#spottedleaf is a character who i have complicated feelings about

[iapislazuli]

my ultimate take on spottedleaf's heart is that I don't think hard topics are necessarily out of place in a children's story. unfortunately, many children will go through some bad shit in their lives. warrior cats already has really hard topics in it like imperialism, prejudice, murder, war, miscarriage, bullying, domestic abuse, and cheating, just to name a few. of course... it doesn't handle many of these well, because warrior cats is just... Like That, as we know. but in a hypothetical world where warrior cats approaches all of these tough topics with respect and care, i think that showing a creepy, predatory relationship like the one between spottedpaw and thistleclaw could actually be beneficial for young readers. spottedleaf's heart couldve been a story telling children "hey, if an adult acts like this to you, TELL SOMEBODY! IT'S NOT OKAY!" i think it couldve helped young readers in terrible, awful situations, to see a character going through what's happening to them, and to be told "this isn't okay. it doesn't matter who an adult is, if they are hurting you, it's not right, and you deserve to be safe. and if an adult ever acts like this, you should tell somebody you trust." i think that's like... a fine thing to tell kids, i don't consider that inappropriate. an alternate telling of spottedleaf's heart where bluefur, thrushpelt, sunstar, featherwhisker, adderfang, swiftbreeze, or any other adult in Spottedpaw's life sees what's happening to her and helps her, lets her know that it's not her fault? i think even if the topic is tough, that wouldve been a much better outcome for the story, and would be much more of a constructive message to give young readers who are going to relate to the protagonist who's their age. overall i just think the biggest issue is in execution and framing, making the overall message "spottedleaf was so foolish to fall in love with thistleclaw!!" instead of "spottedleaf was a victim of grooming, it's thistleclaw's fault for behaving inappropriately and hurting her because he's an adult"

[burning-thistles-bt]

Hi, anon who previously sent a long ask mentioning adderfang&thistlestar's mentor-apprentice back here! What you said about Adderfang's reaction to spottedpaw's pregnancy (the idea that he was upset his Precious Baby Daughter was exploited by an older warrior) got me thinking about Willowpelt! Specifically, we know Adderfang didn't react so strongly to learning she was pregnant, even though she had darkkit before spottedpaw had the firesibs. if i recall correctly, Adder&Swift's reaction to willowpelt being such a young mother was never shown in FT, or never explored very closely... What was that moment like? Were they angry, did they worry Willowpelt had been hurt, or were they happy to be getting more grandkits? How did their reaction make Willowpelt feel?

Additionally, since Adderfang made a way bigger stink towards Spottedpaw's situation than he did toward Willowpelt's, did that have any affect on willowpelt? I presume, Adderfang probably thought Darkstripe's father was another one of the apprentices which is why he didn't seem TOO upset, and Willowpelt never wanted to "tarnish" Tawnyspots' legacy by revealing him preying on her. But I imagine Willowpelt seeing Adderfang throw such a big fuss (and rightfully so, of course, him threatening to flay thistle alive in FT is one of my fave scenes lol. so satisfying) over spottedpaw being pregnant might have made Willowpelt feel strange. Did it cause her to feel like her dad didn't care as much about her? She and spottedleaf have a very good relationship, especially as older adults, but I can imagine when she was so young and dealing with how drastically and unexpectedly her life had changed she could have harbored some more complicated feelings. Was she jealous that Spottedleaf was getting more attention from their parents? if so, did she feel guilty about that jealousy, knowing how terrible it is to be in spottedleaf's situation? do you think spottedleaf and willowpelt ever talked out these feelings?

Sorry for another long message haha, the way the story unfolds in your fic is so interesting I just think about it all the time, it's made me really like spottedleaf and willowpelt way more than i did before reading it, youve developed them into such complex characters!! Thanks again for taking the time to read my message!!

Adderfang and most everyone else didn't question Willowpelt's pregnancy because she had her warrior name! To them, warriorhood means you are an adult, but that's not necessarily the truth, considering Willowpelt technically did get pregnant when she was an apprentice (it's just that no one really connected the dots there, except for those like Featherwhisker and Spottedpaw and such. Most assumed she just gave birth early, which is a far assumption especially considering most of her kits died/were sickly), plus she was still under 12 moons (typical warrior age) when pregnant/giving birth. Adderfang and Swiftbreeze were both a little concerned that she was so young, but it really boiled down to "well, she's a warrior, she can have kits now if she wants I suppose," and they lacked the experience or knowledge to argue against that. It's just ingrained tradition and culture for them.

