Tigerstar: Malicious or Misunderstood? by Iceflower

Iceflower explores Tigerstar’s characteristics

Hey all, it’s Icy with my third article. This is the first in an article series I’m writing, and I hope you enjoy them 🙂

So, we’re going to be taking a look at some villains. First up is Tigerstar. (Spoilers for Bluestar’s Prophecy and others, mostly the first and last arcs)

Now, I don’t like Tigerstar, but I find him interesting, as I do most villains. Looking at his kithood, he had a pretty good life. Sure, his father left, but that doesn’t mean he has to go all power-hungry.
He had a supportive Clan, a loving mother, and overall, I think he had a good kithood compared to others in the series.

Moving on! Now for his apprenticeship.
Tigerstar had Thistleclaw as a mentor. Great choice, Sunstar.
Some say that Thistleclaw was the cause for his ambition and cruelty, as I did once. But as I thought more about it, I put myself in his shoes. Or paws.

Just because Thistleclaw was ambitious and tough didn’t mean Tigerstar had to follow in his pawsteps. It was his choice to try to use trickery and strength to rise to power.
Maybe some of Thistleclaw’s training influenced his actions, but my opinion is that he always had a choice. But maybe training so hard knocked that reasoning out of his head 😛

Let us go forward!
Now, he was a good warrior. Kind of. He was far too ambitious for his own good. Ambition is good, but he could’ve toned it down a little. As I said before, he could’ve continued being ruthless and strict to gain respect, or he could have used his head and been a wise, calm leader.

As deputy, he acted as if he was leader already. I feel like he felt threatened by Fireheart, thus attempting to kill him more than once. Maybe he didn’t do it himself, but he certainly didn’t protect Fireheart. Fireheart might have reminded him of someone, say, Pinestar? He might’ve felt inclined to be better than him, to prove himself better than his father.

So when Bluestar began valuing Fireheart’s opinion as much as his, or even more, I think he finally snapped. He plotted with Brokenstar, bringing the rogues to distract the others while he killed Bluestar.

Nice move.

Fast-forward to when he was ShadowClan’s leader.
Personally, I think ShadowClan suited him rather well. After he took the position of leader, he was shown to be less cruel, in my opinion. But then he had to go all power-hungry again and try to rope BloodClan into doing his dirty work so he could rule all four Clans.

Well, we see how that worked.

So, evidently, being ShadowClan leader wasn’t enough. You think?
Even when he was dead he was plotting. He wanted to overthrow the Clans with all the other wrong-doers and rule the entire world! *cue evil laughter*

Okay, maybe he didn’t take it THAT far.

But he still wanted to cause chaos among the living and hopefully kill his nemesis. And he had an evil plan to do just that, as did the others. He wasn’t a very nice cat, was he?

So, overall, he didn’t try to make himself better. He just continued to trick cats and lie and cheat his way to power, eventually attempting murder. *creepy background music*

And that’s why, in my opinion, he’s on the malicious side.

I hope you all liked it, I’d love to hear your opinions and feedback is always appreciated! 🙂