#i cannot listen to this song without thinking of ashfur

[things-falling-apart]

REVENGA

" My sweet revenge will be yours for the taking, it's in the making, baby! "

Revenga - System of a Down

[webkinz-05]

Could I have a shufflemancy for my Ashfur timeline? Please and thank you!

Oh my gosh I’m so excited to finally do a Warrior Cats related ask! More of this PLEASE!! For this one I got:

No Surprises - Radiohead Okay so first of all its funny that I shuffled and got a Radiohead song! I can maybe think of another Radiohead song that fits a canon Ashfur...a pretty popular one...he’s a creep he’s a weirdo what the hell is he doing here? Anyways let’s delve into this for YOUR Ashfur though! This is a great song and I’ve been listening to it a lot lately! The entire thing has a very unsettlingly calm sound to it, its very pretty though! Its not as intense as many of the songs you usually think of when thinking of Ashfur, so right away either this could be interpreted as a more cold, calculating, less emotional Ashfur or it could just be his softer side! Since I have a lot to say about this, this is gonna be pretty long, so the rest of this will be posted under the cut! With all that out of the way, let’s finally get into the lyrics!

A heart that's full up like a landfill A job that slowly kills you Bruises that won't heal

This I would interpret as Ashfur’s life in Thunderclan and his past before Squirrelflight. After the first arc, its kind of like these cats never have time to relax, rest, or recover from anything they go through. Ashfur’s life started out pretty traumatic, what with Tulipkit and Elderkit’s death, followed by Whitestorm and Brindleface dying soon after that. Ashfur suffered a lot of instability and tragedy in his early moons, this is the “landfill” in his heart. The repetitive, constant work as a warrior - hunting, pointless fighting, and patrolling until you physically can’t - this is the “job that slowly kills you”. “Bruises that won’t heal” could refer to a few different things, but I’m going to focus on a detail a lot of people don’t realize when talking about Ashfur, that being his family history. His grandfather was Thistleclaw, who we don’t need to talk about too much because everyone knows what was wrong with that guy. Thistleclaw was incredibly ambitious, would never take no for an answer. His treatment of Spottedpaw makes Ashfur’s treatment of Squirrelflight less of a surprise (ha.. no surprises...)

His father, Whitestorm, although a fan favorite and a respectable warrior, was not the most loyal mate. Sure, people choose to pretend that Whitestorm didn’t have two canon relationships in Willowpelt and Brindleface (which is fine, nobody is saying you have to be bound to your first lover for life...except for Ashfur, of course), but Whitestorm did in fact have two litters with two different she-cats, pretty close together in time, implying that Ashfur was old enough to see his father leave his mother and in all honesty neglect him and his sister. This laid the foundation for how Ashfur learned to treat the she-cats in his life. Both genetically and psychologically, Ashfur was destined to become the obsessive, jealous cat he is.

His siblings, Ferncloud and Cloudtail (Wow...never noticed they both have cloud in their name. Maybe this made Ashfur feel even more excluded and isolated than he already did?) both found mates and started a family almost immediately upon becoming warriors. Ashfur truly felt like he had nobody to confide in, nobody who understood him. His family all moved on without him, leaving him “bruised”.

You look so tired, unhappy

The truth is Squirrelflight was never happy being romantically involved with him. She wanted to be friends, and she loved him as a friend, but her heart was always set on Bramblestar (for what reason I cannot possibly fathom). She was unhappy with him, deep down.

Bring down the government They don't, they don't speak for us

Ashfur has a history of “challenging authority”, for lack of a better term. From helping Hawkfrost kill Firestar, to possessing Bramblestar, to defying Starclan and taking over the Dark Forest, Ashfur has always felt overlooked and underappreciated by those with more power than he had. He wanted that power, and he wanted to share it with Squirrelflight, the “us” in the second line refers to him and Squilf.

