#thistleclaw tw

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I'm assuming you're not on Twitter (lucky) but there's a lot of Thistleclaw discourse going on rn and I need to return to tumblr to feel sane

I am unfortunately on Twitter a little bit nowadays lol. But I am glad to say I have missed this particular discourse and hope to continue so.

[grossrottie]

Considering Thistleclaws...everything, I think Thistleclaw x Tigerpaw/claw is a very possible outcome 👀 but I wanna hear your thoughts on it (if you want to).

Anon you are so right and the potential terrifies me /lh (well, it scares me for Tigerclaw’s sake, I personally live for angst)

OKAY SO

My first thought was “Oh my god, I’d love to see Tigerclaw’s partner help him learn that his childhood sucked and what proper love looks like, and help him unlearn the things he learnt as a kit.”

And my immediate next thought was “What if another villain noticed and exploited/joined in with Tigerclaw’s toxic mania, two girl bosses with trauma and inky-black morals who feed off of each other’s twisted view of the world.”

And nOW I’m thinking about Tigerclaw and Ravenpaw’s relationship ajdbdjsjdhej

In comparison to Thistleclaw, Tigerclaw’s mentoring was a little bit softer. Still, compared with any other cat, he was quick tempered and aggressive and intimidating. (In Tigerclaw’s mine, he truly thinks he’s going easy and being kind to his apprentice. And when Tigerclaw shows that rare bit of affection or encouragement, it might come across wrong because he’s copying what Thistleclaw did to encourage him, and that’s not how normal cats show affection.

[kurouzus]

brings me immense joy seeing the art styles of freaks in the wc fandom get uglier over time

[matoitech]

that post that’s like if u ask someone who their favorite warrior cat character is and they say ashfur get out of there but an addition that says ‘ashfur OR thistleclaw’

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

I saw someone point out how people try to defend Thistleclaw by saying he was just "overly ambitious", and meanwhile Leafpool is demonized and hated on for making mistakes. Which is completely right, but then someone replied, "How about acknowledging that they're both horrible?" and just how. Do you compare Leafpool. To THISTLECLAW.

even putting the Thing aside, he literally was about to kill a KITTEN for being on thundrclan territory (well, letting his apprentice kill the kitten)

he said he wanted to mark their borders with the blood of their enemies

has leafpool made mistakes? fucking duh, and so does EVERYONE but she has literally never done anything MALICIOUS that girl does not have a single bad bone in her body

the two character are LITERALLY incomparable

some people need to get what i call

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

[prettyliteralwarriors]

For context as to why I cleaned up his sprite: I don't stan Thistleclaw at all but by god did he look like a drowned rat in his original

[treethemediator]

It’s almost 5:30 am and I’m thinking about Thistleclaw for some reason.

Disregarding Spottedleaf’s Heart, Thistleclaw is honestly a disappointing character to say the least. After reading the first series and seeing what Tigerstar did, I was really excited to see what made him into the monster he was— and according to canon, Thistleclaw was one of those reasons. Though coming before Tigerstar, I get one note from both characters: Ambitious, questionable morality, may or may not truly care for his family, and just... plain evil. In my opinion, I think Thistleclaw would be more interesting if he was just straight up ruthless with no regard for anything at all. I wanted see him do shit that even Tigerstar was scared of and wouldn’t dare try himself. The authors could have gone absolutely apeshit with Thistleclaw, he could have been the best villain in the books— but they really just ended up giving us Tigerstar: The Prequel.

[windsclan]

this art’s a lil old but i’m really happy w/ thistle and white’s designs so

broken family

[movedtojjadestar]

Finally figured out why bluestar would ever give up her kits in the royalty au lol

