starclan. Like it’s bad enough that he was yet another disabled character that was told that he “couldn’t be a warrior” and that he was killed off, but did they ALSO need to make the part of his “happy” afterlife him no longer being disabled??? I already have bad feelings about them doing that to characters who acquired disabilities, but a kitten born disabled and living in literal heaven wouldn’t be able to be “cured” in death, because it was how he was born. Likewise, if Starclan makes you appear when you were happiest (which is the excuse for most other disabled characters being “cured” in Starclan) that doesn’t apply to someone who never experienced life while hearing. Also, imagine how upsetting that would be to a literal child, to die and then wake up with an entirely new, loud sense, without any warning,
I have a personal concept for a fic/future storyline where Snowkit was able to wriggle free from the hawk and fell into a lake, where he was able to swim to dry land and eventually (by whatever means) grows up and travels a Lot and makes it to the lake, where he ends up befriending an apprentice in secret (secret of the apprentice, who doesn’t want to lose their new friend by telling the leader about this random rogue near their territory) and eventually he’s found out, and is recognized by Bramblestar and returns to the clans.
I got a tiger plush, and I named him snowkit in honor of Snowkit. I literally had to explain to my parents why the name, and they were heartbroken about snowkit. I feel like if snowkit became a warrior, he would be snowtuft
hey dappletail,why weren't you watching your deaf kitten? why were they so far from you that they were able to wander away and never come back?
she was pooping
I loved this talking video! It really dived into Snowkit. I always loved Snowkit, I was so sad when he died. I would love to see you do a talking video on Heathertail. It was interesting what happened to her with Lionblaze and Breezepelt. I’d love to see you dive into her POV.
watch us make an au where snowkit lives but hes just a guy. like, he just vibes. someone adopts him and teaches him ways to communicate and they both (re)join TC
Speckletail signally come over here with her tial is my fav visual gag haha
SAME I DIED
erin's just did not feel like writing a deaf character living a happy life and his community making accomodations for him so they decided to kill him instead lol .
snowkit is one of my favorites, along with swiftpaw and mistlekit (snowkit's... littermate? i think?)
i miss them :(
Poor Snowkit :( lil man's only got "s'all right" as a line and. That's the best line in the whole series
I think someone could make the argument that Snowkit's death makes Brightheart having to prove herself to Firestar even more important because he has established that he severely underestimates the ability of cats with disabilities. However, while someone could make that argument, I don't think it tracks. If the writers really wanted the narrative that Brightheart has to prove herself to Fireheart and her clan, you don't need to kill off Snowkit or even for him to exist. You could just have clanmates whispering about previous cats with disabilities who passed away due to their disabilities. And again, no one calls out Fireheart on this and... I don't think the event with Snowkit is ever referenced in regards to Brightheart's injuries?
In hindsight, it's just an ableist plotpoint. I keep hoping they will introduce a deaf warrior in recent books to "make up for it" but I don't think they ever will.
Hi! I love your content and happy to see a new video about snow kit! I love snow kit
I would love for you to talk about the kits that died under Brokenstar!!!!
The only time I can think of where kits are threatened by a bird is when Crookedpaw saves the other kits from a heron(?) by shielding them with his body. It doesn't feel like an actual threat outside of like. plot device.
I wish Snowkit lived and became a warrior. He wasn't completely deaf. He was able to talk a little. I think all he needed was extra time. I'm convinced he was only playing with his mom. Because he simply wasn't ready to train because he's still a kit. Not because of his deafness. I think what should of happened was apprentice him at the same time as denmates. Than have him taken out with his mentor with the other apprentices and mentors. He would have picked up what he needed to do.
I think Snowkit taught himself how to talk via lip-reading!
Snowkit lived quite a tiny life.
