Does Thistclaw deserve The Dark Forest? by Silverpaw

Silverpaw shares their opinion of Thistleclaw pre-Spottedleaf’s Heart.

Yes.

Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes. Sorry to those who are willing to defend pre-death Thistleclaw, but please, listen to my points. And no, I’m not going to point out how to more or less brought Scourge into evil-ness or something (at least, not to prove Thistleclaw is evil-ness). Actually, I’m first going to point out why people condemn him and why this is more or less not enough to haul his tail into the Dark Forest.

One, the whole Bluestar-Thistleclaw fued.

I’m sorry, I just don’t think this is enough to lock him away. Sure, they didn’t like each other, but not everyone will. Bluestar and Thistleclaw were just a bit, too much alike. They both had that fire-y personality and blazing ambition. The only thing that made Bluestar a better choice for leader was that she was calmer, and more peaceful. Thistleclaw made some threats, but he never like, attacked her repeatedly or tried to murder her.

Two, Goosefeather had the omen about Thistleclaw being evil.

Yeah, well, he was wrong pretty often. I mean, I have this theory that all of Goosefeather’s omens were right, in his own way, but I’ll make an article about that later. Anyways, Thistleclaw never got the chance to run the clan through blood. He was never made leader. Sure, he was a bit too quick to get into a fight, but weren’t there others cats like that who got sent to StarClan? Seriously, does the name Adderfang ring a bell? He was pretty battle-hungry too, and I’m sure he’s stuffing his face in StarClan. You can’t punish someone for something they may do in the future. It’s like your parents grounding you today because you may forget to do your chores tomorrow.

Three, he was too fierce with Tigerpaw and Whitekit.

No. Just, no. Sure, this seems a bit… wrong, but it’s not enough to get sent to the Dark Forest. After all, I’m sure we can all agree Lizardfang and Rainflower were even worse parents. They’re both in StarClan. Ashfur was a pretty tough mentor too, and even a bit brutal. He’s in StarClan too.

Common Defend Points,

You could say it’s Thistleclaw’s fault Tigerpaw attacked Scourge. Well, no. He only told him to teach him a lesson, which could mean anything. Besides, Tigerstar’s and Scourge’s actions are their own. You could point out that he beat up Oakheart. Well, this only seemed tragic because it was Bluestar’s point of view. Thistleclaw had the right to defend his territory. Of course, he could have been way less…. rough, but he was being loyal to his clan.

So, at this point, I know what you’re thinking. “Gee, Silv, didn’t you say you thought Thistleclaw should be in the Dark Forest? This sounds like you’re defending him!”

Well, yeah. But it’s always fun to get on both sides of the debate. Now I’m going to give you the point that condemns the guy:

He trained in the Dark Forest.

If you remember, it was revealed he was in cahoots with the Place of No Stars in Crookedstar’s Promise.

You could argue that several cats during the Great Battle were trainees and they’ll hauled into StarClan. But, they turned. They went ‘back to the light’, they allied themselves with StarClan once more. From what I’ve seen, Thistleclaw never rejected his dark ‘clannmates’ and went back to StarClan. He was probably visiting them up until his death.

And yes, it’s been proven that if you become a trainee and don;t turn back to StarClan before you die, your afterlife is the Dark Forest. Antpelt is my proof. To my knowledge, he never killed someone. He never conspired to take over his clan, over threw his leader, murdered a deputy, broke the code, or ‘loved too much’. None of that. Even Hawkfrost is an example. He never killed anyone. His seemingly worst crime was trying to kill Firestar- a deed Ashfur did, and much more. *coughcoughtryingtoburnpeoplealivecoughcough* Buuuuuuut, he trained with Tigerstar. That makes him certified evil-ness.

So these are my debate points. Feel free to argue with me in the comments, I’d love to debate with you.