#why ship shadowsight with rootspring or sunbeam

[rosethorn-zz]

so them background characters huh

[amethyst-halo]

If authors want us ship Sunbeam and Nightheart, why make Rootspring and Shadowsight better love interests?🤔

spite

[fallenrain40]

the warrior cats fandom has a massive issue with erasing characters who are so clearly aspec-coded, or show a LOT of semblance to aspec experiences… but the moment anyone tries to erase other characters with lgbtqia+ undertones (ravenpaw, barley, tallstar, jake, flipclaw, mothwing, rowanstar) all hell breaks loose. which is good! any character w/ lgbtqia+ undertones should not be erased.

but what about aspecs? mousefur, tall shadow, leopardstar, shadowsight, hollyleaf, needleclaw, juniperclaw, flametail, echosong… all of them get people saying ‘well that’s just a headcanon! they’re not *really* aspec!” or “you can not take a partner and be allo!” which. sure, okay… but where’s this attitude, then, for the other cats who are widely accepted by the fandom to be queer? where?

Yeah, though it's definitely not a warriors fandom exclusive problem... mousefur is basically confirmed aroace, and though I'd seen ace headcanons for her, they were very few. I actually think I've only seen like, 3 people say mousefur is aroace? which is just wild to me, why don't more people talk about this. And she gets shipped with longtail SO often still- another odd thing I see is a lot of people tend to only really pay attention to aroace headcanons if a cat says they don't want to have kits... despite the want to be a parent having nothing to do with being aroace???(or just ace. they seem insistent on erasing the aros even more.) yet if a cat is just not interested in relationships, welp that's just too bad apparently. they are gonna get shipped with someone. shadowsight is one of my favorite aroace cats. he has never showed ANY desire to have a mate and unlike other medicine cats, never seems to be bothered by the fact he will never be allowed to have a mate. yet people ship him SO MUCH, with rootspring, with sunbeam... I also kind of hate how everyone just accepts blackclaw was mistystar's mate... despite them literally never being shown in a romantic way. yes, she had his kittens, but how does that make him her mate?? what if she just wanted kits? it's really annoying how this fandom ties wanting to have a family automatically to wanting a romantic relationship... it's also quite annoying how the fandom just HAS to ship every medicine cat that doesn't show romantic interest in anyone. Kestrelflight? "obviously into jayfeather." Puddleshine? "Alderheart and him for sure are in love." Shadowsight? "Let's ship him with everyone we possibly can!" Mothwing? "She and Leafpool are together and if you say anything else you are homophobic-" Hollyleaf is an interesting case becuase I always saw her and Fallen Leaves as an alloace couple... but at the same time it does bug me that a lot of people jump to showing that line of her not wanting KITS to be a reason why she is aroace. (though she probably also mentioned not wanting a mate?? i dont remember) Leopardstar is another aroace I really like. I honestly hate her super edition for introducing a love interest for her. It's incredibly annoying. anyways i started rambling i think haha. I have more to say about cats that I see as aro or aroace, and how the fandom just kinda ignores them all. like Mistystar. but this is already too long.

[leafpool-loves-ashfur]

i already did this long ago (early TBC era i think?) and honestly idk who i got but Moonkitti posted a vid on this so i decided “why not”

here’s my supposed warrior cats favs from the Picker!

im sure if you asked me to list 42 of my favorite warrior cats characters i wouldnt pick half of the cats on this list bcus i forgot abt them or smth.... actually im gonna try that- 42 from memory w/o looking at the list above lmao:

Frostfur, Ashfur, Scourge, Thistleclaw, Bristlefrost, Frostpaw, Shadowsight, Rootspring, ghost!Bramblestar, Lightleap.... getting hard to think.... Spottedleaf? Willowpelt, Darkstripe, Swiftbreeze- Monkeystar (accidentally looked up lmao)- Sleekwhisker, Flipclaw (+Feather), Hollyleaf ig, Jayfeather too... uhh.... Duskfur, Berryheart, Curlfeather maybe... Ravenpaw sure, Brackenfur... Shellfur in Spotfur’s Rebellion, and I guess Stemleaf, Harestar, Tigerheartstar, Leafstar... background cats i just like for no reason: Willowclaw, Leafshade, Wrenflight (TBC), oh i do like Tree a bit, Turtlecrawl (+Kitescratch), Cloverfoot... five more so just- Hawkwing, Violetshine, Twigbranch, Finleap, aaaand Ivypool.

There! Not too different I suppose, mostly I was just grasping at straws lol. Every warrior cats character ever are all kind of just “I like them generally” to me, I don’t really have favorites. ‘Cept for the top row, and even then, I just mildly like them more.