I'll take a quiet life A handshake of carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide is the part that really jumps out at me here. Carbon monoxide is a flammable gas which can cause light headedness, nausea, difficulty breathing, loss of consciousness, and eventually death. The beginning of Ashfur’s downward spiral truly started when he made that deal with Hawkfrost, a “handshake” resulting in a warped perception of reality, choking and poisoning him until finally it all culminated in an explosion of fire. Yet again, a calmer version of Ashfur presents himself here. Maybe in your timeline, he wasn’t as intense as he was in canon. He would live a quiet, peaceful life on the surface, but underneath all that he was always planning his revenge. Interpreting this line a little differently, Ashfur did take many quiet lives. He was directly responsible for Firestar’s death, he took Squirrelflight’s peace away from her and her family, he ruined Shadowsight’s life and caused Bristlefrost’s death. 

And no alarms and no surprises No alarms and no surprises No alarms and no surprises Silent, silent

Obligatory fire scene verse...I’m sure learning the truth about Squirrelflight’s kits was a surprise-

Such a pretty house And such a pretty garden

The white picket fence imagery of this line and the transition into the last verse show Ashfur’s desire for a normal life with Squirrelflight, something he was denied. He was always reaching beyond what he had, and always falling short, and just not accepting this. In other versions of the song, “garden” is replaced with “baby”, reinforcing the idea that Ashfur was not only jealous of Squirrelflight’s relationship with Brambleclaw but as her “perfect life” as a deputy and mother as well.

Overall, this song portrays a much calmer Ashfur more influenced by the events in his past than just the sudden shift in personality after Squirrelflight rejected him. I believe you had a pretty canon adjacent timeline other than that. 

[rotomgender-moved]

Semi comprehensive list of warriors animations I'd reccomend to anyone looking for animations to watch in general!

For fans of general amvs, some with symbolism:

Coyote - A Bluestar PMV by BlueJump!

It's just an incredible piece of art and i think that everyone can enjoy how each character is represented in different ways

Pidgeon - An Ashfur AMV by Starcheopteryx

An Ashfur amv that TRULY shows the character as a horrible person, showing off his hate and dehumanization of Squirrelflight in an incredible way

Forest Fire - A Hollyleaf PMV by leatherhoff45

It's a really well put together amv with very clean and simple symbolism, it comes with a really good song to listen to aswell!

Dreamland - A Mothwing PMV by TheWisestDino

A beautiful Mothwing pmv that incredibly represents her and her relationship with her brother, Hawkfrost. Plus Glass Animals, which is always a bonus!

Thorn King - A medieval inspired Bluestar PMV by moldypaw

This is one i think people should just go into completely blind, but I massively reccomend it

This Cold Night - A Mosskit AMV by ZMKicia

A CRIMINALLY underrated animator and amv, a simple showing of Mosskit's death and one of my personal favorites on this list

My Name- An Ashfur and Hawkfrost AMV by Luniper

This is so INCREDIBLY animated and composed that i just HAD to put it on the list. It's so beautiful and characterizes everyone so well!

Be Calm - A Bluestar PMV by Darkyfoot

I absolutely CANNOT compile a list of warrior cats animations I reccomend without RAVING over Be Calm. It's a damn near perfect representation of Bluestar's spiral during the first arc

Fences - A Hollyleaf pmv by Kitsune Kinnie

I love this one a lot, it's fun to watch and follow the story of! It shows of Hollyleaf's anger really well!

Christmas Kids - A Power of 3 PMV by gumiwyrms

A really cool pmv just in general that makes Ashfur really unsettling! It's also a fully lineless pmv!

Warrior Lost Tapes - A Horror Collection by PetitePoison

[MAJOR Disclaimer here for bright lights and colors, unsettling audio and imagery, body horror, blood and animal death]

This collection of animations are absolutely incredible, using various audio to show off the far darker parts Warriors has. Such as Brokenstar and the kits and Frecklewish's death.

All in all, i reccomend all of these! Please watch them! They're so good.