Millie VS. Blossomfall by Foxpaw

Foxpaw analyzes the volatile relationship of Millie and Blossomfall.

Artwork by dokidoki-san

Okay, here we are on one of those topics that split the fandom in half. So, Millie is that spunky, adventurous, awesome she-cat who replaces Silverstream, saves Graystripe’s life numerous times, and gave up her life to live as a warrior. Not many people liked her at the start for replacing Silverstream, and some others started despising her after Briarlight’s injury. But the biggest blow was in Sign of the Moon, when Blossomfall explained Millie’s neglectful attitude to Dovewing.

Strange how one scene can cause one character to get blown away by hate from ferocious fans.

Now let’s explore Blossomfall’s character before we get back to the incident. As a cat in general, Blossomfall is a determined she-cat, and some might say…spoiled. Why? Well, as an apprentice, remember when she was on the Leaders’ Tree at the Gathering? She was well aware she was not supposed to be there but I agree, this is a common young cat’s mistake. But Millie, however defended Blossompaw even though she knew it was wrong of her daughter to do that. This is a big blow on Millie’s character too that many readers missed/ignored. So this type of parenting, kind of spoiled Blossomfall to the point where she thought she could do anything. Even as a warrior, Blossomfall was quite rude and possessive especially when Bumblestripe wanted to partner with Dovewing. She most likely felt in need of someone after Briarlight’s injury but she reacted quite negative and was mean to Dovewing after that. I’m just saying, Blossomfall wasn’t always a good cat. Remember when she acted like Dovewing was better than Ivypool in front of the latter to anger her as an apprentice? Yeah. Not always a nice cat.

This ties into the scene. Blossomfall must have misread Millie’s actions as she always felt used to her mother always being there for her that now, as an adult, she still wants support. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but Blossomfall could act a little better about the situation. Briarlight, a sweet, gentle, shy she-cat always wanted to be the best warrior as she could be. Then she goes and tries to save an elder, when she gets paralyzed. All her dreams – gone. Erased. Can never happen, EVER. Now, she has to watch cats obsessing over her, treating her like a kit, her sister feeling neglected because of what happened, feeling like everything is her fault and she is such a burden. Imagine that.

Blossomfall knows it’s wrong to despise her sister for that but she does so anyways. She doesn’t have to go to the Dark Forest for her feelings. She is a hardworking warrior cat and she has the choice to be good, but she gave it up, thinking if she had exceptional battle skills, she would capture her mother’s attention, stealing some away from her sister who needed it more.

Anyways, now about the scene where Millie yells at Blossomfall. Let me pull up her exact quote,

“Where have you been?” Millie snapped. “You’ve wasted a whole morning when you could
have been hunting!” Glancing back at Briarlight, who was struggling to join the group at the fresh-kill pile, she added, “Your sister would give anything to be able to help feed the Clan! It’s time you grew up, Blossomfall, and started to behave like a proper warrior.”

Okay, maybe that was harsh. But if Millie did not care at all, she would’ve either ignored Blossomfall or called her things like “worthless” or “stupid” which she didn’t. And it is time Blossomfall grew up. She expects her mother to cater to HER needs instead of her crippled sister, she’s wrecking her own life just for more attention, when she’s an adult and she can take care of herself.

Now, remember my point about Millie spoiling Blossomfall as an apprentice? Well, I feel like she’s a protective parent, but not the best as she didn’t notice how Blossomfall was turning out until Briarlight’s incident. So overall, Millie is a true mother that cares about all her kits, and she’s sensible but she is kind of overprotective, as some may say.

As for Blossomfall, I guess this could be kind of bias as I never really liked her character to begin with, but I do see how she’s changing, especially after the Great Battle. Learning how the Dark Forest betrayed her, has seemed to make her a much better cat, and she seems to be growing more independent and caring, so I have to give her credit for that.

In conclusion, neither side is at fault, nor innocent. They both have negative traits that collided and created a deep misunderstanding, but, in the end, they do love each other, mother and daughter.