I have a great solution to the whole “Firestar is a lying backstabbed and never gave Brightheart an apprentice” problem:
In uuuhhhhh Leafpool’s wish (I think) it is mentioned that Birchpaw is scratched by a badger directly under one of his eyes, almost blinding him. In my AU, his eye is scratched, and he is given to Brightheart as an apprentice, and then also that sets up Birchfall and Whitewing’s relationship because he was her moms apprentice :D
Thanks for subtitles, Moon!
Nice video
It could be pretty interesting to have a deaf warrior cat protagonist now that I think about it… a book (or at least a chunk of chapters within a book) written from the perspective of a warrior who has to use their sight and smell rather than their hearing to interact with the world around them would be very very interesting!!
I thought more deeply into this and I’ve actually now have a whole speech about Snow Kits death.
Speckletails tail omg 😂
In a Scourge Reborn fanfic I wrote Snowkit was saved and becomes a great warrior and does cat sign language
Snowkit was lured into the dark forest by another cat.
"Snowkit eventually responds with his only line in the series"
Snowkit: Shut up and take my money.
Talk about brokenstar! He’s super twisted and I think it was awesome! He needs a manga or novel
It would have been really interesting to have a deaf cat in the series! It would be so cool if they gave us the perspective of a deaf cat next arc, but I highly doubt that will happen…
Bluestar would have named him snowdeaf anyway
Probably something like Snowear
speckletail on doctors "no stop caring about my kit rn" firestar "are you sure?" "i don't believe in doctors" 1:15
1:52 "it doesn't matter what sandstorm wants. She is mean" got me
The thumbnail just reminds me of the digimon tamers panel where Calumon says happily " I'm a living plot device!"
"b-but deaf cats don't survive long in the wild!!1!!1" deaf cats also aren't usually part of a commune that can make ways to COMPENSATE for their disabilities (like Speckletail communicating with her tail) so i don't really see how that's relevant. this series doesn't do much in terms of realism so i don't see why they draw the line at not being able to hear. would he have an EASY time? of course not, but that's what would make him INTERESTING
suggestion: can you talk about why mapleshade might be so popular? or your opinion on who should've been in the 3, Hollyleaf, Dovewing or Ivypool? if u haven't already of course, its a bit of a generic question
Im pretty sure the next time we see a hawk, in clan territory, is in River during Nightheart's second assesment
The sad part is that, according to research about dominant white cats, the ones that have blue eyes, have an excessively high chance of deafness. I dont know how true this is, but just imagining snowkit with this irl, just makes me uneasy, as he was still very young and didnt deserve this😿
“Snowkit then responds with his only line in the series,”
*fucking stew leonards ad*
Yeah no, no one can convince me that Firestar is canonically ableist. I DON'T CARE IF THE AUTHORS TRY TO DENY IT, HE IS ABLEIST.
No one:
"S'all right" words I will remember
Hey Moonkitti could you do a mini-talking about Brambleberry or Willowbreeze since they are both huge roles in Crookedstar’s promise and I’d love to see your thoughts and views about them. If not it’s okay 😊
I feel awful for him. He could have trained and served his clan somehow, he would have to learn a bit differently but he could have been a fine warrior.
Poor little bean. Probably would have been an amazing character.
If someone makes a fanfic of Snow Kit living and growing up, please give me the link
snowkit dying was completely everyone around him's fault, everyone decided to argue and not focus on snowkit because he was deaf. nobody bothered to protect a clearly vulnerable kit becuase they were testing him.
thanks for mentioning how weird it is the way wc treats its disabled characters, because literally wtf
3:18 comically large kitten
Snowkit is my favorite, fight me
Talking SleekWhisker ?😊
Can you do a talking video about Cherryfall/Molewhisker? They did some weird stuff were left behind in terms of character development
Please talk about hawkheart the windclan emdicine cat! I think it’s interesting that he was portrayed so differently in bluestars prophecy and tallstars revenge.
Snowkit is the most depressing wc character ever
Snowkit's death wasn't an accident, hawks don't usually attack the thunder clan camp. That hawk was just abelist.
