#I'm tempted to have Hare stay in ThunderClan tbh

[bonefall]

Gorseclaw and Lizardtail being forced to go back to Riverclan drives me up a fucking wall. RIVERCLAN HAS NOT CARED FOR THIS FAMILY. We don’t know what happened to Lakeheart but we do know what happened to the rest of the family! Dappletuft was killed for trying to kill The Imposter as part of Stemleaf’s murder party who got no Vigil and was “treated like a rogue” after his death. Softpelt also dies fighting FOR the imposter because Mistystar fought with Thunderclan and Icewing growls about how she fought for the imposter IN FRONT OF HER FAMILY AT THE VIGIL. And finally Harelight who was exiled from Riverclan for daring to disobey Mistystar in the battle his sister died in, he goes back after the imposter is defeated and lives there for a while before being murdered in cold blood by Splashtail. Considering Splashtail’s villainous streak we have no clue if Harelight got a vigil or not. And after all of this Thunderclan tells them “but Riverclan is your home! You need to go rebuild it!” As if they owe Riverclan anything for what happened to their family this past year or so. Let cats that have been done wrong by a clan leave the damn clan!

REAL

The only thing that Lizardtail and Gorseclaw seem to miss is... the sky. Eating fish. These are things easily accessible in any other Clan; they had to get harassed by the cats of ThunderClan about their diet, there was no issue with getting their own food from the lake

As the Warrior Cat Food Guy, that made my heart sink in particular. Everything about this was horrible, but the way the ThunderClan cats zeroed in on RiverClan food choices was painful to me personally.

The fusion of cultures is often reflected beautifully in what we make together. You don't have to choose between furry prey and fishy prey. The blending of an aromatic, appetising smell and the subtle complexity of land prey that takes on the flavors of its diet sounds incredible. Migrant food is often mocked as "inauthentic" but it's not. It's new culture.

Who knows what sorts of new fishing techniques that the RiverClan migrants would have had to learn by fishing on lakeshore? Imagine what they could teach about patience and quiet observation to ThunderClan cats-- and, in turn, what their cooperative hunting style could do to influence them.

Gorseclaw and Lizardtail don't seem miss anything about RiverClan's culture, a culture that has caused the death of nearly every member of their family. They miss material things. And so they are harassed, made to feel unsafe, and driven back to a group that has given them nothing but pain.

Bleak.