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37 comments

  • I have to disagree.

    First off, right off the bat you expressed your like for Millie, resulting in obvious against-Blossomfallness.

    Blossomfall wasn’t spoiled. In fact, the majority of the time, she was the kit who was ignored. Millie was just being a mom when she stood up for Blossomfall, but afterwards I cannot point out a single moment in OoTS where Millie was kind and motherly to Blossomfall or shared her love equally.

    • Yeah, I agree with Sky. You do say that you like Millie, so you are kinda biased on this. Plus, I ship SilverxGray like, hardcore. I AM AN ETERNAL SHIPPING FLAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🔥

      • I personally hate silverstream and greyxsilver, and Millie is my third favorite charater. Would you get mad if your daughter disobeyed you? I’d say yes! But Millie never ment to harm Blossomfall at all, and she loves her.

    • I 100% agree with Sky. Millie is not a good mother. She never showed any compassion or love to any cat but Graystripe and Briarlight, and she cares for Briarlight more than her mate! I’m assuming that Millie was not prepared for becoming a mother but that topic can be debatable. Now, back to 100% agreeing with Sky. Millie would have never said ANYTHING like WORTHLESS or I HATE YOU in front of her mate. It’s pretty clear that Millie doesn’t care about ANYONE but Briarlight. Blossomfall is a fine young she-cat and she deserves some love. Millie has made her feel SO NEGLECTED that she had no choice but to go to the Dark Forest, but that can be debatable too. I really think that Millie should STOP FUSSING ABOUT BRIARLIGHT and BE A NATURAL, GOOD NATURED MOTHER who LOVES ALL HER KITS AND NOT JUST ONE OF THEM (I know, I do have anger management problems, especially with books so sorry about that). P.S. I might be a little biased too.

  • Great article! Like you, Foxpaw, I love Millie and don’t really care for Blossomfall. I especially agree with your points about Blossomfall being spoiled. I liked Blossomfall at first, but when she became an apprentice and the story kept going, my like for her faded. Like when she said:

    “No way!” Blossompaw’s horrified mew took Ivypaw by surprise. “She’s not properly trained. Can’t I have Dovepaw? At least she can hunt” Fading Echos page 124.

    That was the part of the paragraph where she became disliked by me. But then I thought as the series went on, she might grow to become a respectable warrior. But that didn’t really happen. Like when she sat on the leader’s tree even though she knew she couldn’t, and when she trained in the Dark Forest when she knew it was wrong. A lot of people blame Millie for Blossomfall training in the Dark Forest, but Blossomfall made her own decision.

    I’m also gonna mention when Millie yelled at her. So what? Your parents probably yell at you, and do you hate them? Well it’s the same for Millie.

    Not to mention Millie had one of her kits so close to death many times. Briarlight almost died two times as a kit, by greencough and an adder, and then almost a third time when she broke her spinal cord. After that, it would be very hard to imagine Millie not being a little overprotective of her kits, especially Briarlight. So when Blossomfall went in the tunnels and almost died, of course Millie yelled at her! All of ThunderClan thought Hollyleaf was dead from the tunnels, so Millie would be worried. Just think about that next time any of you fellow bloggers want to criticize Millie.

    I think Millie doesn’t deserve as much hate as she gets.

    • Sadly, that’s not the worst Blossomfall has ever said. “Blossomfall snorted. “What’s the worst that could happen? We might lose the use of our legs?” -Sign Of The Moon, page 218.

      I also agree with Millie.

  • Hmmm… this is very interesting I can definitely see where you are coming from. No opinion again. Because I knew what happened before I read it. (Spoilers suck in case you didn’t know.) And Millie’s spout of anger was most likely worry as well. Sometimes when your worried, in order to relax again you have yell before you can calm down.

    • I agree with Sky on this. In fact, I feel bad for Blossomfall AND Millie. They aren’t my favorite but I’d still have to side with Sky on this one. But nice article!

  • Nice article Foxpaw, but I disagree.