Most assumed the father was Whitestorm or maybe possibly Tigerclaw, but most of the clan knew Whitestorm had a crush on Willowpelt (though others argued that he and Brindleface would become mates since they were best/close friends), so they assumed it was him, and that Willowpelt either rejected him or Whitestorm didn't want to help raise the kits. Just ask Frostfur what the rumor mill was at the time and she'll fill you in on all a hundred possibilities lol

Willowpelt definitely had... feelings seeing Adderfang get so protective over Spottedpaw when the truth came out. She often wondered if Adderfang would have had the same reaction if she had told him that Tawnyspots did the same thing to her. But, guilt kept her mouth shut. She felt like it didn't matter since Tawnyspots was dead anyways now. Plus, wouldn't it just seem like she wanted the attention? She didn't want attention, she just wanted to stay quiet. So she did. But it still ate her up and unknowingly strained her relationship with her parents, because she felt like she couldn't be protected by them like Spottedpaw was. If Adderfang ever knew though, you bet he would have charged straight into StarClan itself just to beat Tawnyspots up for touching his daughter like that.

Spottedleaf and Willowpelt did confide in each other! They were about the only ones who told each other all their secrets and hidden feelings, THOUGH Willowpelt DID keep more of the details to herself. She felt like "Spottedleaf had it worse" and that she just needed to be a supportive sister. But they did talk about it.

(Though I can tell you the exact opposite happens in Reflamed)

No worries about the long message! We love answering questions!!

[toasted-spiders]

Instead of Spottedleaf's Heart we should have gotten a novella about Whitestorm. He was close to Spottedleaf so we could still have answered the question of "why is she a doctor" but he's also very close to Tigerpaw and Thistleclaw which is !!! very important. We'd get some insight on Tigerclaw growing up. Heck, we'd get insight on all the characters, Whitestorm is close to pretty much everyone. It also helps that Whitestorm is really interesting. We see him in TPB as this extremely wise and experienced senior warrior that Firestar always looks up to and just as we saw Bluestar's journey, it's only fair that we see his. Whitepaw would be very unsure and insecure by his apprenticeship. His mother died when he was a kit, his father is starting to treat his best friend like his son instead, also Thistleclaw is physically and verbally abusive and evil??*, and let's not forget his relationship with Bluefur and how that complicates things, and maybe Spottedpaw tells him she's not sure she wants to be a warrior what should she do? and he's just being torn in so many directions. There's so much to talk about here. The Erins would 100% have handled this better than whatever they tried to do with Spottedleaf's Heart. The main character is a confused angsty teen who has an evil dad but is irrevocably good! They love that kind of thing! The novella would be about how Whitestorm comes of age and gains self-confidence/-acceptance, and also how he cuts off his relationship with Prequel Evil Dad because that's important. Prequel Evil Dad is important and most likely the antagonist here. *we need to talk about Prequel Evil Dad like abuse would not be OOC for Thistleclaw at all Bluefur not only witnesses it with 13-yr-old Tigerpaw but also mentions that it continues to happen and Whitestorm was scarred by it. Anyways Whitestorm's such an important character I feel like he wasn't done justice. (Neither was Redtail but that's a whole other can of worms.) Working title is Whitestorm's Path hit me w/ better ideas

[wygolvillage]

the way the warrior code has always been presented in the books is so fascinating to me because... its unjust and always has been. the books simultaneously seem to know this and deny it. i have Complicated Feelings about it

even from the first arc, we’ve got silverstream tragically dying and graystripe’s crisis of loyalty due to the couple being technically illegal, half-clan cats being injustly targeted during tigerstars reign, firestar breaking the code to feed yellowfang, who herself broke the code, and going behind bluestars back to do whats right. bluestar and her kits, too, were victimized by the restrictions of the warrior code. even firestars unresolved feelings for spottedleaf apply. and sympathy almost always falls upon the codebreakers and half-clan cats. theyre almost always in the right. and yet still the subtext of always having faith in starclan, the code being just and honorable and what seperates them from just being pack of rogues, is still very present.

in arc 2 our protagonists, who grow to become friends, are shortly afterwards seperated once the journeys over and its presented as tragic that they have to be split by clan loyalty. its an arc about how the clans must come together and unite in times of crisis... and yet at the end of the day, they must be seperated because StarClan Says So!!! this bleeds into arc 3, really, since its so connected to what happens in arc 2. lives are nearly ruined over the restrictive nature of the warrior code. squirrelflight does whats right even if it means crossing societal boundaries by raising her sisters kits, and the revelation that the three are leafpool’s is seen as so catastrophic that someone gets LITERALLY MURDERED to prevent it from getting out. leafpool even says that she finds death preferable to facing all the consequences the warrior code would impose on her for simply having fallen in love. hollyleaf, the one most adherent to the code as a moral guide, has to reckon with realizing that it technically forbids her existence, as well as that the three are, inherently, kind of above it since they hold more power than starclan, their religious authority. this is a Thing in power of three... and then arc 4 veers hard back into StarClan Is Always Right. its a straightforward good vs evil story and starclan are “the good guys”

i dont have that much to say on DOTC because the code hadn’t been established yet, but i do think its interesting that clear sky’s closed borders and territorialism, which is very close to modern clan tradition, is seen as unreasonable and restrictive by the other characters (it is, the divisions between clans are very arbitrary). i dont have much to say on AVOS either tbh other than that it does kind of have a “the youth dont respect tradition!!1!!!” undercurrent. “see if you undermine authority everyone is going to die and get killed by rogues!!!!” though interestingly we do get to see some cats change clans to be with who they love, like dovewing.

