u/Captainsnake04

In Warriors, a common fandom sentiment is that StarClan is imperfect and they make mistakes. This is true. An almost equally common sentiment is that the authors are under the impression that they are writing a perfect StarClan, or that the flaws of StarClan are not addressed in-writing, but this could not be farther from the truth.

The Erins are not stupid. They know what they are writing. Practically every prologue is a bunch of StarClan cats arguing with each other. PO3, OOTS, and TBC all explore the flaws of StarClan:

• PO3 is about how they are not all-knowing. The main prophecy in that arc is said to come from beyond StarClan, and they seem genuinely scared about what it will mean
• OOTS is about how StarClan can have internal conflicts, with Jayfeather having to come up there and talk some sense into them before they drag the clans down with them
• TBC is about how the Dark Forest/StarClan division is not necessarily fair, with cats like Ashfur ending up in StarClan and cats like Juniperclaw ending up in the Dark Forest.

This goes beyond the main series books. Firestar's Quest, Squirrelflight's Hope, and StormClan's Folly all prominently feature individual StarClan cats making terrible decisions. Graystripe's Vow does not explicitly criticize StarClan, but does have themes that clans are not defined by faith in StarClan, but by supporting each other.

As far as what StarClan is in canon, they are a bunch of individual cats that constantly disagree with each other, and are still very flawed. Really the only thing they have going for them is that occasionally they receive prophecies from a mysterious source, have some control over weather, and the wisdom of age.

If you want the clan cats to call out StarClan on their bullshit, then this already exists! Firestar doesn't buy Bluestar's "Four trees four clans" nonsense. Jayfeather basically never respected their opinion unless he saw the reason in it. Modern-day Mothwing thinks its a waste of time. Rootspring stood up to every dead main character and told them that their rules sucked.

As much as there are flaws in these books, the authors aren't stupid. They know what they are writing. They didn't write the trial in Squirrelflight's Hope thinking "she really deserves to get called out for hiding Leafpool's kits. That's what you get for breaking the code!" Instead its the climax of the "Squirrelflight against the world" plot in a book that positions Squirrelflight as one of the only reasonable cats in the situation. It's supposed to be unfair to Squirrelflight because the entire book is supposed to feel unfair to her.

It would be one thing if there was a single time StarClan was mean. But a solid third of the books are about StarClan being flawed. That's not an accident.

There are reasonable criticisms of how the Erins write StarClan. You could argue that they don't go as far in criticizing StarClan as you may like. This is fair. For example, I think in ALITM, they probably killed Snowtuft because they didn't want to handle the difficult question of "does someone who forgot their crimes still deserve to be punished for them?" I think this weakens the book. But that doesn't change the fact that the themes of the book are still all about StarClan's flaws, and that they are addressed.