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So as the resident Tigerstar defender I want to think about why he would do this because it is on a surface level pretty bad. I don't think he wants them permanently. He seems pretty sincere about that. I also don't think, as an extension of that, that it's any sort of power grab. He gains next to nothing from being in RiverClan and never gives a hint towards wanting to take territory from them.

His reasoning is that all of the clans need to be strong and RiverClan cannot maintain themselves, and the latter part is pretty true. At the gathering in Sky, Tigerstar's unusually transparent and maintains what he said up on the tree when talking to Dovewing and Berryheart. So again, I do think, for the first time ever, Tigerstar's motives are exactly what he says they are.

Jumping ahead to Shadow the question I had on my mind was "is Tigerstar right." Note: I don't mean ethically right (for now) I mean right in so far as does RiverClan benefit from ShadowClan's presence and... they do.

The reasoning actually has less to do with ShadowClan themselves and more so the effect that ShadowClan presence has had. While, yes, Cloverfoot is helping them and it is directly stated that the clan is more secure than before, the more important character is Icewing.

Icewing was chosen to be the RiverClan "representative" in a way, partially because Tigerstar trusted her and partially because she was sincerely qualified. As a result, RiverClan has stumbled into a interim leader native to their territory and one that's actually capable. Unless she gets murdered, I have a feeling Icestar is an inevitability. Icewing isn't perfect in her role by any means and frequently doesn't represent the actual interests of RiverClan, but being able to make the best calls no matter how unpopular is frequently depicted as a good quality for clan leaders (though I don't inherently agree). I mean look at Tigerstar! (which we'll do more of later when we cover his #1 dissenter).

Her most clearly controversial comment was saying that RiverClan was happy to have ShadowClan there at a gathering which, fun fact, isn't even a little true. Splashtail and Duskfur proceed to get rather angry at her for honestly fair reason. But the reasoning for her comment - that RiverClan was better fed and organized - was 100% correct. And given that Tigerstar's goal with his occupation was to get them better organized, he was maybe logistically right?

The reason Tigerstar wants a strong RiverClan is to protect from either strong outside forces, like Darktail, or malicious internal ones, like Ashfur. From specifically that point of view, I would say that his occupation of RiverClan has been so far successful and beneficial HOWEVER!

Is it ethical? I don't k(no)w. There's a weird middle ground between the practicality of getting RiverClan help even if they don't want it and RiverClan's right to have control over their own clan. And I think that yeah Tigerstar should not have gotten into physical conflict with RiverClan. To me, the issue isn't that he had some kind of presence in RiverClan through Cloverfoot but instead that he started a battle to establish said presence. So I have to say that Tigerstar... is the asshole. I'm sorry reddit.

One other thing is that StarClan begged Tigerstar to stop being in RiverClan and his reaction was "my case was misrepresented" but like dude don't you believe your ancestors are all knowing? They can watch you! He is real for that though ignoring StarClan will always be valid.

Berryheart

I do have to admit one single mistake Tigerstar made though: putting Berryheart in charge of the trials was a horrible choice. I get his reasoning: she's the most vocal critic of the system, so giving her some degree of authority will get her to work with him better. The issue is that her goal is to be xenophobic and cause the cats trying to join ShadowClan to fail or possibly even die.

But that scenario is why Berryheart is one of my favorite villains so far because she is very correct about one thing: she has no power in ShadowClan and that is unfair. Returning to Tigerstar's decision to "assist" RiverClan, how did ShadowClan themselves feels about it? Well within the clan, the only cats we see supporting Tigerstar are either related to him or Cloverfoot, who is deputy and who, frankly, is only implied to support him. But Berryheart's whole crew of about 6 cats don't agree, and neither does Sunbeam or anyone she talks to. Tigerstar is able to decide to start a battle based off of a view only he really supports. Berryheart is forced to fight in a battle that she has vocally disagreed with and she has absolutely zero way to actually protest that within the clans. She even gets injured fighting this fight that she is against.

So Berryheart just refuses to shut up. Her character really revolves around the way the hierarchy of the clans is politically ineffective as it suppresses the voices of warriors. The only option she really has to get her voice heard is to refuse to shut up and repeatedly confront Tigerstar over every single thing. Cloverfoot won't, and Shadowsight and Puddleshine certainly won't either, so she has to advocate for her group on her behalf.

Ignoring what she's advocating for for a second, that's why I love Berryheart so much. She's functionally powerless but scraps together everything she can do within (and outside) the clan system to represent both herself and the prominent group of cats that agree with her. While I hate what they represent, it is objectively unfair that Tigerstar is never directly incentivized to even acknowledge them. And that's not a Tigerstar issue; every leader in every clan has gone through something similar. It's even brought up, to an extent, in AVoS when the clans are deciding if SkyClan should stay. While we see characters like Sparkpelt who are opposed to SkyClan staying, ultimately their voices can be ignored by leaders like Bramblestar who genuinely don't have a reason to listen. More impactfully: late Bluestar. Just as a whole. Unlike Bramblestar and (sometimes) Tigerstar II, she's pretty consistently in the wrong post-Forest of Secrets, but the cats in ThunderClan have zero ability to influence the clan when their leader just refuses to listen and cannot be made to, not even by Fireheart. Berryheart is such an effective villain because she highlights that issue that's been looming in the background of practically every arc since Rusty decided being neutered was for weirdos.

