Chapter Text
November 9, 2021
This section covers any sexually explicit content that may appear in Warriors fanfics; That is, anything that’s specifically written to be erotic in some way, shape, or form, or using it as a narrative tool. It will only cover explicit sex, not implied sex (surprise pregnancy with no known mate, chapter ends right before characters do it, etc), nor will it discuss the morality of explicit sex in animal fiction, nor is this a biology lesson on cat reproduction. I will also not give my opinion on whether or not scenes like this should be used in Warriors. I also will not speak on the maturity of the fandom or the average age of its members as reasons for or against such content.
Every single fandom ships characters. And, like shipping, every fandom pairs characters off in the bedroom for many number of reasons (or lack thereof). Warriors has its share of sexual content. Unlike other sections in this guide, there is no objectively justifiable reason to include explicit sex in Warriors fanfics because it isn’t featured in canon. But fanfiction can be whatever we want, and for some that includes sex. I’ll go over what could possibly come from this, good or bad. The only reason this type of content is different here than in other fandoms is the feral physiology of its characters.
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USE OF SEX IN CANON WARRIORS
There isn’t much to say here: Warriors canon does not include sexually explicit scenes. In a series aimed at children, this wouldn’t be a good idea. Doubly so in a series where all the characters are domestic cats and other animals (physically, at least). Sex is just implied as in many other works of fiction, from characters having kits, forbidden relationships, and taking mates. Stories spanning generations of characters, however, make it more interesting.
In political thrillers, space operas, and other works of fiction spanning vast distances and sporting long timelines, sex tends to be a common theme. Who sleeps with who, has a child or forbidden relationship with who, screws up the bloodline, all of this can be important to those types of stories,which Warriors can loosely associate with. While it features far less of these incidents than the average political thriller, these themes are still at play from time to time. Most of it is background dressing, but sex has gotten many main characters in or out of trouble. Sometimes it results in new characters, death, or major character development. While none of the scenes are explicit (most aren’t even brought up) , it means it’s not out of the realm of possibility to use sex as a narrative tool in Warriors fanfics. In a series spanning multiple generations of characters, sex is going to happen. It’s also going to be written into fanfics one way or another.
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EXPLICIT CONTENT IN WARRIORS FANFICS
While the canon includes no examples, there is no shortage of sexually explicit Warriors content out there. As a moderately sized fandom, it’s bound to show up for especially popular characters or plot points.
Most explicit material in Warriors fanfics comes from lemon-fics and slash-fics. Most aren’t as good as their equals from other fandoms for one reason: to write sexually explicit Warriors content, one must research how domestic cats, or other animals, have sex as opposed to humans. And domestic cats, like most animals, don’t have sex for pleasure. This results in content that reads more like human sex transplanted onto your favorite Warriors characters. This is less a critique of lemons and Warriors and more of a fact that it can’t be as interesting to readers as these same stories involving humans, unless the reader was specifically looking to read about cat sex or enjoys the series enough to overlook their physiology. If the reader and writer know this and just want a ‘plot-what-plot screwfest’ featuring their favorite characters, none of this matters. But, in short, there are no examples from real life to pull from. If, for a Harry Potter slash-fic, we wanted to read a story about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy getting it on and there are no examples in canon to pull from (there aren’t), the blanks can be filled with examples and narratives from real life or other works of fiction to make the work satisfying erotically and/or narratively. The same can’t be done for explicit Warriors fics without a specific type of reader in mind. Cats biologically can’t have sex like humans. So, in the end, all Warriors sexually explicit fics feature human sex implied through domestic cats.
And the context does matter in some cases. It means using sex in fanfics not intended soley for pornography must be used carefully. Adding a decent story to an erotic Warriors fanfic doesn’t count as using sex as a narrative tool beyond arrousal, either (unless some deeper commentary on sex or the culture surrounding it was attempted somewhere; not that it has to, anyway). While using explicit sex as a narrative tool is very rarely used and often frowned upon, it’s still not out of the realm of possibility to help make a compelling Warriors narrative.
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ARE SEXUALLY EXPLICIT SCENES VIABLE?
Sex scenes in most fandom’s fanfiction and professional media exists as fanservice, or something for the audience to gawk at. Fanservice on its own isn’t a bad thing, but it generally isn’t meant to add anything narratively. As mentioned previously, the use of explicit sex in Warriors fanfics can’t be used to wide effect for fanservice or eroticism (if used outside of lemon-fic and slash-fic) as in stories about humans. While seldom seen outside of lemon-fics and slash-fics, explicit sex in Warriors fanfics can serve some purpose and isn’t outside of the realm of possibility.
Also as mentioned above, the key difference between explicit sex in Warriors fanfics and fanfics of other fandoms is the characters all being animals. This presents an interesting opportunity to portray sex in a way that’s almost forgein to humans. While we all know or can learn most animals, in this case domestic cats, have sex soley to reproduce, we’d have a hard time imprinting this sole intent on humans. It would be unrealistic for us. But for a story about cats, I’d be realistic. Not that realism is our goal. The goal is to use the simple animal nature of sex between cats as a stark contrast to the complicated reasons two humans might have sex. The concept of love leading to sex doesn’t exist in cats the way it does for humans (yes, cats do fall in love in the canon and have sex because of it, but the point here is to try and justify explicit sex’s narrative inclusion). The explicit nature of such a plot point could drive that point hard into the reader; the sex could be portrayed as raw, instinctive, and with a singular purpose. It would be a great way to show your readers that your cat characters are not only animals, but also far from humans in the purpose and aftermath of one of the most intimate things people can do.
