[Ashfur sitting down with a forlorn expression]

My Top 5 Antagonists in Warrior Cats by Ivymask

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Ivymask discusses some “evil” cats and their personalities in today’s article

Hello, my name is Ivymask! I’m new to BlogClan, but I wanted to start contributing as soon as possible. So, I thought, what better way to introduce my existence on here than to share my opinion? This will be a list of my favorite antagonists in the books. Maybe you don’t see these cats as antagonists, and you can tell me how YOU feel about them in the comment section. I’d really like to hear from you. Now, a heads up, my opinions on some characters are pretty unpopular, for a lack of better words, but I still hope you can respect that! Now, they won’t be in order for how much I like them, because I can’t decide who I love more and who I love a bit less, so keep that in mind! Without further ado, here is MY Top 5 Antagonists in Warrior Cats.
[WARNING] From this point on there will be spoilers! You’ve been warned!

CLEAR SKY
He is most likely the most hated character from Dawn of the Clans (which, by the way, is my favorite arc). I can understand why, though. He made some pretty dumb decisions and his actions were often thoughtless and pretty mean. But, oddly enough, as I began reading Thunder Rising, I loved him. He quickly became my favorite point of view to read from. His character was very relatable to me. Clear Sky is not by any stretch an evil cat. Here, look at the definition for antagonist:
a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.
Just because someone is considered an antagonist, does not mean they are evil! Clear Sky has been shown many times that he does indeed care about his Clan, and his family. He risked dying when One Eye was a threat, and he knew that there was a high chance he might die, but that didn’t stop him. Who went out to save Jagged Peak’s kits when they went missing? Clear Sky. Who saved Black Ear, and went looking for Gray Wing’s kits when Slash and his cats took them away? Clear Sky! Yes, I know he sent Jagged Peak away. Yes, I know he didn’t want to have anything to do with Thunder. But Clear Sky isn’t supposed to make all the right choices. No cat is, and no cat can. These characters are not supposed to be perfect and they are not supposed to do everything right. He’s not heartless, and he’s not cruel. I like to believe Clear Sky has trouble understanding others, and ever since Bright Stream’s death, he’s had trouble communicating and connecting with other cats. He really did want to make amends with Thunder, and he obviously regretted sending him away, but it feels like he wasn’t all that certain how he could fix things. He’s made mistakes, but he’s done a lot of good things too.
Let’s just ignore the fact that Moth Flight’s Vision flat out ignores any character development he went through. Because, wow, that irritated me so much.

BREEZEPELT
I’m going to give you a heads up, I am not completely familiar with Power of Three. I haven’t read it in years.
The son of Crowfeather and Nightcloud. Neglected and uncared for by his father, and fueled by his mother’s negative emotions, his anger festered as he grew. Breezepaw wanted to impress his father. But nothing he did seemed to cut it. Crowfeather didn’t have much interest in his son, or his mate for that matter, but we’ll get into that later. He turned to the Dark Forest and they gave him the attention he desired. Being ignored by someone you want to look up to sucks. Being ignored by your own father sucks. Breezepelt is not evil. They way he was raised was unhealthy and it had a negative impact on him as he grow older, and the Dark Forest wasn’t much help on the matter either. I know he attacked a medicine cat and a pregnant queen. That was bad. I’m not going to justify that, because it shouldn’t be justified. That isn’t an “oops, he did a bad thing” kind of thing, like when he sent Jagged Peak away or disowned Thunder. Clear Sky knew they both had places they could go to. But this isn’t about Clear Sky. I don’t have a whole lot else to say about Breezepelt, aside from the fact that I can sort of understand his anger and resentment towards Jayfeather, Hollyleaf and Lionblaze.

GOOSEFEATHER
I don’t exactly consider him an antagonist, but he’s worth talking about on this list. Almost everyone remembers him as the crazy, senile ThunderClan medicine cat from when Bluestar was a wee lil thing. He’s the cat who misinterpreted an omen and it resulted in the death of Moonflower. I, personally, only read Bluestar’s Prophecy after Goosefeather’s Curse, so I already loved him. He seemed absolutely crazy and his behavior was pretty odd in Bluestar’s Prophecy, like how he felt about Tigerkit. You can’t exactly blame him for being so off his rocker though. Goosepaw experienced every single prophecy that we’d seen so far at once, and he was cursed with the knowledge of the future, and the sight of deceased warriors. He had to live, knowing of what cats were destined to do. He couldn’t say anything about Pinestar eventually leaving his Clan to become a kittypet. No cat really acknowledged him when he spoke about how Tigerkit should not have survived- though, it’s hard to blame them. He was a very interesting cat to read about, especially in Goosefeather’s Curse. He might be one of my top 20 favorite cats.