and then we get to TBC and ASC, which are interesting in that the code is being dismantled. a starclan cat, ashfur, the villain of TBC, uses it to leverage power against cats he dislikes by labeling them as codebreakers, the main romance of the arc is forbidden by the code (and this is presented as a tragedy that they could never get to be together). starclan encourages them to change the code, and it does criticize the way clan society, well.... works. and ASC is going to be about all the ways the code will be changed and altered! awesome! and yet i still dont think theyve gone far enough. ashfur being a starclan cat who exploits his position as a religious guide (and eventually as leader) is presented as an outlier, a mistake, not a “real” starclan cat (which is bullshit). dead cats who were once evil but switched sides in TPONS and ALITM arent allowed to leave the Evil Torment Dimension despite having fought to save the clans and showed genuine change, because “starclan said so, they dont make mistakes, especially not when they sent you to the dark forest lol”. its a bewildering decision and i wish they just decided to make starclan kind of morally questionable Explicitly. they keep dancing around this idea and never going hard with it. and i could go on and on about the unfair starclan trial in squirrelflights hope and all that but this post is long enough...

idk how to conclude this other than... i wish this was all intentional, that the erins had conceived the clans as a deeply flawed society that the protagonists try to navigate within and eventually dismantle, rather than kind of accidentally backflipping into having created a restrictive, shitty place without meaning to. the code throughout the series has caused tragedy after tragedy and yet solved very little. if this was an intentional narrative about questioning tradition and the constraints of society, warrior cats would be literally incredible! but in practice it reads like the erins trying to have their cake and eat it too. it makes warriors really weird to read as an adult with a critical eye. i KEPT noticing this over and over when i reread the series last year. hopefully ASC will develop these ideas further

[malkumtend]

What do you think of people still suporting Bramblestar x Squirrelflight?

Umm… I don’t care.

I really don’t know what else I’d be expected to say. It’s not my business what people ship. As long as it’s not going against any laws I don’t see any reason why I would be bothered by it.

What we need to remember is that not everyone sees Bramblestar’s behaviour as abusive, and while some of us may not understand that, they might not understand why we think it’s abusive. It’s a complicated matter of perspective. And I also know BS fans who loathe Squirrelflight’s Hope because they believe it butchered and OCC’d a character they seriously love. While I clearly don’t agree with these people (in that I don’t see his behaviour in that book as OCC as I believe there are other instances of him demonstrating abusive tendencies in other books) I can at least respect they’re acknowledging the moments where they feel BrambleStar was being a huge dick. That’s a lot better than some fans I’ll tell you.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate this ship. Like, seriously loathe it. I know a lot of people hate it as well. I think the majority of the fandom at least acknowledges the problems of it in canon. But at the same time, If someone likes it, it doesn’t offend me. People have characters and ships that lie close to their heart and no matter what you think, criticising them for it wouldn’t do any good. Do you really think you’re going to change their minds? Would you stop shipping two characters if a random person tells you they hate them? If you seriously don’t like a post about a ship you hate, just ignore it and let the people who like it like it. But who knows, maybe if you read an opinion post that offers a new perspective, or see art or a story that is still worth praise for their individual talents, you can respect why these people like what they like.

Take me for example. Ashfur is my most hated character in the WC series, but the story “Ashes” is one of my favourite fics in the whole fandom. Its AU creates a way that AshSquirrel is made into a healthy supportive idea, and while this clearly diverges from canon, I still respect that Mallowstep was able to do this and create such an amazing Story. I wouldn’t have experienced that if I’d just assumed the worst of the writer for creating a story that features AshSquirrel. The same applies to Bramblestar. I want more than anything a fic that makes him into the amazing mate and leader that many people see, perhaps a fan rewrite of Squirrelflight’s Hope that makes him into a character we can ALL love and respect. I accept all fans interpretations of this ship, and while I don’t need to agree with them all, I need to be open at least so I can understand their perspectives.

But in the end, no matter what I want to see from this ship, if people like it as it is now, that is 100% their right. It’s not down to me to judge them. I don’t want anyone to be sent any hate in any form. I definitely hate this ship, but the personal tastes of other people aren’t anything to do with me. I’ll just hate it on my side and leave those who like it alone on the other side.

Just don’t be dicks to each other! Carry on shipping what you want and leave other people alone. You won’t get anywhere by attacking them personally!

So yeah… that’s pretty much it. As long as you’re not supporting a lawfully wrong ship (Leave spottedleaf alone Thistleclaw!) do what you like.

