Misunderstood Cats; by Emberheart

Emberheart takes to the plinth of knowledge and debate to defend some of Warriors’ most hated characters.

Okay, so, although there may be some legitimately evil cats, there’s actually quite a few that the fandom believes are evil as well. But really, they aren’t. At least in my opinion. I’m Emberheart, and let’s talk about this.

First off, let’s start with the infamous Hollyleaf. While she did kill Ashfur, and does technically make her a murderer, it does not make her evil. In most fanart, she is depicted to be standing over poor, innocent Ashfur, a delighted, twisted grin on her face.

But it didn’t happen like this! Hollyleaf only meant to give Ashfur a warning, give him a good scar to show him she meant business.

Nobody knows what really went on that day. It could have been an accident, the slip of a paw. She might have gotten carried away. All we know is that as his blood seeped into the river and his eyes shut, Hollyleaf was completely horrified.

Alright, second cat. Rainflower! You may know her as that terrible role model, the mother who abandoned her kit as soon as he bumped his jaw a bit. So terrible that she shunned him in front of his own brother, huh? What she did was not right, I may agree. But the reasoning behind this may not be what everyone else thinks it is.

While everyone believes Rainflower left Stormkit/Crookedkit that day because she thought he looked ugly, even supported by her yowling, “His face! His handsome face!”, Or even that she maybe left him because he was useless in her opinion, this is not what I believe.

This may not be entirely true, but I have my reasons to believe so. But I think that she left him because she was scared. No, not scared of him, but scared of herself. Based on her actions and refusing to meet his gaze, walking away when he came near, I think she believed it was her fault. Poor thing, She probably blamed the entire incident on herself.

If you wounded your own child for life as an accident, wouldn’t it hurt to look at them? To know you caused them that pain? Rainflower probably hated herself for doing that to her dear, favorite son, so she found shelter in her supporting, unharmed kit. Crookedkit most likely took this the wrong way, thinking she disliked him.

Last one now, Mapleshade. Okay, Okay. She’s killed lots of cats. Probably more than I can count. While she may be actually evil, the reasoning behind her being evil is more than just, “Oh, she wanted to taste blood and liked it,” or something like that.

At first, she was a sweet, loving fluffy kitty who loved her “Precious Warrior,” and would die for him. She loved her kits, She loved her Clan. She believed she had done nothing wrong, and life would be perfect, and was sorely mistaken. After her exile, she realized she could finally live with her Precious Warrior, but then.. Her kits drowned. She was rejected by her own boyfriend in front of the girl he’d been cheating on, and it was okay with his leader, while she’d been exiled! If it were me, I’d think it was unfair too. Of course, she blamed it on Appledusk, after all, he had caused her to raise these forbidden lives.

Nobody knows why she saw her kits telling her to kill those three cats. Perhaps they really wanted revenge and she listened? Maybe she convinced herself they were there, persuading her to murder for them? Or maybe she only hallucinated and she slowly went insane with all the grief and loss in her short life.

None of my points are canon, (except for Hollyleaf’s, possibly,) and probably never will be. Perhaps I’m wrong and these cats really are really merciless, heartless killers? I doubt it though. I’m gonna leave this open to speculation in comments, so feel free to contradict, agree too, or continue upon my points.

Emberheart out!