Foxshadow analyzes plot twists (Yes, very descriptive)
Not to start on a boring, unrelated note, but I often think that articles are best written like fun-sized candiesā¦short and sweet. But with this particular article, I may accidentally cut down more than one tree, considering its topicās popularity among the many, many, manyā¦..many books in the saga of the warrior cats. How many are there? Well over thirtyā¦.and considering that Iām too lazy to count all my books plus the manga books plus the Super Editions plus the guides plus the Novellas plus theā¦..wow Erin Hunter, you certainly have been busy since these books were first released ināwhat was it, 2003? Wow. Justā¦.Just a round of applause to you hard working authors.
But now, Iām betting youāre more invested in the topic of this article. Well, if you havenāt read the title thoroughly enough then youāre in luck, because Iām going to tell you now that this particular article is focused onā¦Illegal Cat Relationships! Thatās right, something weāve seen quite a lot of throughout the years from more simple budding romances like Dovewingās (or Ivypool, if youāre feeling argumentative) and Tigerheartās to the biggest of no-noās between Leafpool and Crowfeather to infinity and beyond. Boy have some of these kitties been naughty.
So, itās been the go-to plot twist for a while now, hasnāt it? Cat falls in loveā¦Love is against some sort of lawā¦Cat falls in love with other cat anyway and everything gets awful from there. Pretty original? Or has this become an overused clichĆ©? How differently do all these relationships seem to end (you know, since none of them last very long whether torn apart by death or flat-out hatredā¦ah yes and/or by war)
Since none of this is specifically focused on Inter-Clan relationships (Iām looking at you, Greystripe, Bluestar, Mapleshade, Dovewing, Ivypool andā¦..yeah Iām not going to try to list all of them), weāll be focusing on all the ābadsā these cats have done. Medicine cats with mates (Like Yellowfang. Thanks for keeping it simple, buddy.), fleeting romances between cats from different clans, turmoil caused over half-clan kits, and anything, really, regarding the concept of forbidden love. Letās start with the shortest analysisā¦Medicine cats? Hit it.
Okay so as long as weāre starting simple, letās talk about Yellowfang. Sheās a relatively good example. Always destined to be a medicine cat, the poor she-cat was already head over heels in love with the incredibly handsome ladiesā man Raggedpelt. If only she hadnāt been cursed to have her life ruined by her rational āteen girlā-esque emotions. But letās cut to the real emotional crisis.
The relationship between her and Raggedpelt was relatively understandable as she was not always a medicine cat and probably wasnāt so crazy about the whole rules thingā¦and it wasnāt all bad, right? Just some time together hanging outā¦.Being a medicine cat in love couldnāt be that bad, right? Rightā¦.? WRONG! Suddenly, sheās got kittens, struggles to hide it from her clan, and slowly the real world for her starts to feel like the dark forest, especially when she kits a young tom who she names- pretty prophetically and conveniently if I do say so myself- Brokenkit! Unbeknownst to her, to save her own skin and the kitās, she gives him up to possibly the worst foster mother ever and everything just kind of gets even worse somehow. What else did we expect, to be honest? When does anything good come from these kinds of relationships? Honestly, wouldnāt you expect these cats to realize that just because it happens to someone else does NOT lower their chances of the same exact thing happening to them?
Clearly, itās a matter of bad karma. You break the rule so the Rule (cough StarClan cough) breaks you. But letās see if we can find a more severe exampleā¦.Likeā¦an inter-clan relationship gone very wrongā¦letās see if I can find a good exampleā¦.there are just so many butā¦Aha! Heatherpaw and Lionpaw!! Perfect;
They seemed like a great couple, right? Two little youngsters in love, both ambitious apprentices with bright futures ahead of them as skilled warriors. One, an average she-cat destined to live a normal lifeā¦the other, a handsome tom from a prophecy who just happens to be invincible and the kin of the almighty Firestar. They seemed almost destined for each other when they began meeting in those tunnels. Now, kits were always out of the question, werenāt they? They were a little young forāas my History teacher would sayā shenanigans. And then StarClan clearly got a little annoyed and decided to give Lionpaw those visionsā¦.of him murdering her? Wait what? I meanā¦I get heās invincible and a really great fighter and sure heās been accepting training from Tigerstar the big bad butā¦why? This was something that kind of went over my head. I tried to catch it, I really did. But I didnāt quite understand the wholeā¦child murder thing they had going on. Yes, he sometimes gets really bad and claws stuff up but youād think heād be okay with hanging with Heatherpawā¦? No. Because this is the law. You canāt break it. Then, as we all know because of the many awfully carried out relationships before theirā¦everything slowly begins to fall apart and then suddenly they hate each other. Oh boy….
