Vixen

tldr, nightheart is the son of lionblaze and cinderheart and is constantly compared to hollyleaf. idk how i would fix the rest of his arc because asc is a shitshow, but this is at least how i would characterize him in river.

i am okay with nightheart as a concept. i am okay with a character who experiences neglect in his childhood, who is constantly measured to a deceased family member, whose unhappiness makes him bitter and unlikeable, and who learns and grows and makes a place for himself.

it was just executed so poorly. firstly, warriors can't write unreliable narrators. secondly, sparkpelt's son wasn't the right character to do this with. sparkpelt had an arc about healing from her partner's death and connecting with their children. we didn't need to spit on that.

thirdly, firestar was the wrong relative to compare nightheart to. firestar has closer, more identical descendants (sparkpelt) who could be expected to be his second coming. nightheart has closer, more identical ancestors (larksong) whose name he could struggle to carry. either way, the entire clan is related to one another at this point, and we have half a dozen other legacy names who seem to get by with no issue.

to solve these problems, nightheart needs parents who (a) criticize him and compare him constantly to some cat they cared deeply about, and (b) fail to meet his needs as a child. look no further than cinderheart and lionblaze!

in my mind, cinderheart and lionblaze have a really toxic relationship, and it's centered around hollyleaf. lionblaze misses his sister deeply, and cinderheart is still in love with her; she and hollyleaf would have become mates, if hollyleaf's life hadn't been cut short. so lionblaze turns to cinderheart, his sister's best friend, and cinderheart turns to lionblaze, her lover's brother, to try to fill this hole in their lives. and they try really hard to make it work.

when nightheart is born, they name him hollykit. i imagine that cinderheart is a little distant from her kits (it reminds her of the future she lost (let more characters be bad mothers (but not after they have arcs about becoming good mothers (sparkpelt)))).

on the other hand, lionblaze is harsh and reproving. i kind of like his trajectory as a hard-ass in canon; it tracks with his treatment of dovepaw during oots, it parallels nicely with ivypool's own descent into traditionalism, and it provides some opportunites for conflict. thus nightheart struggles to feel loved or like he can do anything right.