I want to write a fan fic about Snowkit surviving, getting old, and having a fear of the sky. The thing is, I'm not deaf, so I'd never be able to get the narrative and pov right
Can you please do a mini talk about Cinderpelt? Or Swiftpaw Or Honeyfern? Thank you for your amazing vids!😊
Speaking of Brightheart.. can you make a talking video of her?
3:07 ok but this is so so cute
My friend says S'allright unironically instead of its ok
HawkFrost next!!!!!!
Can you talk about SleekWhisker?
Please make a blossomfall mini talk! I would love to hear what you have to say about her!
Because of the new books it was also 100% confirmed snowtuft was a different character, no one talks about how he said he remembered being ShadowClan (for old Maps and theory’s I understand they didn’t have this info but anyone who says thinks this NOW is just making fan fiction)
While we're on the topic of white cats: Cloudtail for a talking video would be great! He's one of my absolute favorites and really underutilized. I think if the team were better at plots, and consistent characters, he would've been a good mentor to Jaypaw.
Lil Bro actually rambled about a fictional cat for 12 mins
her entire channel is about that are you new here or
i saw an AU where somebody said "what if the hawk dropped snowkit in a twoleg garden?" and theres was art of him with a bandana on and scars on his side from the hawk, i thought it was a good idea at the time and i still kinda do.
tbh since we never see him in starclan this could be canon
I want more Snowkit lore. You wanna know why? Because even though he only has one line, the line is "s'all right" and that is the best line ever. What personality he could've had
i want an au fanfic where snowkit become warrior and its so cool
peRhAPs He CoULd bE nAMeD sNoWStEp
We
need
snow
kit
to
be
alive
again
for
the
L O R E
🙃
@@uni5396. I have an idea for an au where SpeckleTail kills the hawk but dies in the process. SnowKit is still alive but he had to watch his mother die to save him. He grows up feeling lesser than his clanmates and they carry on his beliefs through their actions. SnowKit gets treated horrible by his clanmates as they think he's the reason for SpeckleTail's death. Even BlueStar treats him horrible as she believes he is the message from StarClan that theyve turned their backs on ThunderClan. The apprentices feel bad for him though so they train him in secret. Basically SnowKit ends up as a badass and later takes on the name of SnowSpeckle to honor his mother. That's all i have for now but i might make it into a story or comic someday.
@@SleepyBugBoy tell me if you do
@@BoltTheJolteon why would you do this to me.
As always worth noting that people use "survival of the fittest" to justify the treatment of disabled characters in series like warriors incorrectly. Survival of the fittest being used to refer to disability is a modern, eugenicist reframing of the term that has no relation to what the term actually means. To be "fit" refers to ability to reproduce (aka adaptations to the environment that make it better suited to thrive than those without).
Anyway I always found it a bit weird that they were like "see he's not taking training seriously" when like. he is a child. The whole thing is just baffling and uncomfortable
it's made weirder by the fact that one of the big points of arc 1 is that kits younger than 6 moons shouldn't be trained like... what did you expect???
I would’ve loved if he had grown up to become a main pov, similar to how Jayfeather is with his blindness. Like if he had been one of the cats to discover to the lake territories would’ve been amazing.
That would have been much better then what we’ve got
@@Sheedystar_the_cat yeah
Finally! The second arc would be interesting
It would of been and I wonder what snowkits name would be!!
yes! i wish it was that. poor lil snowkit
I’ve always loved Snowkit! It’s cool they included a deaf character in Warrior Cats, even if he was short lived, I hope one day that we get another deaf character that actually lives till adulthood and DOESN’T become a medicine cat so we can see their struggles to become a warrior despite being deaf, I hate the ablest writing when they just ship cats off to the medicine den or just kill them off, it sucks and a deaf warrior that’s a pov character would be a good change of pace!
yes exactly!! it could be really interesting and. you know, not ableist.
