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ffette · 2 months ago

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resending because idk if this ever went through or if tumblr deleted it 💔💔 fuckass website bro

Mapleshade’s Novella is about Grief. Not Vengeance.

I don't like to debate about this book because there's no reasoning with people who are the equivalent of brick walls. (Maple and Freckle fans) But it's very frustrating to see that people lack critical thinking skills to the point that Mapleshade's novella has been severely misinterpreted for the last eight years. The book isn't about vengeance, and if you guys took the time to analyze the characters and see what core thing they have in common, you could easily understand that this book is about grief.

There is no good or evil in this book, and nobody was made to be a hater. Hating any character would be foolish because the majority of you will criticize a character for doing something and then turn to defend another who has done this exact thing. That's not to say none of them have flaws, but hating any character when they are literally the same with different fonts is useless.

The Mapleshade novella is a book about grief, and there is no good or evil UNTIL Mapleshade kills. With that being said, absolutely no one in that book deserved to die or suffer; yes, that included Oakstar and Appledusk. Not sure why I'd have to specify, but you weirdos hate fictional images to the point of wishing death and saying horrific things along the lines of wanting to torture and beat them if they were real.

Grief is a very complex emotion and makes us say and do very irrational things that we might not mean or really feel after the spur of the moment. Grief makes us do things that we would've done otherwise if we didn't feel it. The situation of Oakstar exiling Mapleshade and her kits is easy to judge and view from an outside standpoint because the readers themselves weren't there to experience or see just how deeply Oakstar's grief affected him.

If you only sympathize with one of the characters in the book, then you don't understand what it is to feel grief and pain. Nobody has the ability to sympathize with and understand others if they cannot place themselves in another's situation and understand how they could've dealt with that situation. It's easy to just say what you would've done, but it's not until you actually understand what it is to suffer. From the start, Oakstar was shown as a kind fella, albeit very vindictive, which is understandable considering his POV of the situation with Birchface and Appledusk.

Oakstar's grief is fueled by the betrayal he feels from a clanmate who he trusted deeply, who led him to believe that she was carrying his deceased child's kittens and being led to believe for 4 months that she was the mother of his grandchildren when in reality the cat he deeply trusted took advantage of his trust and used his deceased son's name to cover up her "crimes" and the fact that her children were fathered by the murderer of his child.

With all of these events hitting him so fast, realistically, if you were in this situation, what exactly would you do? You would want the person who hurt you to leave and be out of your space. I'm not saying that it was okay for Oakstar to banish innocent children, but it's understandable why he did that. His exile of the children was backed up in the fact that he believed their presence in the camp would bring danger. And Frecklewish, being his only child left, he'd want to do anything he could to protect her. On top of that, it was StarClan themselves who sent the sign that they would be dangerous, so if anything, the children being banished were entirely StarClan's fault. Their incompetence in this book and the grief that every character feels play a major role in this book.

The same point I made for Oakstar also applies to Frecklewish. I often see people paint her as this sad victim when in reality she is far from that. She is very vindictive and an asshole, which are traits that were developed because of her grief. Her grief over knowing that her trusted friend lied to her and betrayed her brother's name caused her to attack a mother in front of her terrified children. Her grief caused her to lash out and wish harm on those who never deserved it. Grief isn't just sadness. It's anger; it's rage.

The same thing can be said for Appledusk. While I don't condone cheating in the slightest, and while it isn't relevant at all to our conversation of grief, I would like to note that he did in fact love both of his mates. Him risking his life to nearly drown for Mapleshade and their kits says it all. Him jumping to take the killing blow for Reedshine and laying down his life says it all.

Before the exile events occurred, when he met Mapleshade at the river and saved Patchkit, the text notes that while he's speaking to her, there is a deep, deep longing in his eyes, which does show that he cares and loves her despite it all. He tells her that he’s proud of her and that she and their kits are strong. Does not that say enough about how much he admired her?