Peace out, shippers♥️

[mallowstep]

When Mothwing chose Jaykit to be the next seer... Did she actually have a sign from Starclan about it? Or did she just choose him randomly out of the kits since she lacks that belief/connection?

as far as mothwing knows, she didn't get a sign, she just worked on intuition.

we're kind of playing with the timeline, but the basic idea is she sees Something in jaykit that makes her think, "yeah, he should be a seer."

she's really drawing on the Stories of being chosen, because she was chosen fairly late and in an atypical way. leafpool's first memory is being chosen, and obviously mothwing and leafpool are very close, so that's going to influence her the most.

but from mothwing's perspective, there's no real rhyme or reason to how to choose a seer. the three seers she trained with (yellowstorm, spottedleaf, and leafpool) are all very different, and she's different for them. so being mothwing, she's feels like it's about time to take an apprentice, and she's looking for qualities she thinks will be good in a seer.

since she's very close with the three, she knows them all well, even as lil bb kits. hollykit and jaykit are obviously and clearly the smartest (sorry lionkit), and so it's kind of just hoping she makes a good choice.

mothwing's experiences with being a seer are complicated, but she looks at the clanborne seers she knows, and they're mostly happy. she doesn't really see much of leafpool's internal struggle, because they're both kids and mothwing has her own problems to work through.

so she kind of wants an Archetypical Good Seer. she just doesn't know what that means, so she chooses jaykit.

some metaphysics and theological ramblings under the cut, if you want to preserve the ambiguity of starclan. mostly me doing some character analysis of mothwing, but also talk bout The Realness of StarClan.

i've been kind of vague with how starclan works.

mothwing's interesting because she spends a lot of time...almost having a connection to starclan, but at the same time, it's not the same way others do. she doesn't have clear dreams of ancestors from days past, she never knows what's up with the sightstone, and it's really easy to connect her experience of starclan as just a nightmare.

starclan has two moments of "okay, you can't really ignore that they Did a Thing": the first is in yellowstorm's piece with the sightstone (something i swear i haven't forgotten about), and the second is when leafpaw and mothpaw find the moonpool.

both of those exist as firm evidence because i needed certain things to happen in a certain way. and because well. it's supposed to be ambiguous and vague and Not Clear. that's just how i like to do things.

so. mothwing. she ties her spirituality in with her brother, yeah? she sort of...he's the one who fits into riverclan. she thinks of herself as being closer to her mother, in a lot of ways.

She pulled them each in. Mothpaw couldn't hear what she told Hawkpaw, but she wrapped her tail around Mothpaw and whispered, "I love you more than the moon and sun."

i liked this bit because...mothpaw doesn't assume sasha is telling them both the same thing. she kind of assumes her relationship with sasha is Unique and Different and Not Like Hawkpaw.

and so we get "i love you" as this connection to not being a clan cat that comes up again when she tells leafpool she loves her, after the kits are born. she repeats a clan approved blessing, but then she ties things back to her mother.

mothwing connects a lot of her spirituality to sasha and loner ideas. i didn't want to set up a lot of ideas that i couldn't follow through with in 3-4k words, so i focused on the idea of the fox and the cat. both clever creatures, caught in this endless chase. i think, where clan cats think of lions and tigers and leopards, of their ancestors as powerful creatures, loners don't.

they know they survive because they are small and fast and clever, not because they are strong and powerful.

so in the fox and the cat, which is mostly an allegory for death, you have this endless chase. the fox chases the cat, and that never changes, so it's not quite an afterlife story, but it has the same idea.

mothwing takes this particular story to heart, because she spends a lot of time building relationships and chasing after people she can't keep. she loses tadpole, sasha, hawkfrost, leafpool, and jaypaw. her brothers both die, but the others are still alive, she just can't be with them.

so for mothwing, death isn't really big barrier in her life. she doesn't want to talk to hawkfrost, and while tadpole definitely impacts her, it's much more about her relationship with hawkfrost than actual guilt over tadpole.

instead, it's clan rules and life that's keeping her from sasha, leafpool, jaypaw, and to a lesser extent, hollyleaf and lionblaze.

but my point here is supposed to be about starclan, not mothwing.

starclan is taught to her kind of as this series of deals. open your ears and they will tell you things: well, mothwing is listening, and they're not speaking.

she has some kind of connection with them as a kit, but does she? heck, kids dream of weird stuff all the time. it's not hard for a bit of imagination to start connecting false dots, and of course spottedleaf would leap on those.

i didn't want to tip my hand in spottedleaf's piece, but yeah! hawk is trying to manipulate the situation. he's just a kit, and the circumstances are different, but he definitely internally takes credit for it, and he tells her about it.

so this one thing, this one tether of belief: they chose me, they are not silent; that gets broken.

