Bad news compadres this place is magic as hell.

I don't wanna talk about it.

--- comic ---

yap and bonus art/sketches below :3

I really like Brokenstar! Honestly at first, i just liked him because I thought he was funny. His plans make no sense and he's so cartoonishly evil. HES KILLING BABIES!!!! FUUUUUCK HES SO DASTARDLY AND NEFARIOUS!!! made me laugh.

But honestly i did start to genuinely find him interesting lol. The erins seems to really badly want you to think hes nothing and hes pure evil. and a lot of the time theyre kinda right. but theres... moments... where we get hints that there's more to Brokenstar than what the authors intend.

Like here, for example. Yeah, in the future Brokenstar is a murderer. But here? This is an abused, neglected child expressing fear towards his adoptive mother. He knows cats treat him differently, and he knows they don't like him. It's... really heartbreaking, honestly.

There's also moments in Blackfoot's Reckoning where we get to see Brokenkit/paw again

Brokenkit/paw is frequently referred to as "Creepy" and "strange". He plays alone, and nobody likes him much.

And yeah, I know it's the erins trying to allude to the fact that he was born evil. But the way this reads to me is, well... he's displaying the traits of a bullied, abused, neurodivergent child, and is being actively shunned and shamed for it. for example, Ashheart was going to strike Brokenpaw as a punishment

Yes, Brokenpaw hurt Deerpaw very badly and he should be punished for it, but it is not appropriate, ever, for an adult to hit a child as punishment. Especially not with claws extended.

There's also this. Brokenpaw doesn't like to be touched, except for in battle training. That paired with the above moment really makes me think that adults think it's okay to hit Brokenpaw because he's "strange" and that has warped his views on affection and how he should treat others.

And yeah I know it's "bad rep" to go oooh the guy who kills babies is autistic and aroace. but I'm autistic and aroace and i think its funny as hell the most convincingly autistic-coded character theyve written is the fucking baby eater. never change Erin Hunter

theres a few more moments with him as well... like after he's killed Raggedstar. He seems... genuinely, extremely sad about it. Raggedstar was the only cat who ever supported him. And yes, you could definitely argue he was doing it for show.

But this moment specifically...

Here, Brokentail is standing alone, privately, outside of camp, grieving. What would he have to gain from doing this in a place where nobody can see him?

This all kind of informs a very specific interpretation of Brokenstar... that his rule isn't actually senseless, cartoonishly evil violence. Or, well, it's still very evil. But Brokenstar's plan was never to make ShadowClan strong at all. He didn't genuinely believe in what he was doing. He wanted to ruin ShadowClan, to destroy it, to torment all of the cats who rejected him as a kit by making them train their own young for slaughter. He didn't want power, he wanted revenge. It makes him a bit of a tragic villain which i like a lot. Kinda reminds me of Mapleshade in some ways