MAPLESHADE
First of all, she’s the only female antagonist in the books- unless you consider Star Flower one, but I don’t- and she’s a pretty gosh darn cool one too. I’m not completely sure why, but I love her everlasting determination to bring down ThunderClan. She is a soul burning with resentment and it’s been years and she still hasn’t given up. She’s come close so many times, but sadly, she won’t ever get to see them crumble because ThunderClan is our starchild Clan. I’m here to talk about who she was before she died from the wounds Perchpaw gave her. I loved Mapleshade, and her cunning nature. She was a respectable cat, ignoring the fact that she broke the warrior code by becoming mates with Appledusk. Now, Mapleshade isn’t the best of cats. But I’ve always loved characters with flaws like her. I’m not going to lie to you guys. Mapleshade’s Vengeance made me cry a couple times. Her determination to avenge her kits, and her grief, broke my heart. She made for a pretty great villain too. That’s really all I can say about her, since there isn’t a whole arc with her point of view like Clear Sky had.

ASHFUR
Okay, I am trash for Ashfur, I’m going to lay that out there right now. I love the Ashfur from before all the drama with him in Power of Three (which I find was poorly written on his part). He was a caring friend, and a great shoulder to lead on when Squirrelflight needed it. He was a determined and loyal cat to his Clan, and hunted, patrolled and fought just like any other respectable warrior. I’m not going to defend his actions when he tried killing Firestar, or Squirrelflight’s kits, or how he and Lionpaw fought in that one scene. That is not the Ashfur that I love. The Ashfur I love is the loyal, compassionate cat who did his job well. The apprentice who was enthusiastic about avenging his mother and protecting his Clan. That is the Ashfur I love. What he’s done prior to his death was not okay, and I am not going to call Ashfur an angel or perfect because he is far from it.

So, that was my Top 5 Antagonists in Warrior Cats! This is all purely my opinions and headcanons on these characters, and I’d really like to know how YOU feel about them! Who are YOUR favorite antagonists? Do you agree with me? Tell me in the comments!

May StarClan light your path!

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59 comments

Leave a Reply to Rainpaw Cancel reply

  • Well here’s my opinion.

    Clear Sky: I hate him but he is an interesting antagonist. I hated him in all the books especially Moth Flight’s Vision and Thunder Rising. I hated him in Moth Flight’s Vision because he was the reason why Micah got killed. He didn’t want WindClan cats on their territorty when they were sick and hurt. Oh that sounds like what Onestar did in Thunder and Shadow. (I hate Onestar too btw) and I HATE him in Thunder Rising because he wanted to get rid of Thunder and then keep him and then he let Thunder run away again and didn’t even care! And also he killed Bumble, who was innocent (or was that in The First Batttle? I forget :P)

    Breezepelt: I LOVE Breezepelt. Like Clear Sky, he was an interesting antagonist. He only wanted to please his father who didn’t care about him AT ALL! And then he went to the dark side and tried to kill Lionblaze during the Dark Forest battle. And Crowfeather the idiot protects Lionblaze even though Lionblaze has the power of not getting hurt unless he wants to. After the Dark Forest battle, Breezepelt settles down and has kits with Heathertail and he is only a bit of a nuisance, which I love.

    Goosefeather: I don’t see Goosefeather as an antagonist. I see him as an insane medicine cat who scared two RiverClan kits off of ThunderClan land, where they shouldn’t have been. Okay, he didn’t save Stormkit but he couldn’t because he can’t swim. And also during Bluestar’s Prophecy I see him as a creepy guy who interpreted an omen wrong, which killed his sister, driving him to be more insane.

    Mapleshade: I can only say I like her. I don’t know why but she is awesome.

    Ashfur: I HATE Ashfur! That’s all I can say.