This would be amazing
Spitting facts 👏👏
Also another thing, Fallowfern is deaf, she isn’t incapable of smelling, she could have easily smelled the border markers.
that thing idk if there will ever be another disabled character who could become a warrior since i dont think we've had a new disabled cat since squirrelflight's hope for obvious reasons
I really like this fanfiction called Snatched: The Story of Snowkit. In the fanfiction Snowkit is dropped by the hawk and lands in a different forest filled with some loners and SkyClan descendants. Then he’s tasked by StarClan to help this group create a new Clan there. He gets to learn sign language and also read lips
Oh my god, I remember reading that fic a long time ago! I could never remember the name of it to find and reread it again!
What platform is it on? Whos the author
That one was so good! And there was one where he used his tail to read the vibrations in someone's throat. And he got the name Snowhawk. Or maybe that was the same story? I don't remember, its been a minute. I've got to go find it and read it again.
Wait, I wanna read it! What’s it on? I’m genuinely interested. :D
@@Dragonemperess Yes that’s the one!
Hey Moonkitti! Can you please do a mini-talk about Thrushpelt? He had a crush on Bluefur and didn't flip out that Bluefur liked someone else, unlike AshFur. When Bluefur told him that she was pregnant, he automatically took on the role of the kit's father, and I'm not sure this is Canon or not, but I think Thrushpelt took care of Mosskit in StarClan. When the kits went missing, it was said he mourned like a father. He is also an underrated character and is just a good boy.
Agreed, Thrushpelt would be great to hear her perspective on
And I'm pretty sure snowfur helped too, giving back for what bluefur did with her kit
@Urchin In The Rain Snowfur died horribly, and Bluefur kinda adopted Whitekit.
@@cloudytea. yes which is why I think snowfur helped look after mosskit
Reminder she doesn’t take requests from the mini talking videos but from what she decides from the main talking vid
I think the scariest thing about Warriors and disability is how absolutist and cruel it is. Briarlight, Deadfoot and Jayfeather are the only ones given any sort of chance to prove themselves. The rest are thrown into the elder's den and all but forgotten. And then you get the insulting 'but in starclan they are healed!' mentality. This along with the abusive nature of some romances really makes me ponder wtf the writers are thing at times.
I think that's a reach, to be fair. There's also Nightstar, Crookedstar, Jagged Peak, Gray Wing, Finleap, One-eye/White-eye, Brokenstar, and Shadowsight (although they did randomly stop talking about Shadowsight's seizures). As far as StarClan goes, I'm not sure why a spirit would have bodily limitations. As a disabled person, I think that would suck a lot lol
@@joltyflare Shadowsight’s seizures were handled so poorly. They held him down and treated it like it was the correct procedure to do. Which, is incredibly dangerous not only for the person having the seizure but the people trying to restrain them. Keep in mind warriors is a kids franchise. Young kids probably don’t know what the CORRECT thing to do in that situation is and will take it at face value. Also just because warriors has a few good cases of disability representation does not mean we should ignore the bad cases. There was literally a scene in Squirrelflight’s hope where Sandstorm basically pointed at Briarlight and said “Look at how happy she is now that she’s not disabled!” As if being disabled is a fate worst then death. Which is awful. Snowkit was only k!lled off for...tension I guess? They didn’t NEED to make him deaf and then turn around when he was k!lled and say that this is it what the audience should have expected. That was completely unnecessary. And I personally think it’s bad that they made it so starclan cats would not have disabilities because healing disabled characters is already such a bad trope. And if we’re going by the lore that starclan cats appear as they were most happiest in life. That sort of implies that disabled people cannot be happy (I apologize if im reaching a bit). Also, if a character is disabled upon birth why should they be healed in death? And I personally find it uncomfortable how warriors will rename their disabled characters to point out how their disabled. One-eye. Deadfoot. And while Lostface and Crookedjaw aren’t as bad sense they showed that it was wrong and the characters were upset by it. They even changed Lostface’s name (luckily) it’s still something to consider.
