#leadership battle training is essentially getting the piss beaten out of you until you learn how to get the piss beaten out of you less

[mud-castle]

I like that Fire doesn't look particularly surprised, dude was like: "Yup, that's about what I expected from this conversation."

So instead of Bramble being horribly abused, is he just really lonely? Goldenflower can protect him from mistreatment but given that Fire is a dick in this world it doesn't look like anyone would want to interact with him either.

Or well, he is protected while she is alive anyways.

Bramble isn't physically abused. He's more ostracized and neglected which is its form of abuse considering Fireheart is directly responsible for part of it.

Mentors are meant to be almost a second/third parent to an apprentice. They're the adult they spend the most time with through their cat tween and teens. Their responsibility is not just to train them but also help them navigate through life and become functioning, well-rounded adults.

Flamesong, being deputy, takes full responsibility over Bramblepaw when he takes him as his apprentice, essentially staking his reputation on Bramble not being evil. In Dark Mirror, the leader or deputy taking on an apprentice is a huge deal. They're sort of pseudo-candidates for future positions of power. He also sort of makes Bramble part of the Fire fam, to the chagrin of Fireheart.

After Flamesong dies, this responsibility is passed down to Fireheart, who can't really do anything about the situation without risking the name of his late brother.

Bramblepaw wants to be a part of the Fire family and he desperately wants Fireheart's approval. Fireheart doesn't even want to be in the same room as him.

As an effect, Fire is overly critical of Brambepaw but offers little actual help. He looks the other way at the clan's mistreatment of him. Heaven forbid Bramblepaw come to him with personal problems. When they're not in a training session, Bramblepaw is pretty much invisible to him.

All of which, as you might imagine, is not good for Bramble's development. Goldenflower tries her best, but there's only so much she can do. She can keep Fireheart's claws off of him, but she has no way of knowing how he treats him otherwise when they're not in camp. (Though she has a strong idea considering Bramblepaw's self-confidence takes an instant nosedive after he's given to Fireheart).