Mapleshade: Misguided or Truly Evil? by Birdtail

Birdtail discusses Mapleshade’s character.

Okay, so here’s the way I see it.
Mapleshade is not truly evil.
It all started when Ravenwing revealed that her kits were actually Appledusk’s. Then, she was banished from the Clan. If you consider her evil for loving a RiverClan warrior, think again. She is not evil just because she had kits with a RiverClan warrior. Graystripe and Silverstream had another relationship like that.
The next thing that happened is that she tried to swim the river. She lost ALL THREE of her kits that way. That’s heartbreaking. Getting dumped by Appledusk right after probably broke her heart even more. The next thing she knew, she had been banished by TWO Clans, all in the same day.
She heard her kits’ voices in her mind. “Mama, help me!” “Mama! Mama!” Etc. So she wanted to get her revenge.
The most obvious choice was her first target, Ravenwing. He was the one who got the Clans into this mess. So she snuck into the Moonstone, killed him, etc. Uncovering his body was a little much, but she was probably still blinded by grief and stuff. Maybe anger that nobody helped her kits. Either way, she set one of her kits free.
The second target was Frecklewish. She had learned from Nettlepaw, a ThunderClan apprentice, that Frecklewish had watched her kits die. So of course she went and decided to kill her. That would set another one of her kits free! She unblocked the adder nest at Snakerocks, and lured Frecklewish there. Then a snake bit Frecklewish. She went blind and died. But she set one of her kits free. And it was still pretty recent after her kits’ deaths, so she could’ve just been driven by her anger and grief that they were dead.
The third target was Appledusk himself. She kidnapped his apprentice, Perchpaw, and blamed him for killing their kits. He blamed her back. She ended up trying to kill Reedshine and Reedshine’s unborn kits, probably to show Appledusk what she was feeling. Sure, that may be a little overkill, but strong emotions like grief and anger blind you and make you make some pretty bad decisions. Unfortunately she killed Appledusk instead.
Then, she was fatally injured and died. She may have arrived at the Dark Forest, but maybe she just changed in the midst of all this.
Overall, I think Mapleshade may have just been blinded by anger at RiverClan (especially Appledusk) and grief for her kits. This may have led to a change in personality. She only killed to avenge her kits. Would you do that if you were in her situation? What’s your opinion? Do you think she was just misguided or that she is truly evil?