But that doesn't make her a villain. What makes her a villain is her beliefs and actions, which are pretty consistently vile. She does more than just come up with Mario Party minigames for Nightheart and Fringewhisker, after all. She's extremely manipulative and tries to influence Nightheart and Sunbeam to avoid each other, even going so far as to bring up Sunbeam's issues with Blazefire as a gotcha, only for Nightheart to reveal that he literally does not feel care or feel the least bit insecure about it. His response "I'll stay as long as Sunbeam wants me" paints his ideological opposition to Berryheart as it simultaneously asserts the validity of their relationship while also showing a belief that clan affiliation can be so fluid that Nightheart would leave upon Sunbeam simply asking.

Berryheart is a great villain because she's a conservative force in the clans at a time of great change. She especially contrasts with Nightheart "wokenheimer" Warrior Cats, who is consistently the most progressive clan cat in the series. The central conflict she faces is that the clans are changing around her without her having any say and the questions we have to ask is "what say should she have?"

I mentioned how Berryheart is correct to identify the lack of power warriors have within the clans and even do think that she is right to force Tigerstar to at least listen to her as the functional leader of an opposition group within his clan. Berryheart becomes a problem when she extends that way of seeing power into interpersonal issues. She does not, by any means, have the right to exercise her voice to Sunbeam, Spireclaw, and their mates in the same way she does Tigerstar.

And that leads to why Berryheart is a wrong character despite still having one very prominent correct position: her ideology inherently extends to interfere with the personal lives of others, most notably her two children. At the end of the day, Berryheart is largely unaffected by the presence of Nightheart and Fringewhisker, and the extent to which she is has more to do with her bigotry than their actions. But she subscribes to an ideology which allows her to force her belief onto those cats. It's why she says that Nightheart will never really be ShadowClan, because from her perspective that's literally impossible.

Which leads to the most interesting lingering question at the end of the book: Sunbeam has left ShadowClan. The flaw in Berryheart's way of controlling her children is that her belief system can only ever extend to ShadowClan. If Sunbeam is in ThunderClan, she no longer has the power to be a persistent antagonistic force. Only an occasional one.

But I have a feeling she's still got more going on. She was, after all, also conspiring with RiverClan. But I mostly wanted to focus on the ideology Berryheart presents to establish a coherent view of her character, beliefs, and agenda as she's not going away any time soon. She's conservative. And not even just in the Warrior Cats sense.

Bramblestar

I'm a pretty well documented Bramble-hater and have been since TNP. I can't think of a single arc where I came out of it with a positive opinion of him except for TBC, where I just felt bad. I have called him my least favorite warriors character and meant it.

All this to say: when I tell you that Bramblestar is one of the strongest characters in the arc, I'm being 100% serious.

Everything he does in this arc is contextualized by his time spent out of his body in TBC and how harrowing it was for him. It's hard to reflect on but for several months he was completely powerless as he watched Ashfur use his body to hurt the people he loved and that deeply effected him. Additionally, there is a young generation in ThunderClan who have more familiarity with Ashfur as Bramblestar than Bramblestar himself. After all, Bramblestar was a relatively private leader compared to Ashfur who wasn't subtle about what he was doing. There are cats who see Bramblestar and think of Ashfur first, and he knows this.

That's what colors Bramblestar's actions throughout the arc. There's a scene where he gets onto Twigbranch (unjustified, fwiw) and afterwards feels awful because he recognizes that she feels afraid of him. After that he's as passive as possible to avoid looking like Ashfur, which creates a dilemma. It's impossible for him to lead because he can't take charge but him taking charge would hurt several of the cats he's supposed to help just on premise alone. It's an awful situation that Bramblestar doesn't have the willpower to try an fix because, on top of it all, he's still dealing with the mental struggles that come with what he went through last arc. Even though I don't like Bramblestar it's sad that Nightheart catches him staring off consistently; you can really feel how much it hurts Nightheart to see the cat he admires unable to do the things he's supposed to do.

When Nightheart returns to ThunderClan camp with Dovewing to apologize, Bramblestar hardly acknowledges him despite the fact that the two actually do have a connection. Bramblestar's just unwell and can't give Nightheart the attention he would have previously loved to give him.