    You say that Blossomfall should be more ‘grown-up’ instead of looking for more attention from Millie. But consider this: before Briarlight’s accident, Millie was pretty nice to Blossomfall, and then suddenly Briar becomes crippled and all of Millie’s attention is now on Briar.

    Think of it, your own mother, your own kin, the cat who gave birth to you and raised you to become an apprentice, starting to ignore you and placing all her attention on your littermate.

    Honestly, Millie could have done waaay better! Instead of paying so much attention to Briarlight, who didn’t want to be fussed over in the first place, she could pay more attention to her two other kits.

  • I like both Millie AND Blossomfall. Blossomfall wasn’t very nice, I agree with that, but characters can change. 🙂 Dawnpelt wasn’t the nicest cat either in OotS, but she’s great in AVoS! We haven’t seen much of Blossomfall, but I’m sure both her and Millie have made up by now! Also, about Millie yelling, parents aren’t perfect! Sometimes they yell too much, but that doesn’t make them bad people, or even bad parents! And Jayfeather (one of the most loved cats) was very rude as an apprentice, and while he did change a little when he became a full med cat, he still had some sass to him. 😉 Then there’s the fact that in OotS EVERYONE was stressed out! (Even StarClan!) so I don’t think these cats should be judged TOO harshly about what they did in this series. Blossomfall fought against the Dark Forest in The Last Hope, and I’m sure she’s grown into a nice warrior by now. Millie has retired to the elders den, and I’m sure she’s proud of what ALL her kits have overcome. 🙂 (I do like Millie a little more than Blossomfall though because I think she’s a cool and interesting cat (She can talk to dogs!))

  • Bluefire AGREEEEESSSSS
    So does Jaysky
    WTDF JAYSKY HOW ARE YOU WRITING ON MY COMMENTS???
    I’m in your HEAD XD
    WHA????
    Kidding =)
    Jaysky… you are crazy.
    You’re the one talking to one of your characters.
    Oh no. The dilemma of the modern day author.
    XD
    Don’t laugh at me!
    Why not?
    JAYSKY!!!! You are so frustrating.
    =) I know.

  • Did Blossomfall actually know the Dark Forest was bad though? To me it seemed that none of the Dark Forest trainees actually knew what Tigerstar and the others were planning. Plus she changed when she realised what was happening. However neither of them are my favourite characters, but they’re not that bad cats really.

  • I’ve been on both sides. As Blossomfall; I had a younger sister with special needs, who was chronically unwell and required 90% of my mother’s attention. As a child and teenager, I was really jealous and resentful that there was nothing left for me.
    As Millie; I have a child who is chronically ill, which means that I have less time and energy for my other children.

    It’s hard.

  • First of all Millie has no idea how Blossomfall spent the morning, she was in camp. Millie wouldn’t have noticed that Blossomfall returned to camp if Whitewing had not told her. She made a baseless assumption that Blossomfall had wasted the entire morning. Second of all, there is a difference between justified discipline and verbal abuse.

    https://www.liveabout.com/how-can-someone-identify-and-respond-to-verbal-abuse-1102424

    https://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/children-s-health-10/child-development-news-124/yelling-at-children-verbal-abuse-648565.html

    Millie didn’t care that Blossomfall was badly injured, and showed no concern for her overall well-being. If she did care, she would be concerned that her daughter has a nasty head injury and is limping. Does it make sense to yell at someone who comes home injured? No! Nothing in what Millie says shows concern for Blossomfall.

    In yelling Millie blew the situation out of proportion. A matter that should have been handled quietly was made into a huge scene. Where in the book does it say that Blossomfall despises her sister? Blossomfall is jealous but, she cares about her sister “I can’t bear seeing her suffer and I know that Briarlight would give anything to be better and whole again…and that proves I am not a good cat.’…A good cat wouldn’t be jealous of an injured littermate. So that’s why I’ve ended up in the Dark Forest.”(Hunter 246). -Warriors Omen of the stars: Sign of the Moon. Blossomfall literally thinks she deserves to be in hell because she is jealous of the attention her sister gets. She is emotionally broken.