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Thistleclaw’s idea of what constituted strength vs. weakness is a glaring example that although he loved Snowfur, he didn’t know her. Not truly. To call Snowfur weak is a glaring example of this. Between her and Bluefur, it was Snowfur who’d be the first to run into battle. She was headstrong. Her attitude towards other Clans was much more intolerant than her sister’s. It showed in the absolute disgust she portrayed when Bluefur hinted that she liked Oakheart. The two weren’t even mates yet (if I remember correctly?). The mere thought of her sister mooning over an enemy warrior was enough to set Snowfur off. As an apprentice, she helped Bluepaw fight off Crookedpaw, and she rushed to drive off ShadowClan warriors as a brand-new mother still nursing her son. Even when the warriors were back in their own territory, she kept chasing after them. She was so focused on attacking them that she didn’t notice the Ford F-150 hurtling towards her. Even when Bluefur screamed out to her, she kept chasing. Thistleclaw should have known that her drive to protect ThunderClan was just as fierce as his. There’s a reason the two were drawn to each other in the first place. But the key difference between them was, when Snowfur fought, every blow she landed on her enemies was driven by loyalty and love for ThunderClan, not bloodlust as Thistleclaw’s was (although this could be argued against in the moments leading up to her death). The gentle nursery queen that much of the fandom portrays Snowfur as simply didn’t exist. She was truly a warrior at heart. She was strong, but because she didn’t share his lust to kill, he saw her strength as weakness.

This is a fantastic analysis

The heavy softening of Snowfur’s character in the fandom’s eyes is really quite remarkable because of how widespread that view of her has become despite her being so feisty in BP

[everybody-loves-purdy]

One of the weirdest things Thistleclaw fans say is "how about you judge him without talking about Spottedleaf's heart?!" And it's like OK. He had 2 notable personality traits and beat up a pregnant woman. And called his dead wife and baby son "weak".

You forgot the part where he gleefully encourages his apprentice to maul a lost kitten

Oh and the part where he starts foaming at the mouth when he’s raving about how he thinks the borders should be marked with literal blood

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Gonna be honest, I'm surprised it took until SpH for people to turn on Thistleclaw.

Thistleclaw.

The cat who canonically already had a messed up moral compass and who everyone even agrees contributed to Tigerstar's bloodlust (or at the very least, he most certainly didn't help).

That Thistleclaw.

Don't get me wrong, what he tried to do to Spottedpaw was absolutely horrible, but I also feel like if she'd been a tom like Tigerstar was (or even vice versa) or if it at least weren't for the... "romantic" aspect of it all, the reaction to the novella wouldn't have been as big as it had been, because we as a society unfortunately have yet to take male victims seriously and grooming isn't always necessarily rooted in attraction.

I agree

The reason Spottedleaf’s heart even exists is because of Thistleclaw defenders. The book was created to give Thistleclaw an absolutely solid as a rock excuse to be in the dark forest that not even his fans could refute. Unfortunately the message of the book was extremely botched and Thistleclaw defenders just called it non canon anyway in order to preserve the version of Thistleclaw they made up in their head.

(If you ignore Spottedleaf’s Heart for any other reason then I have no problem with that, it’s just instances where people ignore it just because they want to continue defending Thistleclaw)

At least nowadays Thistleclaw defending is a lot rarer and it is generally agreed upon that yes he was shitty before Spottedleaf’s Heart, he does belong in the dark forest even without that book.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Speaking of Whitestorm being a father to all that was really cowardly of the Erin's to not make Graystripe his son when he came out built like Thistleclaw

Also if Darkstripe was his son too, then Thistleclaw could have had a pathetic evil grandson that (based on all dark forest interactions) he hates lol

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I feel like Fanon Snowfur comes partially from the books as well. I mean, her very first appearance in the series at all was volunteering to take care of Mosskit, Thistleclaw accused her of being soft in CP, and her son is Whitestorm, one of the most noble cats in the series. Compared to Thistleclaw, she also wasn't as prominent, never mind that the whole "Polar Opposite Siblings" thing is a pretty popular trope. That said, I do wish Canon Snowfur were acknowledged more. I feel like the books could've done more with her too.

Very true, although Thistleclaw calling her “soft” could also be a testament to how brutal he is if he perceives her that way. Also I find it kind of funny he’s unironically criticising a toddler for being“soft”

[everybody-loves-purdy]

au where starclan tells pinestar to kill thistleclaw instead of tigerkit

The good ending

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Do thistleclaw fans completely forget this guy was like “hey tigerpaw, go kill that baby ☝️” /hj 😭 bro created an entire other half of the plot just like that

The clans would have just had so many fewer problems if that guy wasn’t made Tigerpaw’s mentor