#submitted by raspberrybubbletea

so, to start with, we already know a few things: 1, that the imposter is from starclan or the dark forest as he told shadowsight that he's able to travel between starclan, the dark forest and whatever ghost realm the spirits exist in and 2, that he's got at least one accomplice

i actually think both the imposter and his accomplice started out in starclan, because it seems by the time lost stars started that starclan was already trapped or whatever it is that's happened to them because there had been a lot of discussion in that book about being unable to contact them, however in the prologue we had

this scene. it specifically calls one of the cats a spirit cat, while the other is called a starclan warrior, and i think that distinction is important to note because as we all know, the imposter was the one talking to shadowsight, and NOT starclan.

i think this is all pretty solid evidence that there's at least two spirits behind this.

but i also think that the spirits can manipulate/control other spirits IF theyre already dead

shadowsight, when he had been a spirit, had been guarded by spiresight. spiresight literally stayed behind to make sure all the cats he traveled with were safe and all those cats are now in shadowclan, where the imposter is being healed. its also important to note that the only time the imposter has been seen was when OTHER spirits saw him so just because bramblestar's body is unconscious, doesn't mean the imposter is in the body. when he left it to confront shadowsight, bramblestar's body had slumped over entirely.

it's therefore not out of the realm of probability that the imposter left bramblestar's body to do SOMETHING to spiresight, because that's a very... damning thing to say. "i'll be able to bend any cat to my will, just ask that skinny black cat with the yellow eyes"?

its also very interesting to note that none of the cats who died in the battle went to starclan- rootspring could see all of them, quite easily.