Rainflower: Was she really that bad? by Aspenpaw

Aspenpaw gives us a new take on the character of Rainflower.

Hey there!
I am Aspenpaw and this is my first time writing an article. I have decided to focus on the character ‘Rainflower’ from ‘Crookedstar’s Promise’.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s begin!

Let me give you a brief overview of the character Rainflower:
Rainflower is a Riverclan Queen/Warrior who is the mother of Crookedstar (formerly known as Stormkit) and Oakheart. Her mate is Shellheart. On a stormy night when the Riverclan camp flooded, she gave birth to her two kits, naming them Stormkit and Oakkit. Later, Stormkit injured himself, causing Rainflower to stop loving him. She became a supposedly evil character and relentlessly hated upon poor Crookedkit. She died when a dog knocked her head against a rock next to a river she was drinking at.

Prior to Stormkit’s injury, Rainflower appeared to be a happy and sweet Queen. She loved her sons and her mate, Shellheart, dearly. But as soon as poor little Stormkit broke his jaw whilst trying to cross a river, hatred and pure anger began to surge through her. She began neglecting the poor kit and renamed him Crookedkit. She never was the same cat again.

So, can we really blame Rainflower for her violent and neglectful actions? Not necessarily. I mean, what she did was terrible and all, but she was too grief-stricken to realize what was actually happening. She was very upset about the fact that her ‘handsome young warrior’ had gone out and injured himself on his own accord. It was an accident, but Rainflower seemed to not take it that way. Sadness began to surge through her and that powerful sadness affected her actions for the rest of her life. She first neglected her poor injured kit, then broke up with her mate, re-named Stormkit Crookedkit, tried to distance herself as far away from her now disfigured son and blames everything on Crookedkit.

As you can see from what I stated above, most of the things that Rainflower did across the course of her later life, were affected by pure grief and sadness. From what we can tell, she seemed to be a lovely she-cat before the terrible accident.

All in all, I still think Rainflower was truly heartless for what she did to her son. Just because he disfigured himself doesn’t mean you should neglect him. Instead, she should have given him more attention. But, her personality drastically changed after that seemingly insignificant event. From what I have written, I believe that Rainflower really wasn’t that bad as some deem her to be. She simply took the event of an injury way too far. There have been other cases of cats completely changing because of one event. Take Mapleshade for example. When her kits drowned, she was blinded by her own grief and rage and wanted to take everything out on important cats in her life.

Rainflower is not as evil as she seems.

Thank you for reading my article!
I hope you enjoyed.
Fare the well!
~Aspenpaw