#no doubt horrible to leafpool still but I'm not sure if this sentiment was identical or not

[rookflower]

warrior cats has a horrible anti-adoption sentiment running through it, especially in regards to the po3 protags, and squirrelstar and brambleclaw (or. at least brambleclaw before he publicly disowned them? I can't remember how well that got patched up) were absolutely parents to them just as much as leafpool was. but also looking back on it, the way a good bit of the earlier fandom decided that this meant that leafpool didn't have a right to really claim motherhood to them herself (a stance which I'm pretty sure I was also guilty of for a bit) is really kinda heartbreaking in context considering how little of a choice she had in that decision and how badly she did want to fill that role