    • Breezepelt did more than just attack Lionblaze – he tried to kill a pregnant queen and her innocent kits just to frame Jayfeather to punish him for existing. That marks him as more than just a nuisance, I think. 😛

      As for Goosefeather, he attacked two very young kits and tried to hurt them, when he could have just escorted them back to RiverClan and gotten them in trouble, not attack them like they’re grown warriors. It’s his fault that Stormkit broke his jaw in the water. Plus, his omen got Moonflower killed and he never apologized for it or acknowledged his mistake, he nearly let an innocent queen and kits die just because of what Tigerkit might do, he never actually tried to change Tigerkit’s future by influencing him to be good, rather just letting sitting back and letting his mother be in horrible agony while giving birth to him without lifting a claw to help and even acknowledging he might let her die so Tigerkit isn’t born, he has the power to tell Sunstar about Thistleclaw being evil from a sign from StarClan and how he shouldn’t appoint him as deputy, but instead only tells Bluefur and forces her to do all the work of making sure Thistleclaw becomes deputy without so much as lifting a whisker himself, resulting in Bluefur giving up her kits and Mosskit dying… yeah, I really hate this cat. XD

      • *deep breath* Goosefeather made very bad decisions and had many, many, many flaws, even I will admit that. But he spent his whole life knowing every single prophecy that has or will happen to the Clans and not being able to change anything or help in any way. He had a vision of his Clanmates dying and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t change it. He had to live with the knowledge that their leader was going to leave them and he couldn’t do anything to change it, or even say anything about it, because his Clanmates would think he was insane. That probably wasn’t the only thing he knew, and all that knowledge and ridicule weighed down on him until he just snapped. Which again he could have handled it a lot better but it’s been confirmed he had a brain infection so it’s not like he was in a good state of mind. On another note, I believe one reason he didn’t seem sad or apologetic when Moonflower was killed was because he saw it happening, maybe not how or when but he saw her, and every other Clanmate of his, dying and realized he could do nothing to change any of it. So his diseased thoughts somehow reasoned that none of it was his fault and it would happen anyway so why feel any emotion? He was so used to not being able to change anything, he stopped trying, when maybe he would have been able to. This applies to a lot of the things he did, and again, I’m not condoning his actions. I’m just trying to prove that he wasn’t just evil. *gasps for air*

        • “Not being able to change anything about the prophecies” says who? When Swiftpaw was lost and the StarClan cats told him where she was, he was able to save her by telling his Clanmates where to find her. When Squirrelwhisker’s patrol is being attacked, and his vision warns him about that, he has them saved by telling his Clanmates where to find them. We’ve seen him use his visions to help his Clanmates successfully in the past. And yet, the very first time that he incorrectly guesses how to use his vision to help his Clanmates, and he immediately gives up on the idea of ever trying to help them again and just decides to sit back on his tail and watch them suffer? That’s horrible and lazy and cruel.

          Again, why couldn’t he do anything to change how Moonflower died? He’s the one that sent them on that totally unnecessary battle to begin with, and that’s the only reason Moonflower died! All he had to do to change the future there was not send them to attack WindClan for absolutely no reason.

          • Pearnose told him he could not be responsible for every one of his Clanmate’s destinies. I believe that he somehow twisted that into “let them deal with it.” Or maybe he was tired of feeling responsible for everyone. Again, I don’t believe that him giving up was a good choice but I understand why he thought it was his only option.

            I’m not saying he couldn’t do anything to change it. Again, he probably saw his all of his Clanmates dying and told himself that it would happen anyway. So he thought, “Why bother?” As I said before I don’t agree with his actions. And as for the WindClan thing, I have a theory that the sign he received was for another point in time and he thought it was for right then. But alas, it’s just a theory.

            • Well, I don’t. He was selfish to sit back and do nothing while his Clanmates were suffering. Especially in the case of Leopardfoot. He’s a medicine cat, it’s his /job/ to heal cats, and yet he was going to let her die just because of something her son /might/ do one day. Not to mentioning attacking young kits. Just because one StarClan cat said it doesn’t mean it was true, and I find it especially wrong that it only took Goosefeather failing once for him to give up every helping his Clanmates again.

              • We don’t know what happened in between Goosefeather’s Curse and Bluestar’s Prophecy. After the leaf-bare, he doesn’t seem like a cat who had given up. He cheers for Moonflower and after he sees that Cloudberry will die, he thinks about what herbs he needs to restock and makes a list of cats that he needs to give herbs. So he did not give up right after the leaf-bare. There may have been something that happened in between the two books that he tried to change but we just don’t see what happened. I mean Daisytoe and Rooktail die sometime in between the books and something happens to get Mumblefoot to dislike him so we don’t know what he went through. Maybe he tried to change things but couldn’t.