does starclan have an impact on her? when she gets a message via leafpaw, she traces it back to kithood stories, and this time, it's a riverclan story. it's nearly forgotten, even though the idea of the moon and the river is very fundamental to riverclan, and moth would have been inundated by stories as a kit.

so like. starclan could have given mothwing a sign. could have sent one that made her think she should pick jaykit.

but both yellowstorm and spottedleaf present choosing as intuition, not a tangible sign. it's one and the same in their minds, but from an external perspective, maybe they're just aware of the needs of the clan(s).

all of this is to say: it's up for interpretation whether starclan could have given mothwing a sign, and beyond that, it's up for interpretation whether or not they even would send her one.

i don't really want to come down conclusively on this, but there's not a wrong reading of it. i was deliberate about not including a specific answer.

maybe starclan is real, maybe not. i don't know what happens in oots but there's a reason all of the oots medicine cats are skipped. (apologies, flametail. you have an interesting story that won't get told.)

we also aren't getting to the broken code, we're stopping with alderheart in avos. because i don't want to answer the reality of starclan, i want reading stolag to feel like i felt reading tpb: you can see these tangible effects. bluestar comes back to life after being dead. fireheart has prophetic dreams.

but like, i had several dreams that came true as a kid. it doesn't mean there was someone nudging me to know what the future is.

and basically every omen is super, super hazy. i firmly believe we should have more omens instead of prophecies, because they're more interesting. and vague. what's the difference between an omen and an imagination? it's never explored, which is a shame.

would've been cool to show that in leafpool and/or jayfeather's training, considering they're both said to have a connection to starclan.

in summary (again): starclan is a grey area.

[gatorsnot]

a bunch of personal warriors headcanons because why tf not

kinda a long post so check them out below the cut!

- “brat cat” is a derogatory term for a kittypet. the kittypet stereotype falls into two categories: the “fat and lazy” types that are most frequently brought up in canon and the “spoiled, holier-than-thou” types that openly denounce clan cats and other ferals because they don’t have the “alliance” with twolegs that allows them to be fed and protected by them. these “brat cat” kittypets are the smug assholes that look down their noses at the clans because their beloved owners chase them off with brooms for being “lowly, unbecoming strays” that have to actually HUNT for their food and FIGHT for their turf while THEY just have the luxury of having it all handed to them. undoubtedly more likely to taunt the clan cats into a fight but they definitely get cold paws and the last minute and fuckin bounce because they’re humongous cowards that just like to talk big

- cinderpelt has the doofiest, purest smile than could brighten anyone’s day. she gets it from her dad lionheart

- whitepaw got teased a lot at her first gathering because the other apprentices found out she was brightheart’s daughter and would LOUDLY and OBNOXIOUSLY shout awful shit like “mutant spawn incoming!!” and “UGH i wouldn’t DARE show MY face at a gathering or even on a PATROL if MY mother looked like THAT” and birchpaw just strolled up and was like “haha yeah and if you keep saying that shit you won’t have to worry about showing your face anywhere because i’LL CLAW IT OFF” 

- darkstripe admired tigerstar so much because he was the only kit in the nursery during his youth and tawnyspots was too sick to spend much time with him. like, he admired tigerclaw a great deal because he was constantly trying to show off how strong and cool he was and while the warriors mostly got annoyed with him and the apprentices always made fun of him, tigerclaw mostly just...tolerated him more than the others (perhaps out of a bit of pity because his father was never around for him either and he was the only kit in the nursery once, though he’d never admit this out loud). once darkpaw became tigerclaw’s apprentice the pitying definitely came to a halt because darkpaw turned out to be a poor fighter and sub par hunter, but was very cocky and just tried waaaay too hard to gain attention and praise in general, and as he gradually got better at things, the arrogance got to his head a lot more. needless to say, tigerclaw was IMMENSELY relieved once darkstripe became a warrior, only to be dismayed that darkstripe would always stick to him like a burr on his haunches regardless.

- runts aren’t necessarily considered helpless by default or lost causes by the clans. in windclan, they’re believed to be able to run much faster than their clanmates on the moor or become the best tunnelers. in thunderclan, they’re lighter on their paws and can sneak up on prey much quieter than their heavier counterparts. in riverclan, they’re very efficient swimmers and fishers that are especially good at diving. in shadowclan, they can chase frogs and rats and can be concealed better in shadowy areas of the marsh. all smaller-than-average cats are also praised in battle for their agility and speed, as their size makes them difficult targets. the only main concerns for them are illnesses being too hard for their bodies to fight off.

- firestar didn’t enjoy the kittypet life at all, but he did secretly miss his twolegs for a time and worried about them until he found out about them adopting hattie. their happiness was the most important thing to him even after he joined thunderclan.

