#BB!Jaggedtooth

[bonefall]

What makes Jaggedtooth turn on Tigerstar and free the prisoners? Especially since he was the one who helped him become leader

The children.

He couldn't look at Featherpaw and Stormpaw, not even a year old yet, looking at him with such fear. This wasn't what he agreed to.

The way I see Jaggedtooth and Nightwhisper is a lot more sympathetic than canon, where Jaggedtooth is this... horrible, ambitious, equally bloodthirsty rogue. They both want a better place in life, wanting a start away from canon.

There's also a big difference: Runningnose doesn't have to be "tricked" with a false sign. I don't like how Canon TPB has bent over backwards to retcon Tigerstar and Brokenstar being the only "evil cats" in the era. It's lame and it's a gross moral.

No one is "born evil," you can't just locate and kill all the evil people until no one is 'misleading' all the convenient Truly Good People Who Have The Best Interests Of Their Country In Mind. Systemic problems need systemic solutions, rotten ideologies have to be dug up at the root.

So RUNNINGNOSE is now an unironic supporter of Tigerstar. He started that plague on purpose to make way for him. He wasn't 'tricked' by a false sign, he wanted another Brokenstar to replace the weak and 'treacherous' Nightpelt. Jaggedtooth had nothing to do with that.

Jaggedtooth was following Tigerclaw as a mercenary. Someone who would find him a new place in life. A fresh start. Him, Sasha, and Nightwhisper, Tigerclaw's three helpful henchmen, kept in check by dangling their personhood over their heads in a dangerous, violent society.

Jag is eventually able to escape this by defecting back to BloodClan. I imagine he was able to offer some kind of information to get back in their graces, but was previously exiled. Probably for murder, tbh. He feels like the kind of guy who got in a stupid "kitty bar fight" and pushed a guy onto a curb, y'know? BloodClan version of a manslaughter charge.

But in any case, killing kids was too far. He didn't fight to help them escape, but he was intentionally looking the other way as the HalfClan cats snuck out.

Probably paid for it tbh, like Tigerstar had his claw bitten off or something. Stripped of his warrior name to exercise power over his subordinate.

[bonefall]

Wait, Sasha was groomed in BB? I’m assuming her backstory is being reworked.

Yup. I actually have a MASSIVE bone to pick with canon, and how the authors seem to believe that Tigerstar's affection for a minority who is part of a group he explicitly wants to slaughter is "True Love." That was a VERY weird thing to say!!

Initially one of the mercenaries that Tigerclaw recruited, along with Jaggedtooth and Nightwhisper, Sasha starts being especially flattered by him. She's praised for her loyalty, her ferocity, her beauty. The closer she becomes to him, the more she is rewarded, and the more she is controlled. Before she knows it, Sasha finds herself in a TERRIFYING position.

Her abuser can revoke her personhood at any point he wants.

She's one of the good ones unless she isn't. She watches Stonefur, a cat with more Clan blood than she has, get executed. Lots of cats die under TigerClan's reign, all of them more "worthy" than her. It's Tigerstar's protection that keeps her alive.

It becomes obvious that what Tigerstar actually likes about her is that she is a mate who can't leave.

Goldenflower didn't stay by his side. When she learned of his "ambition," she turned on him. Adamantly defends HER kittens at Gatherings, embarrasses him publicly, stands against everything that he represents. It BURNS him. Sasha can't do that.

I plan to explore this in her reworked story, which is now split between her, Nightwhisper, and Jaggedtooth in 3 parts. It's one of the darkest parts of BB, because I need to show how EVIL TigerClan is, and what happens when Thistle Law is allowed to germinate.

[bonefall]

any extra trivia about swansong??

youve given me a new warriors blorbo i LOVE swansong. my guy.

There's quite a bit!

Swansong is replacing Frogleap as Mosspelt's mate for Better Bones.

First and foremost it's because I do not respect Frogleap nor most of Leopardstar's Hernia

Second of all it fixes a problem where Mosspelt's mate is dead when she has Willowshine

Swansong and Mosspelt have three kits; Dawnflower, Willowshine, and Stonestream!

Swansong named Stonestream as a very angry challenge to Leopardstar when she wasn't assigning apprentices to suspected TigerClan Rebels in BB!TNP

So just to make his position clear, he named his son after his brother.

His primary trait is LOYALTY over all. Swansong would do anything for his family

When he was young and stupid, he thought that included the whole Clan. He thought they were all supposed to be loyal for each other

But RiverClan made it clear the day his siblings were Dishonor renamed and he was excluded that they will pick and choose who's 'pure' enough

At first, they all kept calm assuring each other that it was temporary, they were all loyal warriors, this was a test of their strength and would be over soon

Swansong was part of the TigerClan rebels, along with some odd names like Jaggedtooth and Deerfoot. They all had a paw in springing Misty, Storm, and Feather

Deerfoot was captured, but refused to name any of his accomplices, and died for it. Swansong owes him his life.