    Jealousy in itself is not bad, it is a normal emotion. People cannot choose or control what emotions they feel, therefore one cannot say Blossomfall is bad because she is jealous of her sister or feels unloved by her mother. It makes sense that Blossomfall feels unloved by Millie, Millie didn’t give a mouse’s tail when Hazeltail told her Blossomfall was sick or when Whitewing informed her that Blossomfall had come home injured.

    Even if Millie were trying to address the issue with Blossomfall being mean to Ivypool and Dovewing. Making a huge scene in the middle of camp was not the way to do it. The matter should have been discussed privately. Look at how Bluestar dealt with Firestar and Graystripe when they were junior warriors. Nor was it appropriate it the appropriate time to deal with the matter. Moreover, nothing Millie says to Blossomfall is about treating her clanmates better. Not to mention Millie has not been a model of being good to ones clanmates. Look at how she treated Jayfeather after Briarlight got injured. She gives Bramblestar a hard time when he is trying to get Briarlight to safety in Bramblestar’s storm.

  • First of all Millie is a mature adult, she should have better control of her emotional responses. All this yelling and outbursts are childish and counter productive to the situation. When did we ever see Millie do anything useful to help Briarlight? She does an awful lot of fighting with Jayfeather, but she has not been productive. She has no knowledge of herbs and medicine and therefore all the time she spends in the medicine cat’s den is a waste. Millie gets in Jayfeather’s way, and puts more stress on poor Briarlight with all her outbursts. Briarlight doesn’t need Millie to take care of her, she has Jayfeather. Jayfeather helps her with her execises. He gives her herbs when she is ill. It was Jayfeather not Millie that got Briarlight to eat when she was depressed!

    Being kind to Blossomfall and Bumblestripe doesn’t mean neglecting Briarlight. It only takes a second to show someone you care. Take the situation with Hazeltail for instance. When Hazeltail informs Millie that Blossomfall is ill, instead of being nasty and snapping she is fine, Millie could have called out to Blossomfall “Are you feeling all right?”. That one question would have shown she cared.

    In demeaning and degrading Blossomfall, Millie has only taught her that it is o.k. to degrade and demean others. Is it any wonder that Blossomfall is mean Dovewing and Ivypool? Who do you think she learned that from?

    Since when is it fair to lash out at someone for getting hurt? Blossomfall was seriously injured. She was knocked unconscious by a rock fall and was dizzy when she regained consciousness( A sign of a serious head injury). The worst thing you can do when dealing with someone who is seriously injured is yell at them. Look at how Whitewing responded in contrast to Millie. Whitewing responded the way you would expect someone to react when a loved one comes home hurt. Prior to the Blossomfall/Briarlight drama Millie has displayed nastiness in the way she treats other cats. She disrespected Squirrelflight because Squirrelflight told Blossompaw to get out of a tree at the gathering.

    Millie’s body language and words display apathy if not hatred towards Blossomfall, the book even mentions her eyes are full of coldness. Ivypool even notes that Millie acts like she only has one kit.

    From what we have seen of adult/parent relationships in Warriors, cats still turn to their parents for support; and parents still care about their adult children’s well being. Look at how Bramblestar is with Lionblaze and Jayfeather, and they aren’t even his real sons.

  • Blossomfall is hardly spoiled. She is the only one of her siblings to get scolded. “Come on Blossompaw! ‘ Graystripe called to the apprentice. ‘ You’re supposed to be helping, not playing.’ Blossompaw froze, her tail sweeoing to a halt….’Ha! Briarpaw’s pads brushed the earth as she skipped out of the way, and Jayfeather pictured the scene. Blossompaw had been about to send a shower of leaves over her littermate and had been caught in the act by Graystripe.”(Hunter 25)-Warriors: Omen of the stars: Fading Echoes
    Notice that Graystripe only scolded Blossompaw even though both Briarpaw and Blossompaw were playing while they were supposed to be working. Blossompaw seems to be the only one of her siblings that Millie and Graystripe are very hard on.