                • He clearly stated that he had given up. “He would always know the worst that would happen, and be powerless to change it.” “‘There is no such thing as bad luck,’ he told her. ‘Only destiny. I knew this was coming. But everything I did just made it worse.'” “He was, as always, cursed to keep his knowledge a secret. He had seen the future. And there was nothing he could do to change it.”

                  Which, two points. First, going back and just reading a short big of GC again, Pearnose really annoys me. Stop telling Goosefeather that it’s not his job to change the future. He already did it twice, and we see him do it in both BP and CP. He changes the future by sending ThunderClan into battle against WindClan, he changes it by telling Bluefur to give up her kits, and he changes it by chasing Stormkit into the river. So why not tell him to use his visions to actually change the future for the better?

                  And second, how is what he did with burrying the prey “making everything worse?” I mean, yeah, it failed because the prey went rotten, but wouldn’t it have done that eventually whether it was buried or not? The way I see it, he didn’t make things better, but he didn’t make them any worse than they would have been if the Clan had just gone along business as usual. And yes, horrible weather is one thing he can’t change, as well as the decisions that full-grown cats make (aka Pinestar eventually becoming a kittypet some day). But there’s plenty that he /can/ change and just selfishly chooses not to. He could have tried to influence Tigerstar from when he was a small kit (definitely not saying it would have worked, but it’s better than doing nothing or trying to kill an innocent queen and kits), he could have told Sunstar to pick a different deputy, he could have done plenty of things to try and make the future better for his Clan that didn’t involve pressuring Bluefur into giving up her kits. But he didn’t. And chasing Stormkit into the river was completely unnecessary and cruel.

                • I think he thought he made it worse because the Clan had put in a lot of time and effort into burying the prey and it was ruined. And I don’t think that he had given up all together, I meant he hadn’t given up on healing his Clanmates. Yes, he probably gave up on trying to change the future after the leaf-bare.

                  And you are very right, he could have done a lot more to at least try and change the future for the better. But he didn’t. Either because he thought it wouldn’t matter or he didn’t care. Either way it wasn’t a good reason. I’ll agree wholeheartedly on that.

                  • Hmm, that does make sense. I still don’t think he made it /that/ much worse than if they’d just stored it normally, but that’s a good point.

      • Not to mention he’s the creepy uncle who watched Bluestar and Oakheart during their night at the gathering place…

  • I haven’t read Dawn of the Clans, but good job explaining Clear Sky. I like how you never justified what the characters did, but at the same time made them more relatable. Amazing job!

  • Good article! I feel like all these cats have at least been justified a little

    Still hate Goosefeather though

    *prepares for incoming Russetfeathers*

  • I agree with most of of these, especially Clear Sky. He seemed torn from the deaths of Bright Stream and Storm, and had a great character development during the Dawn of the Clans series.

  • Clear Sky, Breezepelt are both very bad characters, that’s what I believe.

    But Mapleshade and Ashfur are good characters, Mapleshade’s backstory is good, and Ashfur’s tragedy made me look at Squirrelflight in a different way.

    Clear Sky is greedy and selfish and Breezepelt is bratty. 😀

    Also welcome to BlogClan, I’m new too.

  • Awesome article Ivymask! I found Clear Sky slightly interesting, Breezepelt, well, he’s not one of my favorite cats, Goosefeather I don’t actually know much about (as I haven’t read Bluestar’s Prophecy or Goosefeather’s Curse though I’m dying to) but I have a feeling I’m gonna like him from what I already know. Not sure about Mapleshade, but I’m not really sure that I like her either, but I LOVE her name 😍! I wonder who thought of it? Then Ashfur I kinda neutraly like.

    • I feel so bad for Breezepelt. I also just noticed Crowfeather ruined everything. There was one part when Breezepaw and Lionpaw fell into the old badger den and Jaypaw came to rescue them with Crowfeather. Nightcloud also came and carried her son, Breezepaw to the medicine cat den. When Leafpool came out and took Lionpaw and Breezepaw inside, Nightcloud laid down beside them both and wrapped her tail around them. This was probably the most adorable moment in the book. But then Crowfeather comes trotting in and makes a flirtatious comment to Leafpool. And Nightcloud is all like, “I think its time to go.” And leaves with her son! STUPID STUPID CROWFEATHER HAD TO RUIN IT ALL!!!!! But yeah, I think Lionpaw and Breezepaw would have been besties if CROWFEATHER hadn’t neglect his son!!!

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