My Opinion On Bluestar by Shimmerfrost

Shimmerfrost shares their opinion about Bluestar.

Heyo, everyone! Shimmerfrost here! It’s nice to see all of you once more! Here I am again with my fifth BlogClan article, discussing this time not Clans, not warrior names, and not Hamilton songs, but a deeply contested issue within the Warriors fandom. Yup, you guessed it by the title- I’m going to talk about my opinion on Bluestar.

I’ve seen a lot of articles about her, posted many comments, and reread every book in which she appears, and now it’s time for my two cents. Keep in mind that everything in this article is my opinion, and not meant in any way to offend anyone. *takes deep breath* Okay, here we go!

(MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERY BOOK BTW)

I… honestly don’t like Bluestar. The first few books into the series, back when I was an innocent sixth grader, I adored her. She was the leader of ThunderClan, Fireheart’s mentor- she was perfect in my eyes. Then a few things happened- I grew older, the series progressed, and I read Bluestar’s Prophecy. And, suddenly, the illustrious ThunderClan leader didn’t seem too great. Down below are just a few of the reasons that, as I matured and wised up in the way of the Warriors fandom, forever kept Bluestar as one of my top disliked characters.

Reason #1: Constant, whiny drama
Bluestar fans: “Oh, Bluestar lost so many people in her life! It was so sad! Even from a very young age she had to deal with losing cats that she loved.”
My response: Alright, let’s start this debate with one of the biggest issues I find with Bluestar: she spends too much time moping around. Yes, she lost loved cats. Yes, it’s always horrible to lose someone you love. Yes, I understand that pain. No, grieving isn’t a bad thing. However, almost every single protagonist in the Warriors series loses family members, friends, mates, you name it- from kits losing siblings or parents (i.e. Silverstream) to warriors losing all their family and even their mates. However, I’d be hard-pressed to name a single one that spent as much time wallowing in self-pity and depression as Bluestar did. Every time she lost someone- first Moonflower, then Snowfur, then Mosskit (don’t worry, we’ll come back to Mosskit later)- she complained about it and moped around so much that every single time, somebody (from her mentor Stonepelt to the leader Sunstar himself at one point) literally told her to get up off her butt and carry on with her warrior duties. So, yeah- even though losing people definitely sucks, Clan life keeps on going, and Bluestar should have, too.

Reason #2: Prophecy/Hatred of Thistleclaw
Bluestar fans: “Thistleclaw was an evil cat and he would have destroyed ThunderClan! Bluestar had a prophecy from StarClan- she had to become leader.”
My response: We have quite a few articles debating about whether or not Thistleclaw was actually evil, so I’m not going to go through that in this article- it’ll be quite long enough already, I’m sure. Instead, I’ll go off of Bluestar’s completely irrational hatred for the tom and Goosefeather’s “prophecy” after which the blue leader’s Super Edition was named. First of all, Blue had legitimately no reason to hate Thistle. Like, at all. Sure, he was a bit of an arrogant brat, which is maybe grounds for dislike, but not the full-bodied loathing for his very existence that she exhibited from almost the first page of the book on which the two cats both appeared. And with the Erins writing him off as an Evil McEvilFace character from his first few lines in the book to his last ever mention in it, they didn’t offer much of an excuse for why she hated him so much. But I digress.
The other issue in this sector- I decided to shove them under the same category because they go together- Goosefeather’s so-called “prophecy.” Now I don’t mean to rag on Goosefeather, not at all, but his medicine cat skills and connection to StarClan are questionable at best. He led ThunderClan into a fruitless battle with WindClan that caused many casualties, among other things, and while his prophecies or random visions were occasionally correct, though often unjustified- him seeing Tigerkit as a monster, for example- they definitely weren’t the most reliable of omens. I’m not going to go off on a tangent about whether the medicine cat was or was not a few pieces of prey shy of a full fresh-kill pile, but I don’t think his vision about Thistleclaw leading the Clan to nothing but bloodshed was entirely accurate. I mean, Bluestar led the Clan into her fair share of battles, too, and nearly caused another unnecessary war with WindClan (I’m recognizing a trend here) and would have, even, if Fireheart hadn’t stopped her. But, once again, I digress. We’re missing the point here, which is: if you receive a special prophecy, however questionable, about a cat that your leader is considering as an option for deputy, tell the leader! I mean, come on! Isn’t the rational option here? The course of action that all viable logic demands to be taken? Why is it called common sense if it’s not common? All I’m saying is that the whole “oh look I have a mysterious prophecy about this cat destroying the Clans I have to keep it secret” thing was totally overdone and unnecessary. Instead of being a good warrior and just telling Sunstar about her concerns she went out of her way to become deputy instead of Thistleclaw. But more on that later.