But maybe we should find something elseā¦something moreā¦extreme. Why not move on to someone evil?? Whatās that? Yeah, Mapleshade!!!
Here weāve got a pretty bad case of the āWarrior-Code-Donāt-Matterās. She drops everything after a horrible battle during which her āmateā kills two cats from her clanā¦including the leaderās son who everyone thinks is the father of her kits. They couldnāt have been more wrong.
In short, she has a RiverClan tomās kits, everyone freaks out, her kits die, sheās banished, and she becomes the most evil of evils. Pretty much?
Letās rewind a bit, shall we?
Sheās falling over her own paws at the mere thought of this RiverClan tomā¦Appleduskā¦Sure we donāt know how they met or why she loves him but hey these things donāt matter anymore! Letās skip to the juicy details!! She wants to teach her kits how to swim. Thatās good right? Survival skills are a necessity for kittens these daysā¦But of course, itās short-lived and clearly itās a bad thing for a mother cat to think ahead and make sure her babies are one step ahead of everyone elseā¦and since the clan cats are so experienced with this kind of betrayalā¦they skip over much of everything else and head straight to the accusationsā¦.and everything gets bad for poor Mapleshadeā¦
So yeahā¦Mapleshadeās story is as bad as it getsā¦isnāt it?
Noā¦.thereās still one last coupleā¦Iāve reached three pages of this document and Iām still going strongā¦
One coupleā¦.One couple alone broke twoā¦.or two and a HALF⦠laws of the Warrior Codeā¦.two infamous cats who destroyed the lives of their kitsā¦.their familiesā¦andā¦who didnāt seem to care much about that afterwards because nowadays, clan cats are very forgiving (sorry Mapleshadeā¦you and your mate were born into the wrong generationā¦and storyline.)
Okay so if you havenāt figured out who it is yet, here goes. Leafpool and Crowfeather!! Think about it, not only was she in a relationship with a cat from another clanā¦but she also had kits with him! And not to mention the fact that she was a medicine cat, too. Thatās three strikes, youāre out Leafpool.
The thing was, I never had any clue where their relationship came from. Crowfeather was in love with Feathertail, and she died in the mountains, leaving him alone and heartbrokenā¦and immediately afterā¦BAM!!! LEAFPOOL is now his sudden love interest. He says something along the lines of āIāve always loved youā or something, saves her lifeā¦and then there are kittens. Secret kittens, too. Because medicine cats normally get really fat then drop that weight while their āpregnantā sister gains NO WEIGHT and suddenly has kitsā¦I guess other cats donāt pay attention to that. āEh, itās a medicine catās job. Ooh look a mouse.ā
Of course, that too ended in tragedy, when they both promptly stopped loving each otherā¦
Not as creative or exciting as a warā¦.but still tragic in its own way. Sorry Leafpool, even though you topped the charts in this law breaking trend, you had the least exciting ending to your storyā¦
All in all, the life of a warrior is a very tragic one to say the least. And love is a complicated unfair game when it comes to these booksā¦and this was not so much a discussion as an analysis and comparison. But Iāll leave the rest up to you.
All these cats, all these relationships, one ending; whatās your angle on all this, Iām curious to hear about it!
Foxshadow, ur name is one of my characters in my fan fiction book Shadowdapple’s mistake!! šš