@@onyxtheowl24 Warriors is NOT for kids... Its target audience is young adults. I don't disagree with anything you're saying but this, keep in mind.
@@birdseatingbirds5897 No, the books are targeted towards a young audience, young adults just happen to read the books too. Many children fantasy books are known to be violent, take a look at Wings of Fire or Percy Jackson, that doesn’t automatically make them made for adults.
@@onyxtheowl24 It used to be believed that holding someone down with a seizure was the correct thing to do. People nowadays are getting educated not to, but its still a common misconception and piece of incorrect medical advice given out. I noticed the moment they described holding him down that the Erins were never taught the correct way to deal with a seizure, but it could also have just been when they were doing the research the sources were messed up.
And as someone who is also disabled, I think its important to consider the difference between physical disabilities and other kinds of disabilities. Because physical ones tend to be the ones that aren't as held to identity and desired to keep (there are exceptions, such as being deaf). But telling everyone that they can be just as happy being disabled as not, if they are not feeling happy about being disabled, feels really sucky. Its a disability for a reason, and it doesn't always feel great to have. Mental disabilities are usually different in that they are sometimes very core to a person (provided its not some disorders, that do have cures or can be treated to a state of minimizing symptoms which is preferred). But acting like some disabilities aren't better off going without isn't a message you need to throw on everyone, when people with those disabilities can speak for themselves.
the fact that fireheart basically says ‘how that kit is deaf sooo upsetting he cant be a warrior’ is infuriating.
there was no reason to make snowkit deaf, he was just kill fodder. its just salt into the wound of ableism constantly apparent in warrior cats.
i feel like as a deaf person snowkit is just a huge slap in the face and i can’t stand snowkit fand because a good 98% of them are literally hearing or abled people who feed into the idea that a deaf person could not function in a normal society because of one thing they simply cannot do; hear. i think it wouldve been fine if snowkit was deaf and had lived a good life as a warrior or had died fighting for what was right for his clan or himself. he was not a character. he was a plot point. any development wasn’t considered for him. the fact that so many hearing people feed into this stereotype that deaf people are helpless creatures makes me want to drop the community entirely. it feels like as a deaf person i do not have a sense of belonging in this community. they love snowkit but if you make a deaf warrior they’ll lose their mind on you because its unrealistc or “they wont be a good warrior because they cant hear. they need to be a healer.” absolutely mind-boggling.
@@streetmurder
I'm an able-bodied person- but I wholeheartedly agree with you dude. I legit cannot understand how people of this Fandom will say a deaf cat functioning in the society of warrior cats is impossible and or that they can never be a warrior when it's so untrue on so many levels. It's not only just irl cats, but just the whole nature of saying you can never be capable just because of a disability when we see so many people with them do incredible things even on their own. Deaf and blind cats irl are just as capable of being able to hunt and or play or even fight, animals, especially cats don't give up so easily, even animals who have lost function in limbs, they will keep going regardless.
@@bobtheball5384 For me I think if they develop the blindness as an apprentice or a warrior it could really work as they develop sign language, but if they are born with it I don’t think it would be possible due to the fact of they don’t know what all these tail twitching means, kind of like watching someone do math but since you can’t hear you don’t know what the symbol means.
I am able bodied and I do not speak for any deaf people. I think a deaf character would be great and I Absolutey don’t think they are helpless, look at the skyclan cat for example. But cats born with it leaves them with no way to hear what it all means.
He says that with Cinderpelt too. I wish Fireheart had tried harder to make it so that Cinderpaw could train to be a warrior. Cloudtail was fiercely adamant about Brightheart becoming a warrior, and Longtail was angered that Swiftpaw wasn't being made a warrior. I know he was needed to be Cloudpaw's mentor and all but, like, it's a bummer we didn't see him fiercely defend Cinderpaw's status as a future warrior. Even if it didn't work, I would have liked to see him try harder.
