All the wrong reasons- Our love of Ivypool by Beepaw

Beepaw analyzes the true reasons why Ivypool is a popular character. 

Ivypool. We love her, we cherish her, almost- but are we doing it for the right reasons?

Ivypool hasn’t always been a tortured character that we loved for all the wrong reasons. At the beginning, she was a sweet kit who followed her sister around and just wanted to be the best warrior possible- with her sister, of course.

And then came the beavers.

Just.. put yourself into Ivypool’s place. Your sister is hearing strange things, strange noises, and because of this, gets to go on a journey that marks her out as special. Suddenly it’s all- Dovepaw! Dovepaw, come talk to me, Lionblaze, and Firestar! Dovepaw, can you help me with this? Dovepaw, you’re a super apprentice!

Living in the shadow of kin wouldn’t be good for anyone- but for Ivypool, it affected her badly. If she had known about the prophecy, perhaps she wouldn’t have gone to the Dark Forest- but nobody bothered to tell her, so she simply thought Dovepaw was the best out of all of the apprentices. Mature enough to be trusted with heavily important matters, smart enough to fix problems such as the beavers, and EVERYTHING enough to attract attention from two toms. Dovewing became everything Ivypool had aspired to be before. Ouch.

The Dark Forest drew Ivypool in because for once, it was her SISTER who wasn’t getting a second glance. Ivypool was special. Ivypool was important. And yes, we blame Ivypool for not seeing what it really was sooner, but look at it her way. Ivypool was finally appreciated. Nobody treated her like a lesser version of Dovewing, And also, they were training her to be the best warrior possible! And then, Dovewing barges in and says that the dark forest is full of evil cats. That anyone that appreciated Ivypool for who she was must be using her because nobody could appreciate Ivypool for real. Of course Ivypool felt like Dovewing was lying! Dovewing had sabotaged her happiness once before, and Ivypool didn’t want to see it happen again.

But thanks to further developments, Ivypool realized that the Dark Forest did have evil purposes and it crushed her. Ivypool was wrong, and Dovewing was right, yet again.

Now here is where it gets tricky. Ivypool becomes a spy for ThunderClan, And this is the main reason why most of us love and cherish her. But, wait…

It wasn’t Ivypool’s idea to spy on the Dark Forest. And Ivypool also didn’t have a choice.

Ivypool would keep going back to the Dark Forest in her dreams- She couldn’t stop that from happening. Jayfeather and Lionblaze then used her as a pawn. Do you really think they would have let Ivypool just go on training there? Even if she refused to formally accept the post, Jayfeather and Lionblaze would still push her for information. And they wouldn’t let her not accept it either.

Normally, I like Jayfeather and Lionblaze. I think they’re great characters. But this makes me despise them- They forced an apprentice, a young one at that, to spy on a murder factory. Every day, she wakes up with wounds, and every night, she’s in mortal peril. For them to force someone so young to do that is inexcusably terrible. And the worst part is, even after this, they show no interest in her as a person, just as a spy. They still have secret meetings with Dovewing, they still treat Ivypool like crow-food. She’s a pawn to them- a chess piece. They don’t care how she feels about the whole situation. And normally I don’t like Dovewing, but this makes me admire her. She’s so furious at Jayfeather and Lionblaze that it makes her impossible not to like.

I’m getting sidetracked. Anyways, we love Ivypool because of her spying, because of her sarcastic attitude, because of her deadly skill, when we should love her for her sarcastic attitude, yes, but also for her sweet side, for her refusal to give up. For not changing her loyalties even when she had so many chances to. And for refusing to do terrible things like killing Flametail even if it blew her cover. Ivypool is important to us for all the wrong reasons, but maybe, for some of the clear-sighted fans out there, for the right ones too.