- willowpelt didn’t conceive graystripe with patchpelt, but instead with a kittypet she had a classic summertime romance with. they ended their relationship on good terms after the father decided the kits would fare better as clan cats, and willowpelt raised graystripe alone without naming a father to the clan. everyone silently assumes that whitestorm sired graystripe (i just hate that the patch x willow thing...they’re siblings)

- the grief he felt after silverstream’s death (added on by the additional stress of his whole life catching up to him in his old age) very likely contributed to crookedstar’s death from greencough.

- swiftpaw had a really fantastic and close relationship with bramblekit and tawnykit as their half-brother, he always visited them and their mother in the nursery and played with them or brought them treats whenever he could. the pair were utterly destroyed when they learn that he was killed by the dogs.

- appledusk looked remarkably similar to crookedstar, hence why mapleshade targeted him specifically (tho it WOULD be interesting to wonder if she haunted reedshine’s kits and / or shellheart or at least attempted to...hmm)

- cloudtail’s kittypet name was “cotton” during the time he was sneaking to twolegplace for food as an apprentice (after his super fluffy white fur), pinestar’s was “dusty” after he left thunderclan (i know he refers to himself as “pine” at the end of his novella but i honestly doubt his owners called him that lmao; they named him that because he was dirty all the time), and graystripe’s was “pouncer” when he was captured (because of his numerous escape attempts and stuff)

- reena undoubtedly had a crush on talltail and wanted to be his mate, but she was perfectly fine after she put two and two together and realized that he loved jake and didn’t want to interfere with their happiness

- snowfur was completely and utterly disgusted by thistleclaw’s actions toward spottedpaw, and the first thing she does when spottedleaf dies and comes to starclan is apologize profusely for her former mate’s despicable behavior. spottedleaf tells her not to apologize for his atrocity and the two become quite good friends

- sunfall / sunstar had romantic feelings for moonflower and the two of them had always been close friends, but he ultimately respected her decision to be with stormtail. however, he did quietly disapprove of how emotionally distant he was towards his mate and daughters, as he never seemed to interact with them much or even seem to care that he had a family. after moonflower’s death and stonepelt’s early retirement, sunfall directly asked pinestar if he could have bluepaw, feeling that he owed it to the late moonflower to ensure that her kit had the best education. pinestar likely knew about his loyalty to the fallen warrior and his interest in her, so he agreed.

- brambleberry and echomist [nudge nudge lesbians in my stormstar au nudge nudge] DEFINITELY took on the roles of being crookedstar’s adoptive mothers after rainflower disowned him

- breezepelt is a very good daddy to smokehaze, brindlewing, woodkit/paw, and applekit/paw as he always had the desire to be a better parent than crowfeather ever was to him [yes...i read crowfeather’s trial and know all that went on, but still]. his relationship with heathertail is ridiculously dorky in private, since he’s always had a soft spot for her

- sometimes cats with some kind of plant in their name [stuff like “leaf”, “flower”, “stem”, “branch”, “petal”, and so on you get the drill] try to have a piece of whatever plant from their namesake in their fur somewhere [ex: hollyleaf had a holly berry and leaf tucked in by her ear, goldenflower had the stem and flower of something woven around her tail, so on and so forth]. cats with feather or bird prefixes or suffixes try to do the same with feathers

- there’s an old myth that says kits born on the night of a full moon are suspected to grow up and become leaders someday. some cats believe this to be true, while others don’t

- as it is stated that cats must fast during their journeys to the moonstone and moonpool, it is considered a sin to kill prey at both sites. for example, if a cat were to kill a mouse or something in the caves of mothermouth or around the moonpool, their kill is considered to be pollution of the sacred ground and is to be promptly discarded somewhere else, as it would be considered insulting to starclan if they eat it. punishments for breaking this rule depend on the medicine cat or the leader.

- killing a medicine cat is like, one of the WORST atrocities any clan cat could do. it’s as horrific and treasonous as killing a leader, as the medicine cat not only keeps the clan healthy, they also communicate with starclan. imagine someone walking up and killing some sort of religious leader right in front of their congregation. pretty heinous, right? exactly the clans’ point. the only reasons a medicine cat would be killed was if they were intentionally committing treason against their clan [intentionally causing harm through malpractice or intentionally sending false signs from starclan] or if they were gravely ill or injured themselves to the point where they would be better off put out of their misery

- female leaders and deputies can indeed have kits of their own. mothers who happen to be leader usually keep her litters inside the leader’s den instead of moving to the nursery; it’s private, warm, clean, and well-protected. leader mothers can still partake in regular duties such as arranging patrols and hunting parties, addressing the clan, and holding ceremonies, and either has another queen look after her kits should she be absent for some occasion [like a gathering] or leave them with their father if he is involved. deputy mothers, while they most often end up going to the nursery since they usually sleep in the warriors’ den, can also carry out their own duties while another queen looks after her kits in her absence. all that matters is that the kits are loved and properly cared for.