@@M3RK_Crash I mean. A child learning sign language is the same as a child learning any other language? Babies don’t come out of the womb knowing how to speak perfect English, they’re taught it by their parents as they grow up. Sign language would be the same, the only difference is that the input is sight instead of sound.
I honestly find it funny that they avoid the fact that tail signals are a thing with this....heck Shadowclan has a whole entire kitty sign language with their tails, and the other clans have some form of tail signal cue. Snowkit should of lived and I feel it would be interesting if he lived.
I completely forgot about the tail signals. I think one of the guides even had a guide about how each one meant
I've actually asked this a while back on the Warrior Cats subreddit If Snowkit's death counts as Fridging or not I'm honestly not but sure but I think it does count for those of you who don't know what Fridging is it's basically where a character is killed off only for the purpose to hurt another more important character If you want a more in-depth explanation there's a video by overly sarcastic Productions about Fridging
the only reason I wouldn't say it was fridging is because their wasn't really a character in this situation. Typically fridging uses a well established character to go off of. But at the same time, I think in technically yes-ish? He dies solely to create drama with sandstorm and fireheart by not having enough apprentices to go around.
@@BroKenYaKnow And for his mom and bluestar
I would say it is fridging because a marginalized character was killed to create drama and push Fireheart in a certain direction. Snowkit is essentially dehumanized (decatized?) and not treated like his own character, but rather as an object to advance the plot.
also “don’t ever care about my son again” killed me 😭 but yeah, snowkit is a character i like but it’s a huge yikes that he’s teh only deaf character that i can remember in warriors. they totally could have had a deaf kit who survives and makes a warrior
Ikr! I mean it’s a fictional story, Ofc they could have made a deaf cat a warrior! And it would have been interesting to have a disabled cat actually rise to deputy or leader, and see the struggles they would have to face to achieve this.
@@MagicalKittyCats plus its not like irl deaf cats are useless, especially if a cat is born deaf they can easily adapt to it
Featherkit was also a white, blue-eyed kit born to Dappletail. He was a definite side character though, and 'probably' died to foxes. Yeah, they didn't even give him a actual death. So they killed both of their deaf cats when they were kits.
@@MagicalKittyCatsCrookedstar essentially. I guess having a broken jaw could count especially his struggles as a kit and not being able to be an apprentice at the same time as his brother
@@flareongirl3606 Ig you are right, but I’m talking main arc protagonist with a disability, not like jayfeather, I want them to rise to power
ngl if they instead made it so Snowkit had to stay back in the nursery when he was 6 moons old, got attacked by a hawk like a moon later, and got named an apprentice for fighting it off, it would have been sick as hell
NOOOO I love this
@@Zoe-fd8ll I've seen a couple other people say he would have been a better pov than Brambleclaw in the new prophecy and I'm inclined to agree
HIS WARRIOR NAME COULD BE SNOWHAWK
@@sarahblack9333 yoooooo
On the topic of deaf cats being able to catch prey irl: my cousin has a deaf cat, and she brings mice home every second day or so. Also, there are many cues a deaf cat could respond to - cousin's fiance uses taps on the ground to get the cat's attention, or tapping on the food bowl to tell the cat its dinner time; this is can be a cat-by-cat situation. I'd like to mention that my cousin's cat is a grown, female version of Snowkit-
my mom had a blind cat who could catch birds and mice and what not.
