#tree's roots

Just a note, right now I've got family stuff going on, my grandma is in hospice and likely doesn't have long left, I know I'm already normally bad at responding right away, but I'm probably gonna be even slower to respond for a while. This is a hard time.

Now onto a far less likeable family figure XD Sorry, I know Squirrelstar/Moonlight is a popular ship, but Moonlight isn't some admirable girlboss to me, just a really bad mom and dislikable character. :D Tree deserved better.

For her physical description, Moonlight is described as a huge, long-furred, thickly-pelted, well-muscled, broad-shouldered she-cat with wide paws and a bushy tail. I've based her off a Maine Coon, as I think that's what the Sisters are supposed to be. She's got just a few scars because she is still living in the wild and while the Sisters don't seek out conflict, that doesn't mean it doesn't find them sometimes - it's still way less scars than a warrior would have.

For her pattern, Moonlight is described as a gray she-cat. I used the same pattern and colors I gave her in this drawing. She has no canon eye color, so I gave her the same shade of blue eyes as her grandson Rootspring.

in my humble and objectively correct opinion tree is THE most interesting cat especially with his impact in the books both narratively and the impacts he has for the worldbuilding. Tree is a care free almost lazy, and weird but he makes up for it by being charismatic, highly intelligent, and hes??? so funny?? he met four cats and he makes up a DIFFERENT fake backstory everytime, he's a chronic nonsensical nonchalant nonbinary i love him.

He was born in a unique origin so to say, although putting aside the criticism around The Sisters, Tree or back then Earth, gives us an outsider pov for once and its genuinely so refreshing! i loved Tree's roots and seeing what hardships he went through to be moulded as the clever, witty yet untrustful cat he's become

He overcomes trauma from his origin and his fleeting attachment issues stems from a constant back and forth lesson and events that led him to be disclosed yet painfully longs for a place to set foot.

From the very start, all he ever wanted was just to have something, somewhere, someone to rely on. but from the death of his best friend, to the Sisters "banishment", to his dad's death and every other harsh lesson the world gives that he was better off alone. He slowly comes to unlearn it, by squirrelflight's hope, a quote from him really speaks about how far he's come and how he finally finds grounding and a home, a *family* in the clans

“Her kits deserve to have a

mother, even if only for a short while.”

“They’ll have the Sisters.”

“I guess.” “But Rootkit and Needlekit will have a father and a mother

for as long as they need them, and if they’re in trouble, they’ll always have a Clan to turn to.” PUNCHES A WALL. I LOVE YOU TREE TIMES A GAZILLION !!

Tree knows the bitter lifestyle he had to endure in his childhood, he was so young when everyone around him expected the world, to be larger than life. he would never want that for his shrub babies..

And Tree also embodies the *middle option* that choices and roles arent put into objective boxes, he questions the roles of toms and she cats in the sisters, the way he struggled in his role as a tom, the way he abandons his name, the torment between always wanting a home but constantly taught either by tongue or harsh events that the solitary life, the way he couldnt choose between being a warrior and a medicine cat, to the way he becomes the secret third thing every choice his given.