Reason #3: Oakheart and Bluefur
Bluestar fans: “OakXBlue is one of the best ships ever! They’re so cute, and honestly they’re just made for each other~ It doesn’t matter that it’s a cross-Clan relationship, because no one found out, and it’s just too great anyways!”
My response: (takes deep breath) Where do I start? Okay, first of all, OakXBlue had literally no background at all. It was one of those”oh, I saw you at the border and now I’m madly in love with you” deals that drives me crazy. I mean, I guess that “love at first sight” is a thing, but Oakheart and Bluefur were so different, had so little that would put them together, that their sudden fling that came out of nowhere and was taken for granted as inevitable really put me off. I mean, this is a book entirely from Bluestar’s perspective, and even she doesn’t give us much reason for why she suddenly falls in love with this tom. I don’t like cross-Clan relationships that are just played out for drama (cough-cough-DoveXTiger-cough-cough), and this was certainly one of them. I like Oakheart in Crookedstar’s Promise, but he’s a very static character in Bluestar’s Prophecy. Honestly, he’s just there as a love object, a personality-less tom for Bluestar to give us a Romeo and Juliet type romance. I feel sorry for Thrushpelt- he was a nice guy, and Bluestar was definitely a bit of a jerk to him- but I’m not going to go so far as to say they should have ended up together. I mean, it would have been better for both of them, and I’m sure Thrush could have made Blue a better cat, but it would have just been kind of like Crowfeather and Nightcloud if she didn’t love him back. And honestly, the fact that basically everyone in Warriors (barring Mapleshade, of course) gets away with cross-Clan relationships, I would say that they need to be punished more. Not as harshly as with Mapleshade, definitely, but still punished, as those relationships do break the code. Cross-Clan relationships are never a good thing, and if not for Thrushpelt’s kindness and the fact that all three kits looked like Bluestar and not Oakheart, the ThunderClan she-cat likely would have been in a lot of trouble.

Reason #4: Giving up her kits to be deputy/Deputy ambition
Bluestar fans: “It was soooooo sad when Bluestar had to give up her kits! She did it for the good of the Clan, even though she didn’t want to, and it was the saddest part of the whole book.”
My response: This is probably one of the points that makes me hate Bluestar the most. By no stretch of the imagination did Bluestar “have” to give up her kits. First of all, she did not have to become deputy. As stated earlier in my points about Thistleclaw, there were at least three different ways that Bluestar could have dealt with the “problem” that Thistleclaw posed. She could have told Sunstar about the prophecy, just shared her concern about him being deputy, or just done nothing and let Clan life take its course like a good warrior. I honestly don’t understand why Sunstar would have wanted to make her deputy anyways, but that’s besides the point. In no way did Bluestar “have to” become deputy. But she was ambitious enough that she decided it was the only logical course of action, in some crazy fit of forgetting how to use her brain properly. Anyways, since Bluestar decided that she needed to become deputy in order to save the Clan, she concluded that the best way to become deputy was to take her kits in the snowy, cold, dark night over to ThunderClan. Gee, I wonder what could possibly go wrong here? Well, go wrong something did. As Bluestar dragged her poor kits out of the nursery into the freezing night and had them travel all the way to RiverClan territory, Mosskit froze to death, unsurprisingly. Can you imagine how easy it would have been for Bluestar’s story to turn into a Mapleshade scenario? If Stonekit and Mistykit had died of the cold as well (which, honestly, they would have if this book relied on scientific principles, but I digress), then would Oakheart have disowned her as Appledusk did? Would that have left Bluestar utterly devastated and led somehow to go insane earlier in her life? Food for thought there, everyone. And while we’re on the subject of Bluestar going insane, that brings us to our next topic.

Reason #5: Insanity
Bluestar fans: “Bluestar only ever went insane because Tigerclaw betrayed her. Can you imagine having a cat that close to you betray you? You’d go mad too! And besides, all was well in the end because she saved Firestar’s life!”
My response: Here we go with my last point. It may seem very similar to my first one. I don’t mean in any way to demean anyone reading this who actually suffers from chronic depression. With that out of the way, let’s do this. Again- yes, it sucks that Bluestar had problems in her life. But her going insane during the last moons of her life was hardly justified, in any sense of the word. With the same point as my first argument- many better cats than Bluestar have suffered the same, or worse, and none of them went insane. Her going insane just further proves how mentally weak of a warrior/deputy/leader she was. But while she was out of her mind, she did some things that are unforgivable- such as tormenting poor Brightheart. Oh, sorry, Lostface. The death of Swiftpaw and the mutilation of Brightheart were both her fault because she “didn’t trust” the other warriors enough to let their apprentices become warriors, which was just plain stupid. She almost caused an unnecessary battle with WindClan, but Fireheart stopped her. If not for Fireheart and some other good warriors (like Whitestorm), Bluestar may well have destroyed ThunderClan. Just because she chose the last hour of her life to become sane again does not mean that all the crimes she committed during her long moons being out of her right mind (did she ever have a right mind?) are null and void. She was a horrible person during most of her last life, and that can’t be changed by changing her mind last minute. If anything, her “heroic sacrifice” proves that she could’ve gotten out of her insanity at an earlier time if she had decided to, making all the problems she created even more emphatically her fault.

To summarize this long-winded, opinionated rant of mine, Bluestar was, in terms of skill, loyalty, and dedication, a mediocre warrior at best. She killed one of her kits to become deputy, made some very poor decisions that she rationalized as the will of StarClan, broke the code, and honestly didn’t make a very good leader. Somecat like Whitestorm or Thrushpelt would have made a better leader than her all the way.

Well, thank you all for reading my article! Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments, and remember that this is all my opinion. Please respect my opinion and I will welcome all of your comments! Stay in school, don’t do the Dark Forest and keep doing what you do!

Shimmerfrost out!