I think my favorite from the English covers is and always has been The Last Hope’s recover. Not awkward, Firestar *actually* looks fiery rather than a bland removed ginger, and it gives off that ominous vibe and suspense that the book has. Even as a kid, I’ve always wondered what the heck happened to Thunder in older Thunder Rising. Oh dear, buddy… edit: the last hope boring ranking OTL… it’s okay i can see that I just love the shading lol
Wayne McLoughlin drew some really cute Bluestars - one of my fav pieces of warrior cats art is her portrait from (I think) the ultimate guide, where she's crouched in the grass. I understand why they did it, but I really wish they didn't stop printing his covers after he passed away :( He had some really nice pieces
My biggest problem with the Warriors book covers is that very rarely does a cover capture a character's essence well enough to make them recognizable while also being a well-proportioned portrait of a pretty cat. The "okay" covers do one but not the other, and the "bad" covers do neither. Ignoring backgrounds on the old books since those are usually decent, I actually love the portrait of covers like Forgotten Warrior because it's a well-proportioned and cute/pretty-looking cat. It's only after finding who the cat is supposed to be that I'm like???? WHO????? The old Thunder Rising has the inverse of this problem. I think the portrait is /recognizable enough/ that you can tell it's Thunder, but the illustration itself is just... so ugly. Why are his eyes lopsided? Why is the silhouette of his head so round? He looks like he just got back from the groomer's with a lion cut. He's supposed to be this big and strong character, so you'd think that his portrait on the front cover would reflect that but it doesn't. This is also the exact reason why the recovers are so bad. A lot of them have these weird lopsided features and wet moppy-looking fur that doesn't look appealing, and even the ones that ARE well-proportioned have been blasted to bits by this dramatic lighting that completely washes out their fur colors so that you can't even tell who the cover is supposed to depict. You have to guess purely based on their neon-saturated eye color which doesn't help at all when you're trying to visualize all the earthen forest tones of the book's actual setting. Some half-dozen books also just look like different angles of the exact same cat in a different light color. There's barely anything visually appealing nor recognizable about the cat, which is why they almost always lose in comparison to the old covers. The old covers also had the leeway to fit in way more than just two characters, whereas the new ones are mostly weird closeups of just one or two with a generic oversaturated background. It's such a letdown because my interpretation is that whoever is directing the compositions for these book covers just doesn't care enough or doesn't know enough about the characters to make sure that whoever is going on the cover looks like themselves from the story. I also wish that they would hire an artist who specializes in drawing cats because sometimes these portraits don't feel like they're drawn by someone who's even comfortable with what they're being paid to draw.
The New Prophecy's covers will always be my bias. Love the variety and the different colors and moods for each cover (even if the main cats' faces may or may not be a bit derpy). My all time favorite is definitely a mix between Twilight and Sunset
If we had the polish covers, they’ll totally go by S tier. (Also I’m not American or British). Arc 1 covers does it for me ❤️ The international covers are so beautiful too, love the Persian and Vietnamese covers a lot :)) A Moonkitti tier list LOVE IT!!
Some covers are cute and beautiful, others are okay but has the cat’s face too close. They can get weird, Moonkitti videos are always great And I’m very impressed by the covers, with the amount of books
I wish the Polish covers were here but I understand they would all end up going to best and that'd be boring 💅 (also that this is an american release centric video but shh)
@@Moonkitti that's true. We have people there who help with designs of covers and cats are very accurate when you look at them from the fans' perspective, not necessarily in a "canon" way (but still often do).
the new prophecy's original covers are unbeatable in my eyes; starlight is my favourite. enter the clans and battles of the clans give me a lot of nostalgia, though. my copy of enter the clans is so beat up and torn lol
I almost forgot how much the Midnight and Twilight newer covers are like trying to teach a 90 year old how to selfie. Just looking right up the nose mouth partly open because their trying to figure it out and for some reason most older people I know just partly open their mouth when their thinking.
i love the english covers alot, but the polish covers are absolutely gorgeous and the cats depicted on each cover is recognizable. also the backdrops r literally gorgeous??? one of my favorites has to be that one that depicted hawkfrost
Sunsets original cover mightve been what got me into warriors. I saw that book in my library, liked the cover, then read the last book of the second series and had 0 context lol
I was ranting ab wc official art to a friend just the other day. boiled down to “idc how accurate the art is, I care if it looks good and makes me feel like I’m embarking on a journey with wild cats” there are a couple Owen Richardson pieces I rlly like (the River and Dark River covers come to mind) but so many of them are just “here is a cat.” and it’s just no fun to look at :((
The first Warriors books I ever read were The First Battle and Bluestar's SE, and with eye-catching and iconic covers like those, it's not hard to see why I gravitated to them first. Very few Warriors covers can convey the atmosphere you're getting into when you start reading them the way other books do, so the ones that are on that level stand out amongst the rest. If the Scourge cover was just colored fully, I think it would actually be great.