@@katherinefyfe-w1d people (erins) tend to forget that cats have more than one senses lmao
I was interested in the way that speckletail was so overprotective of Snowkit because I think she could tell he was deaf. She clearly wanted him to be perceived as a regular kit even with his disability, and she was against anyone trying to speak about how her Kit can’t become an apprentice. He clearly showed that he could, even though he was extremely close to his mom and preferred to play with her than try to be an apprentice. I love aus where he does survive and becomes a big part of the clan that isn’t being a medicine cat
I really love the aspect of mentorship in warriors, btw. It's such a unique bond that presents many opportunities for friendship and skills building from both warrior and apprentice. Being a mentor means you are not just a young willy nilly anymore, it means you're entrusted with helping to raise a new clan member and for some time, you become the moving force in kits forming of relationships around the clan, both with its fellow apprentices and with new warriors. You become their new center figure in life to decide their fate and adapt their abilities to warriors life's needs. Drama about mentors making up exercises and strategies and teaming up for group lessons and learning how to work with their apprentices special abilities and disabilities was also plenty fun.
Looking at the logistics of him, the hawk thing makes sense as a stand alone freak accident. Not as a part of a longer ongoing muddied series, but if a very tiny short story happened and it was that scene alone re-formatted to be a stand alone short story, it would make sense, if THAT makes sense?
A pure white kitten seemingly left alone in the middle of a clearing that's only there because a fire burned through the area, giving the bird better access to a new hunting spot, and the kitten can't hear the yelling or the hawk or anything. That'd be a short tragic story with a moral somewhere along the lines of you have to help those who need it the most / don't assume everyone has the same ability to do xyz as you / etc etc.
But in the long run of the series, it leaves a very weird after taste.
I’d argue even then it’s pushing it a little? That clearing had multiple adult cats walking around shortly before they noticed the hawk already swooping down, I don’t think it would’ve taken that risk knowing there was a threat for honestly what seems like very minuscule reward depending on how big or old the animal is? Not trying to argue but it just definitely has me questioning the logistics of it concerning how predatory birds work.
I'm taking ASL in high school right now, and OH GOD does Snowkit's death upset me even more now. As mentioned in the books, white cats with blue eyes are more likely to be born deaf. I think we could introduce a character who is born deaf, joins the Clan and show them that they can hunt and care for themself without issue, and then have their own little family where being deaf is a trait passed down through generations. If Deaf people can have their own community, why can't anthropomorphized cats living in the woods? Heck, if they're forced out of their Clans, they can form their own where they use their ways of communication. The football huddle was started by a Deaf team after all, so maybe the other Clans would learn something from it.
I think the biggest reason is… he wouldn’t be able to learn what they meant. Of course you are learning sign language but you can hear making it easier to learn, most death people have some sort of hearing aid or developed it later so they have a basic understanding of reading or signals. Snowkit was born purely death which would be next to impossible to teach due to the fact of him not knowing what anything means.
@@M3RK_Crash Not to be "that guy," but it is spelled deaF, not deaTH. Deaf means you cannot hear, death means something/someone is dead.
Ex: "Most deaf people use a hearing aid or develop it later so they have a basic understanding of reading or signals. Snowkit was born fully deaf."
Ok, oral language is not inherently easier to learn, in fact, sign language and speech when taught to infants show no difference in how fast they learn the language - it’s hard for you and me because we do not know ASL, like it’s hard for me to learn Italian when I don’t speak that language currently. ASL isn’t even the only non verbal form of communication out there - guess what we’re doing right now. Animals already use body language to communicate to one another, especially cats because they only meow to communicate with their owners, and deaf cats communicate fine with other cats, like deaf people can find ways to communicate with others even barring ASL. (This isn’t in response to the original commenter but to the person below them)
@@bastardman8176 Yeah, cats mostly use body language to communicate, and even though purring can be heard it's more vibrations than anything.
@@ZirconiaGacha yeah, the vibrations themselves are also proven to help those with problems regarding their bones, tiny fun fact. Cats if anything are highly specialized in touch and smell, their eyesight of course being pretty good and their hearing indeed being sensitive, but that sensitivity is often in regards to defense against predators, and even then with their whiskers giving an added bonus in overall vibrational awareness in a given area it’s likely they’d more easily adjust to being deaf whether they were born with it or gained hearing impairment over time.