#also obligatory reminder that i dont even like hawk x pebble bc theyre literally first cousins like wtf

[violetshine-appreciation]

siiiigghhh look i know the erins are terrible at conflict resolution and portraying female characters feelings as important like i get that and i agree that the writing is super misogynistic. i even agree that hawkwings journey was super unfair to pebbleshine and did not allow her to properly come to terms w her own trauma like it did w hawkwing. but ive been seeing a lot of ppl compare hawkwing to brambleclaw and that just. doesnt sit right w me.

like i agree hawkwings treatment of pebbleshine while hes angsting over duskpaws death is wrong. he acts out of spite bc hes hurt and angry and wants to take it out on her. he tells her he wishes she had died instead of duskpaw. thats bad. we know that its bad, even tho he apologizes for it. but in his case its coming from a place of trauma and projection (which, AGAIN, doesnt make it ok), whereas brambleclaws treatment of squirrelflight has never come from a place of grieving or unhealthy coping mechanisms, hes literally mean to her bc hes always seen her as annoying. he doesnt respect her, he sees her as always contradicting him, as trying to control him, as being a liar who keeps secrets from him, as someone who he cant trust. from the beginning brambleclaw has had no legitimate reason for his cruelty toward squirrelflight. he is abusive to her bc hes always seen her as being lesser, as not respecting him, so therefore in his mind he doesnt respect her.

hawkwing did and said horrible things to pebbleshine while he was mourning, yes. pebbleshine was treated unfairly by the narrative, yes. they shouldnt have been in a relationship in the first place, yes. but hawk does not deserve to be compared to brambleclaw when bramble has always been consistently abusive to squirrelflight for increasingly petty/hypocritical reasons, whereas hawkwing, while certainly not in the right, acted out of grief. again, this does not necessarily mean you have to sympathize w him (even tho the narrative wants u to), but it makes him different from brambleclaw based on that alone. do w that what u will.