Boiling him down to a simple cheater with no other personality traits is ridiculous and shows a lot of peoples lack of reading comprehension. "Well, if he loved her, he wouldn't have.-“ These are cats. Just because they have sentient-level human thoughts does not mean you should go applying human morals and actions to them when they don't know what that is. The only thing from human society they understand is murder.

Appledusk risked his own life to jump into a flash-flooded river to save Mapleshade and stayed with her to comfort her when he brought her onto the bank. He was willing to jump in that river again when she told him their kids were trapped. Moving onto his grief because I need to explain this in as much depth and my own analysis as possible since people don't seem to understand a character's nuance or what that word even means.

When Appledusk returns to her after trying to save their kits, the text notes that Mapleshade wouldn't see his expression and that he came wordless and didn't speak to her while taking her to their children. He had completely shut down, which is a factor also caused by grief. From my own experience of grieving and going through different stages, shutting down is a common thing that occurs in those grieving who can't feel anything other than intense sadness.

Appledusk shutting down and turning Mapleshade away wasn't written in just for him to be an asshole. That wouldn't make sense considering the very obvious theme of this book. It's written to show how differently grief can affect others. Anyone would shut down if they had to witness the sodden corpses of children, especially if it was the parent themselves.

During chapter four, before getting to RiverClan camp, Appledusk remained quiet and despondent until after he heard Mapleshade admit that she had purposefully led their children into a flooded river during a storm despite what he had told her early about keeping them away from the river to ensure their safety. He isn't aware of the full situation of what happened back in ThunderClan; therefore, his actions and grief are motivated solely by what he knows.

Appledusk's talking tone is shifted to being stunned, which is being shocked. It's as if your heart is dropping because you've just learned of a terrible situation or truth. Earlier in the book, Appledusk displays a great concern for the lives of Mapleshade and their kittens if ThunderClan were to find out the truth. They both willingly risked their own lives and the lives of their kittens to keep seeing each other despite how cruel the warrior code is. Which I should add, neither of them is in the wrong, and neither deserved to be punished.

I believe this is why he referred to his actions as being a mistake, because otherwise, if he and Mapleshade had never gotten infatuated or just been more careful, then their innocent children wouldn't have had to suffer. Not sure how anyone interpreted this as him calling his wife and children mistakes, but that also just proves the point that this fandom doesn't have good media literacy. You could understand every character's POV and emotions if you just read back on some parts of the book or just took the time to actually understand each of their grief and how they handled it.

The book also notes that Mapleshade almost winced at the pain in Appledusk's eyes when he says that. He doesn't hate Mapleshade or his children; he never did, but his grief caused him to think irrationally and not clearly think the situation through, and his grief prevented him from actually wanting to understand why Mapleshade did what she did. "I should have never betrayed my clan by meeting with Mapleshade" is a thing he says out of grief because his meeting with Mapleshade led to so many conflicting actions that harmed those around them that didn't deserve it.

In fact, their meetings ended up hurting each other. Mapleshade's recklessness cost them their lives and their precious babies, which Appledusk then views as it being her fault and views her as a killer, which isn't a bad thing. It's an irrational response, and he feels that he hasn't had time to process the events happening. It's why he tells Darkstar he will regret everything he did because all it did was, in the long run, unexpectedly come back to hit him in the ass when StarClan ire killed their children.

When Appledusk explains why Mapleshade and their kits were here, the text notes that his voice falters. To falter means that the speaker cannot speak normally because they're feeling emotions too intense for them to understand, which is an action also caused by grief. The pale brown warrior shook his head. “Why should I? It’s your fault that these kits are dead. I never want to see you again.”

I will repeat this point again that Appledusk is refusing to help her because of the intense grief he feels.

"It's your fault that these kids are dead; I never want to see you again" is a thought and emotion that stems entirely from his grief, not because he wants to "save his own ass" or wants to "suck up." Which to add during this, he never tried to defend himself when Darkstar was planning to exile him. It was Reedshine and Reedshine only. Meaning that he wouldn't have cared if he was cast out with Mapleshade as well. I do think that if he had been exiled, either way, he wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near Mapleshade.