After Mistystar killed Leopardstar at the end of BB!TNP he was considered for the deputy position, but Misty chose Sedgecreek instead

She wanted the pick to look less nepotistic, and have a better communicator to smooth out the controversial changes she was about to make.

She LOVES Swansong but... she would have changed course and set punishments for the participants in the WindClan Rebellion and he would have been like,

"Oh the traitors are whining about the consequences of their actions??? Cry me a second river"

deeeefinitely not the best choice of deputy for navigating a sensitive new situation

And that's Swansong! Loyal, bold, and righteous. For some bonus trivia:

A Swansong is a singer's final performance before retirement. I want him to go out in the Great Battle, fighting alongside Misty and Stone one last time.

He looks absolutely nothing like his siblings, comically so. I wasn't playing he looks like a copy of Rippleclaw.

Swan is notably smaller and more lithe than his littermates. RiverClan otter build vs their "sea wolf" aesthetic

Because he doesn't have Appledusk's bloodline, he is not haunted by Mapleshade

"How many OTHER things am I left out of??"

He is a Su Susanne Missing Kit! Swankit has one appearance in TPB but died shortly after being introduced to his siblings. He gets to live in BB.

The other two, Morningkit and Splashkit, are on hold in case I need them in the future.

[bonefall]

What's Sasha's story like?

Honestly? I have a solid idea of what I want its theme to be, but the trick is dealing with it in a tasteful way. I consider myself a pretty decent writer, but this subject is a REALLY sensitive one so it's going to take time and tact I've been spending on other things.

But bottom line is that "Tigerstar and Sasha" is getting reworked into its own thing focusing on the three outsiders Tigerstar employs. Nightwhisper, Jaggedtooth, Sasha.

It's about living in Tigerstar's vision, where he controls your entire life. They are in very dangerous situations. From all of them, he expects loyalty and service, and at any point could stop seeing them as being useful and discard them.

I kind of want that to happen to Sasha. Instead of just realizing that her crummy boyfriend is secretly a murderer, she stops giving him what she wants and ends up in great danger.

But as you can see from the very vague summary, these themes are dark. BB!Tigerstar is written as a fascist and a xenophobe, a hypocrite. It's important to remember that such people often exploit the people they're bigoted against, and "frothing at the mouth, immediate violence towards oppressed group" is overrepresented.

Sooo, basically, I'm working on it. It's going to be a hard one though so I don't have an outline yet.

[bonefall]

Just here because I was thinking. Is Tigerclaw's Fury axed in BB? On another note, and this is me just rambling, I actually thought it was a pretty decent book, to get a feel of what Tigerclaw thought and how he acted when he was booted. I kind of wish they did more antagonist books. My only real gripe is that Mapleshade had no business being there and interfering. Like, It should have just been him. Maybe even Thistleclaw if they had to, but it would be better if it was all just his choice.

Eh, there's parts I like and parts I don't. It's better than most, simply because it's actually fun to be in Tigerclaw's head because he is SOOO petty. I love his cunty ass.

"Yes Jaggedtooth made me leader. No he cannot be my deputy because he needs to learn I don't owe him shit" King behavior

But it is very annoying that Mapleshade was made into the Satan of Warriors. Of all the demons, why her? She has such a good, clear gimmick-- She Haunts Applekin. That's It. Why does she need to be behind every evil thing?

(The answer is because the writers basically see evil as a broad nebulous thing and are allergic to having consistent motivations for their villains besides Killing Murder And Elder Abuse unless theyre gonna pull a DOTC but. Sip.)

TF is not axed in BB, but it is massively reworked. This time, it is actually Firestar's perspective...... in StarClan. He, as a ghost, tries to channel Tigerstar after his double death to gleam any answers about him, to find out what made him so evil, so horrible.

What he finds is... nothing. He gets to experience every thought behind every action Tigerstar ever took, and sees he was normal. He loved his mom. He thought about his kids a lot. He was filled with the same kind of jealous spite for Redtail that Dustpelt had for Fireheart way back in the day, and that he felt bad when Spottedleaf died. He was fearful, lonely, angry a lot, but it's not particularly inhuman/noncatlike.

He finds NOTHING, and in that absence, there were allies. Tigerstar wasn't special. There were dozens of people just like him, who coalesced around his broad shoulders and big speeches.

The real horror of Tigerstar is this; anyone with white teeth and enough ambition could have been him. That he was going to happen, and had occured before, as Brokenstar, as Oakstar. If Tigerstar had died as a kit, Runningnose would have still been there, and Blackstar, and Leopardstar, and even Darkstripe and Dustpelt and Longtail. Who would have been Thistleclaw's apprentice instead?

Heroics are precious and unique. But evil... evil is banal.