Why Mapleshade’s Victims Were Innocent! by Sparktooth

I’ll build off this since I feel there are some points needing refuting,

Ravenwing as the medicine cat, has a duty to care for cats regardless of clan. He was not in the wrong for telling Oakstar. That being said he should’ve adhered to the kits need to be protected and cared for part of the code. He should’ve advised against kicking out a mother and her kits or at least not in a storm where the kits risk getting sick at least from the rain and cold. In my mind he didn’t help/intervene when kits were endangered and it’s his JOB to care for kits.

Frecklewish, you could argue that she was too far away but she still stood there and watched. She saw kits in danger and did nothing. If she was too far away she should’ve still moved closer as the code says that kits need to be protected. Do I think she let her emotions justify her inaction Sure. But she is not some completely innocent cat, she ignored kits in danger. Did she deserve to die/be blinded for it? No. But she’s no saint.

You keep making this claim of Mapleshade killed her kits which is A. untrue since she was desperate as I argued in your last article you made that claim and B. If Appledusk believed such he’s a fool. I doubt he thought she KILLED them, why the grief, the panic, the desperation to have them be alive if she’d intentionally acted for them to die. If Appledusk thought that, then he’s a hypocrite since him pushing Birchface in the water caused him and Flowerpaw to drown. He claims he had no intention of killing them, that it was an accident, but to turn around and say Mapleshade fleeing to RiverClan after being put on a time crunch to get there during a bad storm and then their kits drowned means she KILLED them he’s a hypocrite. Because then he’s just as much a murderer as Mapleshade then, more so since he put Birchface in the water and the river was much less treacherous then.

Also Reedshine was suddenly pregnant real quick, I have my suspicions that they were already well on the path to being mates. It didn’t take Mapleshade THAT long to enact her revenge on Ravenwing, and Frecklewish for Reedshine to know she was expecting if Appledusk took her as a mate after Mapleshade lost her kits. Leafpool was only with Crowfeather very briefly and she didn’t find out she was expecting for a whole book and then some. I’m not familiar with how it works in cats but I have a feeling Appledusk was already moving on by that point,

However say he wasn’t with Reedshine yet and I follow what theErins said rather than my own assumptions, according to the Erin’s Appledusk supposedly loved Mapleshade, so for him to turn around and tell Darkstar he felt nothing for Mapleshade is a lie to both Mapleshade and Darkstar, plus him having half clan kits with Mapleshade wasn’t some big truth he gave up of his own free will. The proof was right in front of Darkstar, to say anything else would cast him out immediately, because the proof was already there. He didn’t suddenly want to come clean, he had no choice.

Mapleshade also had no choice with her lie, if she was honest well she’d have just been thrown out sooner rather than later. So of course she lied, she wanted her kits to be able to live a decent life, only when Ravenwing Let Oakstar know and Oakstar threw her and her kits out did it all come crashing down. Plus during the time Mapleshade kept it a secret so did Appledusk, he wasn’t forthcoming with the info to even Reedshine who was padding after him. Mapleshade kept it a secret to protect her kits, Appledusk kept it a secret to protect himself and be able to keep his options (Reedshine) open by having it seem like he was still available. So no, Appledusk is the more dishonorable and SELFISH one there.

Now on for Mapleshade going mad, let me explain something to you, Mapleshade went mad because her kits died: because of Ravenwing for telling Oakstar and then not doing his duty to care for kits when Oakstars decree put them at risk, Frecklewish for not even trying to help her kits and instead WATCHING them die. Which all happened because Mapleshade mated with Appledusk whom she thought loved her SO much. And what does Appledusk do after Mapleshade comes to him after losing everything she loved, everything she worked for and everything she’d ever known, what does Appledusk do? He throws her aside like yesterday’s trash because he has Reedshine and their new kits and RiverClan. He does NOTHING to ease Mapleshade’s suffering, he does NOTHING to help her, and in fact he does worse than nothing. Because despite claiming he’d loved her, he doesn’t ask what his now dead kits were called, cause he doesn’t care at that point too important to save face. And he makes it so Mapleshade’s kits are buried where she’ll never be able to visit them EVER.

I don’t blame Mapleshade for being vengeful and hurting. She didn’t just suddenly go mad, it was just one thing after another until suddenly there was nothing left, except the madness that her kits needed to be avenged to be set free which was brought on by being absolutely drowned in grief.

Is Mapleshade right in what she did, of course not, she brutally murdered cats, and haunted their descendants but the more I’ve thought about it. The more I can understand the process her mind and heart went through that led her down that path. And I feel sorry for her, and wish she’d had help when she’d needed it, or StarClan had cared enough about her that they wouldn’t send that sign to Ravenwing that sent things crumbling down for her. Or they’d been so kind to guide one of their warriors they watch over out of the darkness rather than let her drown in it,