Imo Place of No Stars gets slept on quite a bit. It may just be me, but I’ve always been a fan of the overly pissed off silver and blue Ashfur contrasted with the harsh red and shadows of the Dark Forest
Ivypool's Heart makes me think of those weird profile pics of each person in the Hunger Games that they display in the sky. They almost look like they're trying to bend over backwards.
midnight has always been my fave, even tho brambleclaw has the wrong eye colour - its just so pretty and the colours are really nice. I also like the Sight and Moonlight as runners up, but the First Battle is also really nice, never really noticed how nice it is. I also love how dynamic the Battles of the Clans cover is, I think its the best art we have of Blackstar.
@@YourLocalReaper Maybe coincidence? Moon just does it at 12:00 PM EST which is a very common timezone to use as it’s a populated American timezone. But, who knows I suppose
Can't believe you're so unimpressed by the old Dark River cover, it's potentially my favorite in the series. I love the background art, and Heatherpaw looks cute even if I have no idea why she's the cat on the cover.
I remember one time in 6th grade I was reading a warrior cats book in math class. I read the page where thunder, clear sky were fighting one eye. And after reading the page that thunder broken one eye's neck in a good description. I look up at the wall and picture that scene in my head. I was like "what just happened?"
I honestly thought that Whitestorm was the cat on the new cover of a Dangerous Path, and that Yellowfang on the new Rising Storm cover was Cloudtail/paw (I can't remember if he became a warrior before, within, or after the book), because of the weird lighting and the fact that the characters are somewhat important side characters from what I remember at least.
Some of the new covers are very good imo (fire and ice , into the wild, forest of secrets and all of dawn of the clans) makes me consider doing my own teirlist I do agree with a lot of these though amazing video
The new covers are more expressive. But the original covers are unique to the Warriors series, I hope in the future they might go back to the old style and add a dash of personality to the faces.
I absolutely adore the original New Prophecy covers with all my unabashed nostalgia, lmao. The cover for Twilight is especially dense and detailed, and it's one of my absolute favorites. I also don't think there's a miss among the Prophecies Begin covers, either, though I do agree that the Cloudpaw version of Rising Storm is superior (Sandstorm looks wall-eyed). The early PoT ones are really good, but after that, the original covers begin to drop off for me. The backgrounds stop having as much detail, and the cat portraits start melting a bit here and there. The lighting and colors on the new covers are blown out to the point where the cats on them are impossible to identify without the authors telling us who they are (did you know that the cats on the cover of River of Fire are supposed to be Rowanclaw and Leafstar? how are you supposed to know that??), the poses are uninspired, the backgrounds are boring, the perspectives are off, the designs for the characters are inaccurate in some cases and inconsistent in others (Onestar and Leafstar look the exact same?? How???), and the anatomy is horrid. They're slowly getting better as they try new things, but each one still feels like a bad photobash of three other ones with a glow layer turned up to 200%. The Broken Code probably had the best look of all the new covers and they were just mimicking the Polish ones lol. Seeing them all together like this, side by side, I noticed that the new artist really struggles with the faces. Early covers had each cat sporting the same set of angry trapezoid eyes, and any time there's an expression of any kind, the faces bulge and look disproportionate and strange. I think they do better with profile or head-on shots; whenever there's an angle, things turn a little odd. There's so much room for improvement, but the cut corners are real since these covers need to be out at such a quick pace. ... I will never forgive that new Bluestar's Prophecy cover. It's SO bad. And Ivypool having one single scar painted onto her fur? Travesty.
I think Shattered Sky is the best cover by the new guy. It's iconic to me, and it's paired with one of the best modern books. Conversely I always thought the old full cover of Bluestar's Prophecy looked weird. Like the head and the body don't really match.
Disagree with a lot of these cuz I have weird opinions, but I think saying the new Crookedstar is bad because they didn't know what to do with the jaw is weird when you also like the old cover when the old cover. Just. Doesn't give him a crooked jaw. Just hides it. slightly moving it. That's really the only one I felt was worth pointing out.
For me i in general like Wayne’s (the old artist) art style much better. And i liked how the cover often had more than just a face/head shot. I like how a scene or important part of the story is captured in the cover. Or how there was scenery & MANY cats. I can pick out MOST of Wayne’s art & know what book is what instantly. But a few i don’t like much. I was very torn about Dawn of the Clans.. some looked amazing, some bleh… As for Owen’s (the new artist) art. I don’t like alot of them. Way to much awkward face close ups. And so.. samey. But the ones what zoom out & have a scene in the back i like so much more. Idk Owen’s art is hit or miss for me. My fav of all is the old Special edition hard back ‘under cover’ that just looked stunning. Like Bluestar & Yellowfang.
