#flamepaw so far seems to be a mix of both LOL

[pigeonclaw]

On the one hand, it feels a bit late to be doing an "I'm so insecure because I'm a descendant of Firestar" plotline. You'd think if anyone was gonna deal with that it'd have been Firestar's grandchildren — especially Sparkpelt, since she looks like him — and not one of his great grandchildren born so long after he died.

On the other hand, though, I don't think Flamepaw's insecurities come from nowhere exactly. It would make sense if all of Firestar's descendants had some feeling of pressure sometimes to live up to their ancestry, and if Flamepaw is just feeling it more because he keeps messing up and taking it really hard. He wants his Clanmates to be proud of him and he's failed multiple warrior assessments because he keeps getting too caught up in his own head about it. And because he's obsessed with being descended from two leaders and the deputy, he keeps projecting onto everyone else and assuming they're always thinking about that fact too.

He actually reminds me a lot of his grandpa Bramblestar (back in TNP) in that regard. He's so fixated on his family line and the expectations that come from it that whenever he thinks someone is being unfair towards him, he shifts the blame to his ancestry and to his Clanmates.

Is Flamepaw overreacting? Yes. Is he being kind of ridiculous and unfair? Yes. But I can see how it all makes sense in his little brain.