!!!SPOILER WARNING!!! Do not read this if you haven't finished Sky. @LinkScratchStar for inspo Ok. So, the villain(s) of ASC haven't been revealed yet. This is the first time that a villain (if there is one) hasn't been hinted at by the second book. The only indication that there /is/ a villain in ASC is the killing of the RiverClan cats. Mistystar died, possibly of old age, perhaps something more sinister. Reedwhisker fell into a canyon. It said in the book he was snarling when they found his body, his frozen face contorted in rage. Curlfeather was ripped apart by dogs, and as Fidgetflake suggested and the first Tigerstar proved, cats are capable of luring dogs into killing another cat. I have a few theories that are possible as to a villlain for this arc. A) Tigerstar. The current one. At the end of Shadow he seemed convinced he was doing the right thing, when he wasn't really helping. If he became the villain, I don't think it would be intentional. He would think he was doing the right thing, possibly ending in a takeover of RiverClan and outright war. This is one of the less likely options in my opinion. It's possible, but not very plausible. B) Berryheart. Yeah, she hasn't done anything really evil yet, but I can see it happening. She's terrified of all outsiders, scarred from her experience with Darktail. If she could gather enough support, and if there are cats in the other Clans who agree, it could start a war within each individual Clan. (Besides RiverClan, since they have enough to deal with.) Although, Nightheart said that ThunderClan didn't seem to mind the code changing in this way, so it would have to be ShadowClan, SkyClan, and WindClan that cause the trouble. Maybe the cats in these Clans that agree with Berryheart make a ruckus at Gatherings and cause a fight. This is about on the same plausibility wise as Tigerstar being the villain. C) My personal fave, Mapleshade. She's killing off the cats in RiverClan who are related to Appledusk. Given the amount of inbreeding that has to happen within each Clan, a lot of cats would be kin to her former mate. Mistystar definitely was, since she's the daughter of Oakheart, the brother of Crookedstar, who was targeted in Crookedstar's Promise by Mapleshade because of his heritage. Reedwhisker is Mistystar's son, therefore also related to Appledusk. Curlfeather could be related to a different kit of Appledusk's, or one of his kit's kits, etc, etc. Half the Clan or more could be Appledusk's kin. Why now, I don't know. I suppose Mapleshade's been busy with Dark Forest stuff and Ashfur. Her spirit also wasn't killed in TBC, so she's still a presence in the Dark Forest. Also not extremely plausible, but it would be awesome. D) Hollyleaf? I dunno, she didn't like the changes made to the code maybe. I can't imagine the warrior who was obssed with the code suddenly deciding "Yeah, we can let cats have mates in other Clans, this is fine with me." She hated being half-clan, and she hated Leafpool and Crowfeather. I can't believe she would take this lightly. She was also kind of crazy near the end of her arcs, so it isn't impossible she would snap. This theory is neither well thought out nor plausible, but it makes sense in a weird way.
