#dunno what triggers to use for someone who believes only in biological family validity

[hopalongfairywren]

I always liked the idea of Ashfur being obsessed not only with Squirrelflight, but with having his very own biological children. His own direct lineage. It's not just that Squirrelflight left him, it's that she gets to have kits of her own and he doesn't. Of course, he sees kits more as a status symbol rather than just wanting kits for the sake of lovingly raising anyone. He lets the three go because they aren't Squirrelflight's bio kits and in his mind, they aren't worth the trouble of then having to deal with the fall out of the three and possibly Squirrelflight's deaths to cover it all up. He wants to erase Squirrelflight's 'children' as revenge for denying him his own with her. But she doesn't have any, at least in Ashfur's mind, so he settles back for the good old revenge via exposing her publicly, letting her and her family shatter. Also because then it can be less the over all narrative of the book saying 'adoption isn't as valid as bio parenting' and more of, well, Ashfur the antagonist saying that. Also yes I'm aware of Cloudtail being Ashfur's adopted brother, however in this take of him I see them both falling somewhere during or after Firestar's quest, and that rift only growing as Ashfur adopts the mindset that the only 'true' kind of family is biological, and his jealousy at how all of his clanmates have their own, except him.