#he honestly isn't even that bad. he was manipulated by tigerstar

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

i fucking hated it when Gray Wing got that one badass line ("kill me and live with the memory") it should've been someone else

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE EYE IN A MOCKING TONE TO ALL THE AWFUL SETTLERS WHO TREATED THE NATIVE CATS LIKE FODDER

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRESTAR @ TIGERSTAR IN OOTS

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEAFPOOL @ HOLLYLEAF DURING PO3

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SOL AT LITERALLY ANY POINT TO TRY AN MANIPULATE SOMEONE INTO NOT KILLING HIM

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE

Gray Wing was never "badass" he was a culmination of everything WRONG with this series. The pro colonial themes, the extreme misogyny, the xenophobic and racist rhetoric, the blatent fatphobia, the ableism, even the inconsistencies between one book right after the other due to lack of communication, and right down the blatent Writer Projection and Bias. The writers see themselves in this awful character, and while he WAS supposed to die in The Sun Trail (which would honestly have made for a pretty interesting twist) the writers/this weird editing team that actually makes the real choices loved him too much, which you know wouldn't have happened if Gray Wing was female. Any character this team grows attached to can do no wrong. Bramblestar, Alderheart, Nightheart, Clear Sky, Jayfeather, Rootspring, and Gray Wing. Notice a pattern here? Squirrelflight, Tawnypelt, Sparkpelt, Finchlight, Sunbeam, Every Woman Clear Sky Slaughtered or had Die For His Arc, Leafpool, Violetshine, Twigbranch, Needleclaw, Bristlefrost, Turtle Tail, Storm, Tall Shadow, Wind Runner, BUMBLE, Star Flower, I can keep going.

All of these female characters suffer for them. Whether narratively through bad writing (Turtle Tail, Tall Shadow, Needleclaw, Finchlight, Sparkpelt) or through the story needlessly putting them through the wringer (Leafpool, Squirrelflight, BUMBLE) or just straight up killed, all for the express purpose of a Sad Boy Character Arc.

He will not even be TOUCHING that line, anon. He isn't even part of that SCENE. It's Jagged Peak leaping up to knock Clear Sky off the boulder like a little kitty headbutt missile, saving Rainswept Flower's life inadvertently and proving his pathetic sycophant brother wrong. The shock of the big bully falling on top of the pile of writhing cats is enough to make it stop, just for a moment long enough to realize the carnage that has just been committed.

Sorry for the vent, been feeling passionate about Battle Cats misogyny. 1000% agree with you anon!

[lightningwaters]

[seadramonster]

Hi! I saw your Thistleclaw posts, and let me just say, it is SO, so relieving to see someone who doesn't glorify him/downplay his actions. I never liked him, even when he was younger. I keep seeing people bring up that he isn't the first battle-hungry cat, say he isn't as bad as other antagonists, say that Bluestar is worse, that he would've mellowed with age, or basically don't count CP because it was written later on. None of this changes anything!

Thank you, anon! Honestly Thistleclaw as a character is starting to grow on me and he’s quickly going up there in my top favorites, but the fandom has sort of soured my view on him. I can absolutely understand them, since we hardly see him being bloodthirsty, but I realized something after making that post that I’ll bring up later on.

(so sorry for the mini essay I just have a lot of thoughts about this series)

As for him being not as bad as the others, that’s something I actually agree with. The reason for that is because:

Darktail, Tigerstar, Scourge, Mapleshade, One-Eye: Serial killers and or dictators. Darktail destroyed entire Clans. Tigerstar attempted to do this, killed multiple cats, including his own Clanmates. Scourge was more or less a dictator who had cats killed if they lived together. Mapleshade killed multiple cats and attempted to kill a pregnant queen. One-Eye was just another Tigerstar.

Brokenstar: Killed his own father for power, murdered children, had child soldiers, attempted to destroy WindClan and drove them out of their home

Darkstripe: Betrayed his clan, attempted murder against former Clan, also tricked a child into eating poison

Sol: Manipulative, but overall was rather harmless in the long run. Cats in other places got killed or hurt not directly by him, but because of consequences of his actions. I don’t believe he ever hurt or killed anyone himself and the deaths he caused were mostly an accident

Sharptooth: A mountain lion who probably shouldn’t be listed here but a cat’s a cat, big or not, so I’m including them. Killed tribe cats to eat them and for fun I think?

Hawkfrost: Tigerstar 2.0, although with less killing. He never directly harmed any cats in his own Clan, but wanted to carry on Tigerstar’s legacy by uniting the four Clans into two with him and Bramblestar ruling them. Convinced Ashfur to lure Firestar into a trap, was a manipulative bastard towards his own sister, and attempted to kill Bramblestar

Ashfur: Tried to murder three innocent cats because he got dumped by a cat who realized she didn’t love him (and it’s also, you know, bad for both people for a person to stay in a relationship where they don’t love the other. I know, I’ve been in that situation. You’re miserably because you’re not happy and prolonging breaking up in hopes maybe your feelings will change only hurts the other person more.). Also lured his leader into a fox trap. Also you know, the whole possession thing, which by now it’s obviously him.

Thistleclaw: An extremist who wanted to destroy the other Clans because, in his eyes, that was the only way to keep ThunderClan safe.

Do you see what he’s up against? Yeah, he isn’t as bad as the other villains, but that’s because most of the other villains are literal serial killers who seem to always be in a competition to one-up each other in evilness. Compared to the other villains, him wanting to destroy the other Clans is almost normal. We never actually saw him kill anyone, we were just told that would happen if he had become leader. While I believe he did or at least attempted to, we don’t know if he ever killed another cat.

I feel like if he had become leader it would have been a Woundwort situation; his Clan was safe, but he was so intent on making/keeping it safe that he did more harm than good by throwing them into unnecessary wars to destroy/drive out their rivals.

A little bit of extra info:

I feel like the reason people say he might have mellowed out is because in one of the guides when Snowfur takes Mosskit to StarClan, a StarClan cat says he might calm down and make a good deputy/leader. We saw a similar rift in the fandom over how Ashfur died when Bramblestar’s fake story of how it was an accident was written to be true in another side book (I think the Ultimate Guide?), when in the main books we know Hollyleaf killed Ashfur on purpose.

StarClan knows a lot, but they aren’t all-knowing. They can’t always tell what a cat’s entire life will be like. But you know who can? Goosefeather.

I mentioned in that post that Goosefeather’s power might not have been planned out then, but it was. I actually forgot the key scene that proved this; the scene where Goosefeather snaps at Tigerkit. In it, he claimed Tiger should have never been born, that he was a monster who would bring destruction to the Clans. He knew what Tigerkit was going to become and had also had a vision of Thistleclaw being covered in blood.

A lot of people also just forget Bluestar didn’t want to give up her kits. Goosefeather is the one who told her to so Thistleclaw wouldn’t be made deputy.

And, yes, Bluestar was a bad leader at the end of her life and she should have stepped down from leadership when her mental health plummeted (I feel like she never actually wanted to be leader and only did so because she felt she had no choice). What she did to Brightheart was horrible. But she never actually wanted to destroy the other Clans like Thistleclaw, she even went so far as to bring back WindClan.

Thank you again, anon! Sorry for the essay