#feathertawny and tawnypelt's own guilt so auaauggh

[spiderfaang]

I always really hated how people said tawnypaw running away doesn't make sense bc she doesn't look like tigerstar (when bramblepaw did). We don't really see many examples of how tawnypaw was being othered in thunderclan except for one scene where tawnypaw stomps off bc the elders said something along the lines of her being like her father (I think she was late or slow with getting them bedding/food and they said tigerstar didn't really care about elders either). I think it can be safe to surmise that tawnypaw's behavior and actions were constantly being compared to her father's.

We can also assume bramblepaw went through this, but he chooses to put up with it. I don't really like people trying to be like, "bramblepaw had it worse!" Because it doesn't address how thunderclan's behavior to two literal children alienated them from their own community. Bramblepaw nor tawnypaw should have been treated that way from the adults around them. Thunderclan personally failed them. And tawnypaw decided to leave.

She probably went to her father bc he was familiar. There was no guarantee that windclan would take her. So she went to tigerclan bc she knew her father would take her in. And he did! Did tawnypaw think her dad was evil? We don't know, but it's safe to assume she does as an adult bc she saw what tigerstar was like with other cats.

And if you do hc that during this time, tigerstar was abusive towards her.....why didn't she leave? Because where would she have gone? Back to thunderclan? Crawling back to thunderclan, where the same adults who bullied you out of it would say, "I told you so," and hold the fact that she "sided" with her evil demonic father over her head when they were the driving force of making her leave?

Tawnypaw was a child, and she was harassed by the adults in her community and ended up seeing several war crimes. And that's not even bringing up how she might have been scared to leave bc of what her father might do to her if she was caught trying to leave.

And I think this affects her reaction to his dark forest proposal in tnp. Unlike hawkfrost and brambleclaw, he didn't ask her at the same time to train with him. He asks her later, and alone (brambleclaw wasn't technically supposed to be there). She rejects him and with good reason. She saw tigerclan. She knows exactly what he's like. But she's not making the same mistake again. Not ever again.

Brambleclaw did not see what tigerclan was like. He most likely heard what it was like. And I'm sure a part of him also wanted to know his father and gain an emotional connection. He has only heard what his father is like. He does not know what he's like as a father. Maybe tawnypelt doesn't talk about it. Maybe she told him how awful it was to be around a father who loves you but punishes your failures by making you watch cats suffer and die.

Tawnypelt's novella should have been about her relationship with her father.

I'm a true believer in "tigerclawstar picks favorites and his favorite child is tawnypelt" bc oughhggh.......I imagine tawnypaw's and tigerstar's relationship with each other was not great in tigerclan. The reason why tawnypelt didn't fall for his dark forest shenanigans is bc she did it all before.