Thoughts from the story team: Darktail and the villain’s journey
BY Clare from the Story Team
This September, we’re very excited to release Darktail’s Judgement, our first Warriors Super edition told from the perspective of a villain. Darktail, the antagonist of the A Vision of Shadows arc and of the stand-alone super edition Hawkwing’s Journey is a bad, bad cat. He lies! He betrays! He murders! He takes vengeance!
When we see him for the first time in Hawkwing’s Journey, Darktail is already a killer. He comes to SkyClan’s gorge firmly determined to destroy SkyClan and to take over their territory with his own followers, and he is more than happy to attack any cat, even those who treat him with nothing but kindness.
When the Story Team began work on Darktail’s Judgement, we had to ask ourselves what happened to Darktail that changed him from the frightened kit we meet early on in Onestar’s Confession to the smug adult brute we see later in his life. Was Onewhisker’s rejection really enough to set his paws on such a terrible path?
We’ve seen the early days of future villains in Warriors before. In Yellowfang’s Secret, Brokenkit begins as an angry, lonely kit, but he blossoms a little under Yellowfang’s attention before the teasing of the other kits turns him away from her. In Pinestar’s Choice, Tigerkit (despite the prophecies Pinestar has received) seems entirely normal and even cute. Mapleshade appears to have been a well-behaved warrior before her kits’ death led her on an endless search for vengeance.
Bad things happen to Darkkit—bad things happen to all these cats—and these events help to set him on his path toward villainy. But he doesn’t have to become a villain. One thing about Warriors: bad things happen to a lot of cats. Feathertail and Stormfur, for example, were betrayed by their Clanmates and their leader, Leopardstar, who stood by as they were nearly murdered. Still, they chose to return to RiverClan and, eventually, traveled far from the forest to the sun-drown-place to try to save the Clans.
What shapes each cat into a hero or a villain is not the tragic things that happen to them, no matter how bad they are. Nor is it simply determined by the personality with which they’re born: Brokenkit, Tigerkit, and Darkkit are all prone to outbursts of anger when they’re young, but Jaypaw and Crowpaw are bitter and defensive young cats who both grow up to be heroes.
The choices these cats make are what mold them into who they become. This is true of every cat. For example, Firestar usually chooses the path that benefits other cats: As a paw he tried to save WindClan and bring them back to the forest, Fireheart brought all the Clans together to save their territory, and Firestar journeyed to reform SkyClan—all at great personal risk. Other heroes struggle more along the way: Brambleclaw was almost seduced by the promises of power that Tigerstar gave him in the Dark Forest, and it is easy to see how close he could have come to making the same evil choices his half-brother Hawkfrost made. But he opted to do right by his Clan instead.
And there are cats who want to benefit the rest of their Clan, but are doomed by their own terrible choices: Hollyleaf was desperate to serve ThunderClan, and yet she became a murderer. And, in the current series, Starlingpaw is also devoted to his Clan but is willing to lie and make other questionable decisions if he thinks it will serve SkyClan.
Starlingpaw’s path is not yet set—in the current arc, he is making the choices that will in the end make him a hero, a villain, or (like Hollyleaf) something in-between. But we know that Darktail’s paws will be set upon a dangerous path, and that his choices and actions will be terrible ones. We’ve enjoyed figuring out how he got there—and hope you will, too.