Another way to use sexually explicit scenes in Warriors fanfics is to portray the dominance of one character over another, a corrupted form of love or affection, or used in portraying the effects of physical and mental weakness. For humans, such actions would be harassment, assault, or rape. It’s all a normal part of mating for most animals, cats included. Narratively, this can be taken a step further. If one character used sex to dominate another character (and the receiving character reacted as an animal would), it could portray an intense state of mental weakness or devotion. It can also be used to portray the dominance of one character over another or a group of characters without resorting to violence or questionable morals. Just as in portraying sex as something to be done with purpose, the inclusion of an explicit scene for this helps remind the reader they are reading about animals and not humans. That animals take actions for much simpler reasons than humans. The paths taken tend to be more direct.
A small point on shock value here: a sexually explicit scene between animals in a book would almost always serve this purpose. Reading such actions between two humans is already strange enough in this context. Most believe sex like this (that is, dominant, unromantic, passionless, tool-of-survival) is not fun for anyone, thus creating the shock value when portrayed in addition to rebranding the “attacker” in question as something less than human: an animal. This can be good if we’re actually writing about animals. In our case, domestic cats. Such shock value can still clash against heavily anthropomorphized characters like in canon Warriors and should be considered if adding an explicit sex scene to a fanfic.
In this case, an example from our nonexistent fanfic would help to show what I mean about all this:
- Catstar, proud leader of ShadowClan, rules her clan with the intent on taking down ThunderClan. Over the years, she’s heard the decaying clan’s new ruler, Enemystar, is an isolating tyrant who executes his own members with groups of loyal outsiders and plans on taking all territory for himself. He has also been kidnapping high-ranking members of other clans, her medicine cat and friend, Otherleaf, included, and sometimes releasing them.
- She attacks on a foggy day; perfect for an ambush. But Enemystar has the drop on her and captures her. Later that day, Catstar wakes with Enemystar, his outsiders watching. She sees a perfect opportunity to take him down. They fight, but she is pinned. Without submitting or conceding, Enemystar forcibly mates with her. He says he needs more strong kits to replenish ThunderClan’s numbers and guessed the attack from Otherleaf, who submitted to his rule and told him everything about Catstar’s personality and battle knowledge.
- Over her moons in captivity, she learns some of the clan members actually like him since he’s leading them through tough times, despite his blatant ignoring of the warrior code. The clan is no longer decaying and is stronger and more level-headed than ever. One of those converts is Otherleaf. Enemystar tells Catstar she can return to her clan once she’s borne his kits. She agrees, fearful for her life and her pride shattered.
- Once she gives birth, she is told never to return to ThunderClan territory. The other clans are shocked to find she’s still alive. But she doesn’t return the same leader. Over the moons, ThunderClan further isolated itself and stopped participating in gatherings. The dying, out-of-control clan is not at all what she’s been told. And Catstar no longer has any idea how to take it all in...
In this example, the story could continue without the sexually explicit scene. But the character of Enemystar would not come through as efficiently as showing other displays of his “new age” rule of ThunderClan. Furthermore, if it was just implied he impregnated Catstar instead of it being shown, we would lose context as to how and when the exact moment her character broke; In this case, after being defeated in battle and assaulted in front of others, taking a litter of kits from her, shattering her view of ThunderClan and Enemystar, and taking her pride away. The addition of the scene, in this case and briefly, makes both Catstar and Enemystar animals who solve their problems like animals but come out of it all characters in a book humans will read. We use the fact that Warriors fanfics are animal fiction at their core to our advantage. The meaning of such a scene would change in fiction about humans or more intelligent creatures. All of that can come through with the addition of just one event.
Being careful with the addition of sexually explicit scenes is paramount, however. It can easily make a character into a sadist or predator. Not that using explicit sex to convey this is technically wrong, but it replaces animal thought processes of sex with human ones just like for erotic Warriors fanfics. Just something to note.
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IN CONCLUSION…
While Warriors canon doesn’t make use of sexually explicit scenes, fanfics can. It doesn’t have to be limited to just lemon-fics and slash-fics and even loses some of its literary value when used this way (not that these fics have such goals). Explicit sex’s greatest contribution to a fanfic could be making these otherwise anthropomorphic cats feel truly animal. But caution is necessary. These are domestic cats. Reading about them having sex, narrative or otherwise, could easily put off many readers or subtract from the story depending on how you write the characters’ reactions. There are also justifiable reasons to avoid the shock value these scenes bring. Especially when used in a serious capacity, as reactions may vary to references of sexual violence, assault, rape, domination, or similar ideas.
Just like any other, explicit sex is a literary tool. It ranges from arousal and fanservice to raw characterization and strong themes. Its addition to a Warriors fanfic is reliant entirely on context.
- Tyto