Appledusk is the only character (besides Myler) who showed Mapleshade any sympathy for what happened. He feels sympathy because he had time to calm down from his grief; he refuses to harm her and only tells her to leave because he still cares for her. She is his past mate, the mother of his children, and someone he deeply trusted and still even admired. He obviously doesn't hold any more ill will toward her anymore unlike Frecklewish because he has time to calm down over the intense grief he felt losing his children, and he understands that she is hurting too.

Some will say I'm defending these characters too hard because they "wronged" Mapleshade, which isn't the case, but I'm fine with that. Appledusk and Oakstar are particularly interesting characters to me because they both did things that directly affected and harmed each other. Appledusk accidentally killed his son, and Oakstar unknowingly led Appledusk's children to a cruel and untimely death.

I understand the book perfectly, so no criticism anyone has about my analysis will bother me. I used to hate this book despite it actually being so messy. But after taking a deeper look, I admire it a lot. It just took having more sympathy for all the characters and developing better comprehension skills for me to understand what it's truly about.

Also going to say I'm not putting the blame all on Mapleshade either. I think the only ones truly to blame for any actions in the book are StarClan and Mapleshade when she chooses to murder. StarClan could've solved a lot of these issues but chose not to. They've been shown in other books to step in and interact with the living, but they chose to let everything spiral. I don't think Mapleshade was at fault for lying because she never actually said it was Birchface, and that assumption was pushed onto her.

However, I do fault her for the children dying. Oakstar and Frecklewish played an inadvertent role in those children dying as well. Frecklewish for suggesting and instigating the exile in the first place and Oakstar carrying it out. However, like I said before, StarClan's omen of these children being dangerous played a role in why he also exiled them, so it's more StarClan's fault than anyone else's.

ฅ^>⩊<^ ฅ

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ffette · 2 months ago

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mothwing thinks about willowshine every single day. of course she does. she watched her transform from the tiny kit helping her in the healers den, eagerly asking which herb to use to treat bellyache, to the uncertain but still talented young apprentice visiting the moonpool late at night to commune with starclan, to the confident and composed medic she would eventually become--her equal, but a daughter to her nonetheless. it's hard for her not to think of her that way, with how long she's known her, how she watched her grow up.

she looks at frostpaw and can't help comparing her to willow in everything. her fur is a lighter shade of gray, with blue eyes instead of green, but she reminds her so much of willowshine that it hurts. she resents her for it, for the ways in which they are the same and different. why can't she be as attentive as willowshine, why can't she sort herbs the same way as willowshine, why can't she be as calm and patient as willowshine? why does she look at her with the same excitement that willowpaw once did when she explains to her about the moonpool, why does she sometimes walk with that same spring in her step that willowshine did on a particularly pleasant day, why does she look so much like her when she falls asleep in the same nest she used to occupy?

it's not fair. it's not fair and mothwing hates it and she knows she can't take it out on her, but there are moments where she slips, just a bit. and she hates herself even more for it, because the expression on frostpaw's face reminds her so much of little willowpaw after waking from a nightmare. whenever that happened, mothwing would always scoot over in her nest and let her sleep next to her for the rest of the night, tail curled protectively over her as if she were her own kit.

frostpaw wakes up from a nightmare once, and in the darkness mothwing is pretending to be asleep even though it always takes her such a long time to actually go to sleep nowadays. she hears frostpaw get up, walk shakily over to her nest, and feels her standing over her in the dark. she senses frostpaw's hesitance and for a moment she thinks she hears her draw in a breath as if she's about to say something, but it doesn't come out. mothwing doesn't move. she prays (to what, she doesn't know; not starclan, certainly) that the apprentice doesn't try to wake her.

a moment of silence passes before she hears frostpaw trod back to her nest and attempt to get comfortable once more. mothwing lets her do it, not daring to move or give any indication that she was awake the whole time.

her stomach hurts. "better get some chervil root for that," willowshine would say, but she's not here, and mothwing is alone in her den with a stranger in the nest across from her.

she can't even tell the difference between chervil and catmint anyway, she thinks, and for some reason the thought makes her want to wail.

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