Bramblestar is at his absolute worst in Squirrelflight's Hope. tl;dr: he's extremely abusive towards her and a lot of that is based in her repeated decision to disagree with him publicly, most notably at a meeting of leaders. I think the parallel between how he reacts to her there, when he's at his "peak" as a leader (whatever that may mean) compared to when she contradicts him at a full gathering is intentional. He doesn't try to stop Squirrelflight or disagree with her, instead he just lets her talk and then says that she's more qualified to lead than him. He says that in front of all the clans.

It's a wild scene to see specifically because of how Bramblestar has acted before. His whole thing in Squirrelflight's super edition, however wrong, was about having a unified ThunderClan leadership. That's been tossed aside because, frankly, he doesn't care. He doesn't have the capacity to care. And the tragic part is that he does truly want to. In Sky, when Nightheart accidentally reveals that Squirrelflight went behind Bramblestar's back for something, he starts to get frustrated before deflating. Not calming down, notably, just giving up.

Bramblestar says this during Nightheart's second visit to ThunderClan camp when he tries to remind him of all the things he's done in the past. I love how he says "that seems like another lifetime" because it shows clearly the dissonance between who Bramblestar is and who he expects himself to be. What used to be exciting is now impossible and it hurts him. Bramblestar's done. There's nothing else he can do as a leader because he's not in the state to do anything. He decides, at the end of the book, to retire to the elder's den. It's a pleasant conclusion and one that he deserves.

So that's where Bramblestar ends up at the end of Shadow. All it took was going through the out of body horrors of TBC to make him a good character. But in all seriousness I love how eerie to feels to see the distance that's come between who he was and what remains of him. I want him to sit there in the elder's den and eat prey and nap because, despite his flaws, he deserves so many naps.

And also...

SQUIRRELSTAR FINALLY YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY SHE DESERVES IT SO HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Squirrelstar's (Imagined) Nine Lives

I want to give a theoretical list of who I think should give Squirrelstar (AHHHH!!!!!!!) her nine lives. I chose who I want to start and end but don't care about the rest of the order.

Firestar (Should start it. He's her dad and the most iconic leader. Life for not making bad decisions)

Sandstorm (Mom. Also is like the prototype for Squirrelflight like really she takes more after Sandstorm than Firestar. Life for girlbossing)

Hollyleaf (Adoptive daughter. She's gotta be included. Life for killing Ashfur)

Feathertail (Journeyed together and she can come to StarClan. Life for dodging rocks)

Cinderpelt (This just feels right by vibes. Probably was close to her as a young cat. Life for dodging cars)

Foxleap (Her apprentice and a less obvious pick. Life for being a lil goofball)

Dustpelt (Her mentor. Life for being a little xenophobic)

Tallstar (Running a little dry on ideas but I think he works. Close to her dad+was alive to know her. Life for not being stupid about deputy picks)

Leafpool (She has to be the last one. After Squirrelflight's Hope, any ending other than her sister, the one who she wanted to be "leader and medicine cat with" being the one to give her the name Squirrelstar is to good to not have. They were closer to each other than any other cat so I can't think of anyone more fitting to give Squirrelstar her final life. It feels like, that way, Leafpool at least gets to be with her for the very first moments of her leadership, even if she's not alive for it. Life for dodging more rocks)

It kinda hit me that a lot of the candidates that would work really well are alive. Leafstar? Crowfeather? Tawnypelt? Bramblestar? Any of her other children (minus the two I left out because like what even are they but also you can put both in and I won't judge)? All still kicking.

Really just wanted to talk about how beautiful I find the idea of Leafpool giving the last life and also the name "Squirrelstar." I know realistically, should they ever show the ceremony (which is unlikely) it would be Firestar but there's no better pick than Leafpool.

Conclusion

Leafpool's been dead for an arc and a half but I'll find a way to bring her up. I brought up Runningwind in OotS when he said 2 words I'll do literally anything try and stop me.

Still liking this arc a lot. It's hard to talk about because, for the first time, the story feels evenly paced. Star will probably hit different.

Which reminds me that I still need to buy Wind. Cause that's closer than I thought.

Anyways checklist for today:

Defend colonization? Yup

Mention Leafpool? Yup

Say "Bramble=Bad"? No

Uh oh. That's way more worrying than the defense of colonization.

And btw just in case it wasn't clear (and because I don't feel like retyping anything) I do think Tigerstar was wrong for annexing RiverClan. Like without question. And the book says so as well. I do think it's more complex and my goal was to show that while RiverClan still benefited, most of that was assisted by ShadowClan, who did not have anything resembling consent from the poor RiverClan cats.

I don't like colonization I think it's icky.

Uh so Thunder? Nightheart and Sunbeam are in ThunderClan and seemingly pretty peacefully. I want to know how Sparkpelt, known xenophobe, will feel about Sunbeam. I doubt she'll be too aggressive (especially compared to Berryheart) but I don't see her being overjoyed.

Also: SQUIRRELSTAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay that's all I got I shall now rest for 30 years after which you'll be subjected to my opinions on Thunder.

Especially cause I'll be busy tomorrow. It's a national holiday! Deltarune!