-  as for the unnamed diseases that have killed characters, here’s my takes: tawnyspots died of feline leukemia, pebblefur and shellheart died of stomach cancer, sweetpaw died from complications caused by intestinal parasites (very likely worms that resulted in a blockage), leopardstar died of diabetes (confirmed), ravenpaw died of liver cancer (confirmed), goosefeather died of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain usually caused by infection, confirmed), petalfall died from epilepsy (confirmed), and dandelionkit, mistkit, and nightkit died of fading kitten syndrome (essentially the cat version of failure to thrive). i also think the whitecough is a chest cold, greencough is pneumonia, and that yellowcough could’ve very possibly been feline distemper, but idk

- adoption is considered very noble. i personally really fucking hate the attitude of characters who were adopted finding out and being like “i have been BETRAYED...i can’t believe these ABSOLUTE SCUM loved me, raised me, fed me, protected me, when they were NEVER even related to me by BLOOD? absolutely despicable, i must find my REAL parents and be loved by THEM instead...even if they are total assholes or want nothing to do with me...i can’t believe i was stupid enough to believe these IMPOSTORS were ever really my parents...” it’s just a really stupid mindset?? taking in another’s kits for whatever reason (the mother dies, the parents didn’t want kits, etc.) is considered a great service on the same level as raising their own biological kits. now whether or not said kits grow up and want to confront their birth parents about giving them to someone else or want to know them better is entirely up to them. the clans see adopted kits are better than abandoned ones that could very easily die from exposure or predators, or going through the possibility of them living in an abusive situation because they weren’t wanted or were unable to be cared for correctly.

- speaking of kits, the reason we have the standard “one to four” litter sizes is that overpopulation would be a problem. the average queen in real life can give birth to three to five kittens in a litter, which isn’t too far off from the quantity in the warriorsverse, but also bear in mind real queens can have as many as TEN kittens in a single litter and occasional more. think about it: the mother would need to eat a lot to produce enough milk for numerous mouths; the kits will grow older and want to explore, and there’s a very high risk of one of them slipping out of camp unnoticed and getting into trouble or danger if they’re from a large litter; plus they’ll wean from their mothers and move on to fresh-kill, and a stampede of ten or so hungry kits is going to leave hardly anything for anyone else in the clan, even if they share their food (not to mention, large litters would undoubtedly suffer the greatest during famine, outbreaks of disease, or prey shortages...that’s a lot of bellies to fill and illnesses spread quickly). so tbh i can see where the erins are coming from with the smaller litter sizes in the series, as we all know feral cats are notorious breeding machines

- i do have a few names picked out for kits and apprentices that didn’t live to be warriors, so here’s a few: mosskit would’ve been named mossheart (after her father, oakheart); swiftpaw would’ve been either swiftclaw, swiftstream, swiftwing, or swiftwind; ravenpaw would’ve been ravenflight or ravenswoop (i know he didn’t die but yknow, fun to speculate); sweetpaw would’ve been sweetberry or sweetsong; shrewpaw would’ve been shrewstep; wishkit and hopekit would’ve been wishlight and hopeshine; mistkit and nightkit would’ve been mistfur and nightstone; seedpaw would’ve been seedfern; molepaw would’ve been molenose; gorsepaw would’ve been gorsefire (named after firestar); willowkit and minnowkit (silverstream’s sisters) would’ve been named willoweyes and minnowclaw; snowkit would’ve been snowcloud; finchkit (tallstar’s sister) would’ve been finchfeather; marigoldkit and mintkit would’ve been marigoldleaf and mintfoot; lynxkit would’ve been lynxfang; adderkit would’ve been adderthroat; blossomkit would’ve been blossomsnow; and juniperkit and dandelionkit would’ve been junipertail and dandeliondust.

- darktail was a HUMONGOUS mama’s boy. he loved smoke with all his heart, would’ve done anything for her, and all he wanted in life was to make her proud of him. smoke was also a pretty good mother to him, feeling like she had to make up for her mistake of mating with a clan cat and fawning over darktail because he was the only survivor of the litter. i like to believe that smoke struggled with mental and emotional issues after being rejected by onewhisker/star, and would go off on furious tangents about how horrible clan cats were. darktail grew up watching smoke have these episodes, so he learned to hunt and fight and practiced really hard to she would be happy. needless to say, he was completely crushed when smoke died and mourned her heavily for a long time, and said grief undoubtedly contributed to him pushing so hard to abolish the clans.

