Defending Tigerheart (Spoilers!) by Butterflyflower

Butterflyflower argues the character flaws of Tigerheart.

Hi! Butterfly here with my second article! (my first was really cringey :P)

I’ve seen a lot of hate on Tigerheart from Warriors. Now, I’m not trying to change peoples opinions. He is my favorite character, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to love him! I’ve just noticed that a lot of the hate he gets is for weird or ridiculous reasons, so now I’m going to defend him! 😀

Here are some of the reasons people hate him
-He’s “immature”
-He trained in the Dark Forest
-He was/is in a forbidden relationship with Dovewing
-He can be ambitious at times
-He blamed Jayfeather for Flametail’s death

He’s “immature”

I honestly don’t even get how this is even a reason people hate him so much!
He wasn’t that immature, and there are plenty of people in real life like this too! Sure some of them can be annoying sometimes, but that’s no reason to HATE them! And on the other hand, some of them (like Matthew West if anyone knows who he is) can be really hilarious and cute! X3 I personally think Tigerheart was more on the hilarious and cute side in Omen of the Stars, but then in A Vision of Shadows he became more mature, and that’s realistic too because sometimes people do mature as they get older! Some stay a little immature, but everyone has there own personality! No one should hate them because of that! Even though Tigerheart’s silliness was what first made me love him, I still love him even now because I also found he was actually an interesting and complex character (we’ll probably see more of his development in Tigerheart’s Shadow too!)

He trained in the Dark Forest

First of all, lots of cats trained in the Dark Forest, all for different reasons. We don’t really know what Tigerheart’s reason for it, but in the last hope, he said he was spying like Ivypool.
Some people say things like this though:
“He was lying to be with Dovewing!”
“He didn’t start spying until he realized they were bad!”
“He didn’t know they were bad until the battle, and he lied about spying!”

But are these things true?

Let’s look back at the things he said:
“That doesn’t mean I have to be like him (Tigerstar). He almost destroyed ShadowClan once before. I wasn’t going to let him do it again!”-The Last Hope page 292

“I’m a warrior. I fight for the Clans. Dark Forest warriors don’t belong here. This is Clan territory!”-The Last Hope page 292

“We can do this together.”-to Ivypool in The Last Hope page 296

(I found these quotes and page numbers on the Warriors wiki since I don’t own the book, but I have read it)

He most likely wasn’t lying just so he could be with Dovewing. By the looks of things, he was truly loyal to ShadowClan, and wanted to fight on their side in the final battle. He probably was telling the truth about spying as well, since Tigerstar is his grandfather, and even if he hadn’t known about the Dark Forest’s true plans, there were a lot of cats who didn’t, and they don’t get as much hate. (Well, at least, not all of them do.)

He was/is in a forbidden relationship with Dovewing

Lots of cats that don’t get much hate were in forbidden relationships. There are people who are tired of how many there are, or just like Bumblestripe more, but that’s no reason to hate Tigerheart. That would be like hating Graystripe because they don’t like his relationship with Millie (I actually do like them together, but this article isn’t about them. It’s about Tigerheart!) So yeah, whether you like TigerxDove, BumblexDove, or neither, there’s no reason to hate Tigerheart because of this. He’s his own cat.

He can be ambitious at times

LOTS of good cats can be ambitious at times, but that’s not always bad! It’s about how they control their ambition! Some ambitious characters were villains, but plenty of ambitious characters also became amazing cats! Tigerheart has a good heart though, no matter how ambitious he is! 🙂

He blamed Jayfeather for Flametail’s death

“You don’t know what it’s like to lose a littermate. You want to blame anyone, anything. Not just a crack in the ice.”-to Ivypool in The Forgotten Warrior page 126

Yes, it was wrong of him to blame Jayfeather, but Dawnpelt blamed Jayfeather first. Tigerheart’s brother was dead, and his sister was accusing an innocent cat of murder. Who knows what was going through his mind at the time? Anyway, one mistake doesn’t make you horrible for the rest of your life. Dawnpelt is a much nicer cat in A Vision of Shadows. She was Violetpaw’s mentor. We don’t really get to see what’s going on with Tigerheart too much, but no one has ever talked about the Flametail incident since The Last Hope. They aren’t holding any grudges, so why hate Tigerheart for something that happened in the past? What’s done is done. We just have to wait till Tigerheart’s Shadow now to see where his future will lead him! (I can’t wait!)