eeeeeeeeeh. barley is an unbiased source. he isn't a clan cat. and lives and dies happily without being a clan cat. he is never punished for it. so he ain't got no reason to lie that blooclan sucked, sorry.
so โthe darkest hourโ came out in 2004. this was the first and only appearances of bloodclan in the early years of warriors, and the only physical appearance in a main series book. this is what barley says to firestar when his backstory is revealed.
there are several things to notice here. firstly, the very, VERY important line, โEven Scourge realized that if there are no kits, sooner or later thereโs no Clan.โ keep this in mind. second, barley directly states that he left because he couldnโt take the difficult, harsh lifestyle. he wanted to live for himself on his independent discretion which makes perfect sense, escaping a dictatorship to be his own leader. however, thatโs basically it. thereโs no bloody betrayals, personal cruelties, or direct influence which caused barley to leave, he merely chose to. that is barleyโs original backstory from the mainline series.
now before proceeding please understand nobody is saying bloodclan is a great place to live, iโm not sure where you got that from iโve genuinely never seen that take for the canon-compliant setting. the darkest hour explicitly says that they have a survival-of-the-fittest mentality and a cynical worldview, letting cats fend for their own small families and essentially make their own opportunities which in turn leads to elders and sick cats suffering. alongside that scourge does kill whoever goes against him, ensuring that his group remains the strongest and none can contest their placement as a dominating force in the city. this is callous, calculating, and cold, anyone can agree it is wrong, however from an in-universe perspective can make sense as a strategy. the city cats are starving, pushed to the brink of death every day while enduring horrible conditions and fighting amongst each other in small groups which achieve nothing as shown in โthe rise of scourgeโ graphic novel, released in 2008. it is shown that they have no other choice but to be strong and fierce, as anything less is met with death regardless. scourge however did the impossible and united the city cats, and as shown in tros they initially chose to follow him out of respect alongside that fear.
you may claim scourgeโs account of his own backstory as biased, however how can it be any more biased than barleyโs retconned backstory displayed in his own comicโ the one i assume youโre referring to as it is now the โcurrentโ canon which iโll explain further in a bitโwhen itโs formatted and exposited in exactly the same way? scourgeโs personality in the rise of scourge also perfectly aligns with his portrayal in the darkest hour and further legitimizes it. he is austere and calculated, making cold decisions and taking ruthless action to execute them when the situation calls for it. however there was detached fairness to them as well, as we are shown through actions like him sparing and even feeding the siblings he hated, giving firestar and the clans time to discuss and consider his decision to duel for the forest rather than slaughtering them outright when they were at their absolute weakest, his warriors escorting sasha to the edge of bloodclan territory without any violence having taken place (as shown in โtigerstar and sasha: escape from the forestโ, released in 2008 as well). these are all actions which are logical, even fair, not cartoonishly ghoulish and heartless as youโd expect for the maniacally abominable group theyโre set up as later on. this is to say that it is plausible and even likely there were perks to living in bloodclan, a give and take which could at least be feasibly conceived as necessary from an in-character perspective due to their extreme environment.
the city cats had no options, they arenโt ridiculously evil monsters without souls but individuals attempting to cope that were forced into pragmatism essentially from birth. not to say this excuses the violence that takes place in the city and how bloodclan has accepted that violence as necessary, far from it, yet through this initial interpretation the group has nuance and intrigue. itโs very understandable how it endured for years and grew to strength never before seen in outsiders. you can compare this to the four main clans, they also have difficulties and must endure challenges to survive. however unlike bloodclan their division is entirely self-inflicted, as is the vast majority of their strife. the cats who died for a pile of warm rocks number in the double digits. whole clans go along with the abuse of kits and elders, only decrying this as wrong when the big bad evil guy unfairly โforcingโ them to is defeated. theyโre more than proud to butcher cats who donโt share their blood or, even worse, have blood that is of multiple clans. yet where is their label of savagery? of cruelty? itโs hypocritical when you think about it. you can try and say itโs only a few bad apples like brokenstar or tigerstar who โcauseโ the evil but the exact same song and dance happens nearly every arc when an outsider isnโt made to be the antagonist instead.
my point is bloodclan cruelty is not unique compared to clan cruelty. yet scourgeโ and as a whole, bloodclanโ in particular are taken as the worst of the worst, because they donโt believe in starclan and lack a warriorโs dignity. not because of all the horrible things he does. you can directly compare this to how firestar MOURNS tigerstarโs death when that is the tom who tormented him for seasons and brutally slaughtered several of his clanmates.
now circling back to barley. ravenpawโs path was released in 2009. that is when the retcon which has become current canon was born, where it is first established that barley was essentially exiled from bloodclan due to protecting his weak, helpless sister because scourge hates when families exist and interact with each other because they can grow a rebellion against him or something (ignoring that snake and ice, his personal guards, are literally brothers and extremely close so the logic doesnโt even consistently track here lol).
โsecrets of the clans: barley speaksโ was released in 2007 and while the majority of this book was retconned out of existence to the point i donโt much consider it canon in modern day it still deserves mention here as well since this is what informed the โravenpawโs pathโ interpretation of barley.
as you can see, this narrative is quite different from the first weโre presented with. any notion of nuance or ambiguity was thrown completely out of the window for starters. what happened to scourge understanding the value of kits and that a group needed them to survive? what happened to allowing cats to take mates and create families they cared for? ravenpawโs path also posits that all bloodclan cats are actually inherently evil, with a few good outliers here and there like barley himself and later on, gremlin. the concept of bloodclan itself is evil now as it asserts that the city was fine and bloodclan is a unique evil which sprouted from absolutely nowhere rather than being a very realistic response of the grueling environment. thatโs the key to why people sometimes when discussing bloodclan are specifically referring to the first narrative presented of bloodclan, appreciating the nuance and how realistic it can be. itโs not that anyone thinks barley is lying, but as iโve explicitly demonstrated it is ultimately a retcon. iโm not refuting it being canon either because it IS canon at this point as iโve already explained however i hope you can understand how a fair amount of people resonate more deeply with the original portrayal. the pure evil narrative which is always enforced within warriorsโ narrative is especially prevalent among outsiders, and bloodclan is the keystone example and beginning of this standard which is set. itโs as if this retcon happened explicitly BECAUSE bloodclan initially wasnโt โevil enoughโ in juxtaposition to the clans, so they needed to invent an entire convoluted explanation about how bloodclan hates when cats have love and siblings and donโt even THINK about having kits because we will go out of our way to kill them! yet bloodclan is also drastically larger than all four clans to the point they still greatly outnumbered the combined forces of lionclan which wouldnโt be possible unless cats were actively provided the means to not only survive but propagate and flourish to at least some extent. if this thought process is satisfying for you iโm genuinely happy to hear it but hopefully you understand how many feel itโs pretty ridiculous the second you spell it all out.
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