How do all five of Graystripe’s children feel about him?
BIG question, but here goes, brief intro to each of the Graykits and how they feel about their dad specifically in Better Bones:
At her core, Feather believes everything happens for a reason. She has immense faith in StarClan, and always rolls with the punches. Unflappable, fun-loving, and very calm, she likes telling jokes and usually says exactly what's on her mind.
So when Graystripe was exiled from RiverClan... she was upset until she got the full story. Then it made sense. She was sad she couldn't be around her dad, but, she imagines she would have done similar.
She returned to RiverClan after TigerClan's disbandment to support her mentor, Mistyfoot. If Leopardstar hadn't made her deputy, she would have stayed in ThunderClan.
If she didn't die, there would probably be more to this story. Stormfur wishes he was the easygoing type of person his sister was.
People have been disappointing him his whole life, everywhere he turns, cats are pulling him down, stabbing him in the back, and leaving him in a lurch.
He massively resents Graystripe for leaving RiverClan. At the time, he believed that a Clan was above all else, because RiverClan was his home. They fought for him, they wanted him, he was named for Crookedstar's pre-honor name, he saw himself as the inheritor of that legacy.
When Graystripe arrived to save him, Stormfur didn't WANT to go back to RiverClan. It made him think that he was wrong as a kid, and Graystripe was the one worth being loyal to. But Feathertail insisted that Mistyfoot was going to need her, that they had a duty to rebuild for the cats who had died saving them, and that RiverClan had learned its lesson.
The tumult in TNP, the death of his sister, and the capture of his dad... he felt like the Clans had nothing left for him. The LAST straw was when him, Brook, and Sheep (who would become Mintflower) were tossed out of RiverClan after some ridiculous "sign from StarClan" willed it. The Tribe cats had only been trying to help these jackasses get settled, and this was the thanks they got.
When Graystripe eventually comes to live his last days in the mountains, Stormfur is happy. The pain of losing him as a young apprentice is very far away, and he's grateful to finally be able to catch up with him after so long.
He wasn't reflective or articulate enough to put it into words, but Bumble always knew that Graystripe wasn't seeing him as a kitten. He just accepted that there was a distant Stormfur and Feathertail that he wasn't living up to, and if he worked hard, and tried to be like them, then maybe Graystripe could come to appreciate him too.
Briarlight and Blossomfall are able to reject that, with distance or with frustration, but even when it finally becomes clear to Bumble... it's not that easy. He can't just "get over it." He knows the problem, he knows that Graystripe is about to be happier than he's ever been here in the mountains where he last sees his father, but it can't change anything.
All his life Bumble is in pursuit of that. Shoving himself onto Dovewing, carrying out every demented task the Impostor comes up with, Bumblestripe NEEDS to be needed. He has to be helpful, and if you don't need him, he can't handle that. It's not enough to be wanted, there is no guarantee anyone wants anything forever, but NEEDING?
Basically Bumblestripe is fucked up and he's only just starting to work on it by the end of TBC. He is a major supporting character in Ferncloud's Parting along with Cloudtail, which is replacing Graystripe's Vow because Gray does not need a POV here lmao thanks.
Blossom had very similar problems to Bumble growing up, but expressed them more through anger. She's a punk bitch, you know?
She's not a 'nice guy.' She's not out here trying to prove herself to Gray and Millie over and over, just to get a scrap of their affection. She leans into the label 'bad person' and wears it defensively, because if she's bad, that gives her agency over it. Like it's her choice that they see right through her.
But under that facade, she's the same sort of clingy, lonely person that Bumblestripe is. She was in a bad relationship with Ivypool from near the end of OotS up until ThunderClan's Tempest, before being dumped pretty hard when Fernsong joined the Clan, and allowed that resentment to fuel her.
I am planning for her to briefly become part of the Kin, to bolster their numbers, but she eventually defects either with Breezepelt or by rallying the other ex-Trainees to fight the Kin in the final battle. Her kits are from a Kin cat, though she invokes the Queen's Rights to not disclose which one it was. (she did not know she was pregnant when she defected.)
She never got the chance to really confront her resentment with Millie, something she massively regrets. However, she did reconcile with Briarlight in the end, though they were briefly on opposite sides of the Impostor.
But, anyway, the last time she sees Graystripe is when he decides to leave for the mountains. She tries to hide how much this hurts her, that her dad can't be with her after she just lost a son and a sister... but, she's had to learn twice that holding resentment never leads anywhere good.
Poor little meow meow material, this one
Graystripe was never there for her. He was terrified when she was disabled, just as overbearing as Millie, but then it became obvious that she was still going to have a full life... and he refused to do anything when Millie started treating her like a tragic glass doll.
Briarlight is SUPER nice, too fucking nice. She wants to snap so bad half of the time, when Millie's 'concern' is a backhanded insult, or when she speaks over her, or stops her from having literally any alone time, but how can she? When Graystripe is always there to smooth it over, and tell Briarlight that "your mom just loves you is all," excusing every little thing she does.
That hurts a lot, that Graystripe is too afraid of offending Millie to take Briarlight's side, or even validate her feelings in private. Something clicks for her when she's chatting with a sibling, and she connects it all
The death of Silverstream. Stormfur in the mountain. How she both gets too much "love" and they're starved for it.
Graystripe can't lose Millie too.
That's why he won't take her side. That's why he won't suggest anything about Bumble and Blossom. And that's why it'll never get better, not until Briarlight does something.
So her response is to FINALLY, in ThunderClan's Tempest, after Jessie has upgraded her mobility device to allow her more freedom than ever before, cut Millie off. By doing that, it meant cutting off Graystripe too, and for a while, that included Bumblestripe as he took their side.
Sometimes love is a boundary, even a temporary one. She only wishes that all this hadn't unfortunately aligned with Ivypool's and Blossomfall's huge fallout. They lose so much time because Blossomfall is angry and lashing out at everyone, when Briarlight could really use her sister, the ONE family member she has left, right about now
I think, of all the kits of Graystripe's second litter, Briarlight would have understood him best as he went back to the mountain... but, she was one of the Impostor's victims. Only Blossom and Bumble were there to work out what his motivations could possibly be.
