#BB!Hawkheart

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is hawkheart allowed to be a nuanced or at least fun character in better bones? on my knees begging after so many aus of “hawkheart goes straight to hell because he loves murder and nothing else” and “hawkheart killing an enemy during a battle where the invaded his home to destroy his medicine supply and immediately and long term endanger his clanmates actually means he put his clan in the wrong”. he has so much fun personality across his appearances and i love how hes one of the few characters who we’re allowd to see is multi faceted based on whos perceiving him (yellowfang sees him as curteous, bluestar sees him as cruel, tallstar sees him as gruff but kind, etc)

WHO IS BEING MEAN TO MY SON?? I LOVE HIM. What is it about WindClan that just sucks the ability to have nuance out of a person??

BB is about that. It's about pointing out how the extreme emphasis on war pits good people against each other, and people die over pointless bullshit. I spoke about it in passing once before but the Killing of Moonflower is something that I plan to expand on with Bluestar's Flowers.

When Bluepaw was young, she hated Hawkheart. Blamed him for killing her mother, NEEDED to believe it was StarClan's will that they went into glorious battle that day. She was insulted when Pinestar and Heatherstar entered talks after the vigil-- was her mother's life really only worth a couple squares of linen??

But Bluefur eventually makes friends. From ShadowClan, RiverClan, and even from BloodClan-- and there's two members of the little group from WindClan. Hoprunner and Ashfoot.

Meeting them starts to put things into perspective. She hears the story from the other side. Ashfoot was still a kit at the time, sick and being treated in the Cleric's Den. She remembers a ThunderClan warrior who burst in, and how terrified she was before Hawkheart shot out from the shadows... but she didn't know that was Bluefur's mother.

She just knew that if Hawkheart hadn't stopped the nameless warrior that night, she would be dead. Even if Moonflower hadn't even touched her, without those herbs, Ashkit would have died. Ashfoot wouldn't be standing here before Bluefur.

I haven't planned out her reaction yet, but it's something that should absolutely shake Bluefur. She probably ends up leaving the get-together early because she needs to be alone with that. Everything she's ever had to believe about Moonflower's death, that it was noble, that it was StarClan's will, that she was the strongest warrior and thus worthy of the front line...

How can she reconcile that with the trembling image of one of her best friends, someone she loves more than almost anything, sick and terrified in Moonflower's shadow?

It's hard to hate Hawkheart after that. She still wants to. But how can she? Who's even left to blame, if she can't be mad at her own Clanmates, and she can't be angry at WindClan?

But, anyway that aside? Hawkheart's a neat background character. I like him a lot. He's never going to have a starring role, but I think what he does do is very important.

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Hey I was wondering how do the Clans generally treat a cat who killed another in battle, and how easy it is to kill a cat by accident? I always hated how canon treated it where if a ThunderClan cat killed a cat from another Clan, it's an accident and could have happened to anyone battles are just risky like that, but if another Clan cat kills a ThunderClan cat they are treated as a ruthless murderer who did it on purpose when they could have easily won the battle without killing. In BB, what will the reaction be to, for example, Hawkheart killing Moonflower?

I've always been able to accept that as cognitive dissonance in-universe, though some examples (LOOKING AT YOU, LEOPARDSTAR'S HONOR) end up seeming ridiculously out of character for the sake of the plot.

It makes sense to me that Canon!Firestar would have some bias towards Lionblaze, for example, or that the fact the POV is closer to him would let us see his Russetfur kill with more sympathy.

But, in BB, it is MASSIVELY contextual based on the warrior, the situation, and how badly the clans want to maintain relations. So I have to use a few examples;

Hawkheart vs Moonflower

Pinestar massively regrets this battle, and that he listened to Goosefeather. Destroying herbs before leafbare is an evil thing to do. Why would StarClan ever want this...?

He must trust their wisdom, their grand plan, their mysterious ways, but... he feels disgusted with himself. Moonflower is dead now. She leaves behind young daughters.

So his talks with Heatherstar are quiet and solemn. She is gracious enough to admit that Hawkheart went too far, and Pinestar is humble enough to admit he was acting as a loyal warrior.

So in an attempt to maintain decent relations, Heatherstar makes some good deals in Pinestar’s favor. She makes payment of flax and herbs, and makes an agreement to help in case of a greencough outbreak for the next year.

Bluepaw is colored by resentment towards Hawkheart for many years, until she becomes friends with Hoprunner and Ashfoot. Suddenly, it puts it into perspective.

Thistleclaw vs Sunfish

He mauled her when she was doing a very minor crime of trespassing. This would have been the last straw for him; Bluestar had given him MANY chances before this, too many.

Thistleclaw would have been exiled for this.

But Leopardstar killed him. He paid with his life. When Crookedstar approaches her to try and negotiate Sunningrocks out of her in payment, she retorts that he was a disobedient warrior, and he has been buried.

RiverClan and ThunderClan have terrible relationships at this point. Bluestar cares for peace and tries to bid for it most of the time, but since they actively fight over Sunningrocks, there isn't much she can do to fix this.

So it is agreed; revenge killings are not persecuted. An eye for an eye is payment.

Lionblaze vs Russetfur

As you know, Blackstar was fucking devastated when his deputy died. This entire battle, in fact, was a huge breakdown in the established alliance between ShadowClan and ThunderClan.

Firestar worked hard on this alliance. Poured his heart and soul into making rules of engagement over the berry patch they joust over, leant aid to Blackstar's bog project, encouraged good relationships between ThunderClan and their neighbors. It was one of his proudest achievements.