Okay so! Explaining favorites below.

The red hearts mean I FOR SURE like them, and would 100% list them as favorites. The pink hearts mean I like a fanon/AU version of them more, but I still enjoy canon them generally. The yellow stars mean I would list them as my favorite leaders moreso than favorite characters, but I still like them as characters too. Also, Spotfur should be higher than Stemleaf- I’m not sure why the picker was so very eager to force him so high up for me XD I like him more as an extension of Spotfur and Bristlefrost’s stories than I do on his own. Turtlecrawl and Kitescratch are basically the same bully, but I do like Turtle a teensy bit more for no reason except that I hoped she’d redeem herself and be Root’s heteronormative love interest under the assumption that Bristlefrost was just a fleeting crush. And Snow the Sister!!! She straight up vanished from my selection, even tho I would have put her higher than Moonlight?? Maybe. Beetlewhisker should’ve also had a pink heart, as I have a hc ship of him and Redwillow for no reason lol. Similarly, Flipclaw and Feather are a duo for me, BUT, I do like Flipclaw more than Feather, since Flipclaw has more explored story and personality. Feather should be bottom row honestly. Whistlepaw too as she is also mostly only on there bcus I ship her and Frostpaw. Sunbeam also bottom row bcus i like her for the drama created around her only

here’s a reorganized version to fit the above better:

hmmm... it seems like I really like bad/complicated/bad-fate-befallen mothers lol. BT!Frostfur, Fanon!Willowpelt, Duskfur, Curlfeather, Berryheart, Millie, Dawnpelt, Blossomfall, and even Moonlight.

im not gonna bother explaining what/why i like each of these characters tho, but if any of you are like “WHAT?! HOW COULD YOU LIKE THISTLECLAW HE’S A PEDOPHILE??? HOW COULD YOU LIKE MILLIE BETTER THAN SILVERSTREAM??? SHE’S A HORRIBLE TERRIBLE ABLEIST MOTHER!” im gonna stab you with a fork

[goosefeather]

finished river last night and it was really really good!!!! did nothing happen until the very end?? yeah but it focused on what i really like about warriors: interpersonal drama!! like good shit!! so im gonna ramble a bit more (mostly about the protags) under the cut. spoilers of course

ok so i wanna take about flamepaw- or Nightheart- cuz like im love him. im gonna be real i didnt really care all that much about bristlefrost or rootspring.... and i like shadowsight Enough for him to be my favorite but idk im weak to angsty little guys. like angry rootspring walked so angsty nightheart could run. 

speaking of things done better in this book: the clans relation to the warrior code and how they feel about it??? like when ashfur started punishing code breakers everyone was like “seems excessive but w/e” but here we see cats both question the code And wanting to preserve it. and i think it was really interesting how nightheart fit into that dichotomy because he was always questioning Why things were the way they are. not just cuz he failed his assessment twice (my poor dude) but even questioned Thunderclan Supremacy. it was good! it was interesting and gave him Way more dimension than any other typical thunderclan protag whose like “I will Die for my Clan and Never Think About it”

which speaking of dying for your clan, sunbeam is cool! i dont think the erins did a real good job of establishing her as like a stickler for the rules as much as they think they did. i dont think being worried about lightleap and confiding in shadowsight about it makes her a narc in the same vein of what bristlefrost was doing in the broken code lol. 

what i did like was the drama tho. obsessed with how blazefire broke up with her and was like “oh uh no i dont like lightleap” cuz i dont believe that but who knows! also i dont really ship nightheart and sunbeam (or y’know as much as i can get into shipping with this series) and also they already did that plotline last arc.

speaking of, while i actually really like the different clan perspectives i dont like how the relationship between the protags is pretty much nonexistent Unless two of them are in love with each other. like at no point did shadowsight, bristlefrost, or rootspring feel like a Group of Friends but people brought together by a common goal (taking down ashfur) or a half-assed romance. but on that same thought about the protags feeling disconnected from one another

frostpaw is cute! i like her a lot! unlike nightheart with his inner turmoil or sunbeam with her drama she actually has Stakes and shit going on. which isnt a bad thing! Riverclan is Going through an Actual Plot line and im happy we have her perspective. im vaguely worried that the signs are pointing towards Her as leader and im like “noooo shes just a kid!!!” but also could be interesting who knows. sorry wish i had more to say but i wont know how i feel about it till i see it all play out lol

but yeah!! i liked it a lot! felt very grounded considering how boring (avos) or off the rails (tbc) felt and im excited to read more!! also anyone else thinking bramblestar is gonna step down as leader? i mean they said deputies couldnt propose disposing of a leader but they never said anything about the leader themself y’know