- thornclaw and blossomfall were never actually in love, they only had kits together because blossomfall wanted some and thornclaw was getting older and wanted to contribute before he retired to the elders’ den

- brokenstar’s regime was a lot, and i mean a LOT crueler than what the readers were delivered:

she-cats were forced to get pregnant as often as possible, even if they weren’t interested. as soon as their bodies were able to bear more kits after the birth of one litter, brokenstar ensured that they would mate and be impregnated again asap. queens were often overwhelmed by having numerous kits to care for at a time, both older and younger, which led to much neglect the majority of the time. not that brokenstar cared, because to him, more kits meant more warriors. the stolen kits also added to the hoarding. infertile she-cats were often exiled for “not contributing to shadowclan’s destiny of greatness”.

speaking of stolen kits, i like to think that he ordered shadowclan to steal some windclan kits before driving them out of the forest. these kits didn’t fare very well, as they were smaller and skinnier and not as hardy as shadowclan kits, and many of them died save a few. it’s unknown if the stolen kits that did survive brokenstar’s reign ever returned to windclan or spent the rest of their lives in shadowclan since they spent so long there and would struggle to relearn living on the moor.

cats were forbidden from hunting for fresh-kill, as brokenstar believed that all physical and mental energy should be focused on fighting and fighting alone. in the place of prey, they often ate garbage and the carcasses of already-dead animals they found. needless to say, this left everyone prone to illness and nearly all of shadowclan was severely malnourished.

runningnose was forced to present false prophecies and omens to the clan because brokenstar and his main goons forced him to. they were all talk of how shadowclan would rule the forest, all the other clans would fear and serve them and see them as superior in every way. while only brokenstar and his team of muscleheads believed him (and some kits / younger apprentices who were too little to know any better), nearly everyone knew these signs were bullshit. 

fighting among clanmates was nearly constant. most of it was brutal battle practice, while other times it was over pitiful scraps of rotten food or disagreements over how the clan was running. usually cats that tried to leave or go for help were killed or “disappeared”.

- quince went searching for tiny / scourge after she saw that he had run away. she encountered the same two kittypets who warned him not to go into the woods, and explained that he hadn’t listened to them. quince then went into the forest and finally caught scent of her son’s blood and found his bell, and assumed that the clan cats she also smelled in the area had killed him.

- smudge honestly considered following rusty into the forest to join the clans with him despite being terrified of them, as he feared for his best friend’s safety and was heartbroken that he decided to leave. the only reason he didn’t is because he also was worried that his twolegs would miss him and that the clans wouldn’t accept him.

- heathertail and kestrelflight are sister and brother, being born to onestar and whitetail.

- before the whole fire fiasco, ashfur was very, VERY pissed to see that squirrelflight had supposedly gotten pregnant by brambleclaw. when jaykit, hollykit, and lionkit were born and suckled by ferncloud, he ending up straining his relationship with his sister by being very against it, using the whole “brambleclaw’s father killed our mother” thing as a reason why she shouldn’t be caring for them. ferncloud knew that her brother had taken squirrelflight’s rejection very poorly, but she never expected him to take it out on a litter of kits, so she cut ties with him. “those kits should’ve been mine anyway” and “they’ll turn out just like tigerstar” were things often muttered under ashfur’s breath. needless to say, he was less than thrilled to find out he would be mentoring lionpaw, and we all know how their relationship turned out after awhile.

- as stated in canon, daisy and spiderleg’s relationship was never based on the fact that they loved each other; they both felt pressured to supply kits for the clan (daisy because she was tired of some cats thinking she was just there to take up space and made assumptions about her loner roots, and spiderleg because he simply felt that it was his duty). they had a one-night stand, which resulted in toadstep and rosepetal.

- sleekwhisker was like, no doubt trying to force her way to darktail’s side as his main lackey (which she kinda was in canon) and possibly his mate. it was a “love for power” sort of situation rather than her genuinely wanting a life with him, while i don’t think darktail looked at her even as the “boss’s favorite floozy” kind of girl. sleek was more focused on that sweet sense of superiority and control, and darktail likely knew that, so always shot down her advances. they both were pretty much after the same thing, sleekwhisker only kept up a facade of a blushing she-cat wanting a big, strong leader for a mate while darktail was basically more concerned with what he already had going for him, not love or hooking up. 

- bone is barley, violet. hoot / snake, and jumper / ice’s father. though he never actually spoke up about having kits, his sons’ striking resemblance to him and violet’s resemblance to a she-cat bone had been talking to kinda wrapped the question of their parentage among the bloodclan population pretty quickly. their mother fell ill and died unexpectedly, and bone was certainly never active in their lives, so he never stepped up to finish raising them. he didn’t really even care he had children or that his mate died, it was just something that happened. 

- i like to think that berrynose and poppyfrost accidentally ended up falling in love in the midst of helping each other get through the grief of losing honeyfern

- lizardstripe actually ENCOURAGED her kits to bully brokenkit when she wasn’t abusing him herself. she wanted to make it clear to him that he would NEVER be accepted into their family fold, and excused her litter’s behavior as them “toughening him up” since he had to learn to stand up for himself “as he’s got no family outside raggedpelt, it seems”. she was just a shit mother in general, not caring much for her own kits already but she sure as HELL wasn’t going to look after one that wasn’t hers at all. brokenkit was a little burden and pest to lizardstripe, and she wanted to drive that message home as hard as she could, not once stopping to think about the consequences...