But Bramblestar took power after the humiliating, insulting Battle of the False Eclipse, where Brackenfur was killed. Firestar was killed by Ashfur, he believes, someone he trusted. He is determined to rule in a different way; no more Nice ThunderClan.

His deputy, Thornclaw, insists they must rule by example. Yes, ShadowClan had been their ally, but that just presents an opportunity to stab them in the back like the other two. They must rule by example-- and not be lenient towards Blackstar's warriors. Bramblestar refuses to play so gently about the Berry Patch the next time it comes up in negotiations.

But it's about to be leafbare. ShadowClan doesn't care for the berries-- but they DO care for the prey that gets fat there, and the trading advantage of stocking up on berries to bargain with. This fight is lopsided.

Russetfur takes a life from Bramblestar here, and in response, Lionblaze kills her with his brutal strength.

Blackstar was destroyed by this, but too proud to ever lower himself to begging for a life payment from Bramblestar. He won't EVER accept something so insulting, ThunderClan killed his deputy, he would NEVER let them fix this. Their alliance is over, it's open season on Bramblestar, burn the code. Burn the Clans. Burn the Stars, even, what have they done besides put him on ridiculous trials to encourage his "growth" into a weak, sniveling worm to be trodden on?

And from there, he is open to Sol's influence. ShadowClan falls, and the Dark Forest Trainees take over.

So, in conclusion, it varies immensely. Payments and punishments for deaths are contextual, I'd have to explain the political environment around each killing to delve into what was done, and why.

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I was wondering if BB Barkface should get decreased in age. In canon he's as old as Tallstar which would make him like 20 when he dies, which would be a rare event, but given that his death is specifically supposed to be a moment of "OMG the Moonstone is destroyed, the clerics are dead and now we have to throw in poor Kestrelpaw into a rushed apprenticeship" I feel it kind of ruins the effect if Barkface was already so ridiculously old that his lack of apprentice comes off more as just a really dumb move on WindClan's part rather since they really should have foreseen he would die any day now. It would work better if Barkface was younger and, given clerics sticking out of battle, everyone had reason to believe they had plenty of time to get him an apprentice. Especially given that the other cleric who dies there, Mudfur, is already super old.

Though if you made Barkface younger you might have to add another cleric between Hawkheart and him, I wonder which cat you would put in the role? Maybe you could drag out Muddyclaw adventuregame who is "canonically" interested in being a medicine cat, and with him being far older you could even make Mudclaw named after him. I know I should have thought of this earlier since you already made the WindClan family tree, but I really think the whole human destruction/Kestrelpaw apprenticeship would be so much more impactful if Barkface isn't already like the cat equivalent of 100 years old at the time.

I prefer not to shuffle the tree any further; though I will be adding Ruffclaw and Chipstone to it at some point. I'm also not going to be changing Barkface's age unless I end up shuffling Tallstar to be younger, one of the things I'd like to keep from canon is that they were childhood friends.

THOUGH I do think it's a good idea to account for the fact Barkface was getting really old with no apprentice; so I've got an idea.

Quailheart was his first apprentice. Barkface simply never retired, because Quail's connection with StarClan was particularly weak... though, she was an excellent doctor.

Blackfur, sibling of Whitetail, became Quailheart's apprentice. This was to Barkface's chagrin; Blackfur also didn't meet Barkface's high standards of piety, but it was Quailheart's choice.

Quailheart was taken out around the time of the WindClan Exile, and Blackfur was murdered in the same TigerClan raid that killed Gorsepaw and Deadfoot. Barkface refused to pick a random apprentice after this.

StarClan did not shine on the other two, he believed, so WindClan would have to wait for the right choice to reveal itself.

(Though I may end up deciding later that Blackfur also dies in the collapse, give the event a kill count of 3. In any case; Barkface's age will be staying the same)

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Succession of BB!WindClan

[ID: Larkstripe -> Thrushbreeze -> Chiveclaw -> Hawkheart -> Kestrelflight -> Whistlepaw Swiftstar -> Dalestar -> Smallstar -> Heatherstar -> Tallstar -> Onestar -> Harestar]

(also I fucked up Kestrel's name again Trout don't kill me I'll haunt you bro)

Just getting my ducks in a row and making a "concept" of succession in my head... in-canon, we don't know who came before Heatherstar. We see two of the lives she gets in her name ceremony, but there's no leaders giving her one.

So I've decided to smack Smallstar in that space, since I've reworked the law to protect kittens.

Swiftstar is the leader who oversees the exile of SkyClan. Larkstripe refuses to treat him because she goes on strike to protest it. Dalestar codifies the Cleric's Vow into law to break the strike, and ruled through Ripplestar's Rot.

When Larkstripe died of a broken heart, Thrushbreeze takes over after her. She's Thrushpelt from Tallstar's Revenge, renamed because of a conflict with the Thrushpelt we all know and love from ThunderClan. In canon she's dead before Heatherstar takes power, I may or may not hold to that.

But anyway, Chiveclaw is the Cleric that follows her, and then Hawkheart after him. I'm also going with Hawkheart having once been a warrior; there's a continuity error that suggested Hawkpaw was always a Cleric apprentice.

And, that brings us to the modern era.

In BB, Barkface is killed in the beginning of TNP, when the Mothermouth collapses on top of him and Mudfur. There is no Cleric in WindClan for almost a year, until Kestrelflight is born and trained by StarClan.

Aaaaand that's succession so far! Until canon drops Heatherstar's predecessor on me like a ton of bricks, lmao.