[image description: Silverstream walks in a blue forest with a river beside Millie who walks in a pink forest]

Analyzing Graystripe’s Ships by Sky

Sky looks at the relationships Graystripe developed throughout his life.

Artwork by DrakynWyrm

Hello!

Today, I will be analyzing two ships: GrayXSilver and GrayXMillie.

As about half of you know, my preferred ship is GrayXSilver, and I prefer the cats in the ship as well.

GRAYXSILVER –

Silverstream, the often fussed-over single living daughter of Crookedstar, and Graystripe, respected warrior of ThunderClan. Seems like an odd pair, right?

First off – this couple was willing to sacrifice their rank and status in their Clans for each other. If the Clan had found out, Silverstream would be… scorned for life. A leader’s daughter, breaking the code. Graystripe FOUGHT FOR HIS LOVE WITH SILVERSTREAM against his BEST FRIEND.

Secondly, these two just have… A LOT in common, at least personality wise! They’re both kind, clever, slightly obnoxious, sarcastic, and stubborn cats.

Thirdly, Graystripe played a lot more attention and care to his kits with Silverstream than his kits with Millie. In addition, Millie almost looks exactly like Silverstream. Millie, like Poppyfrost, was probably a mate-reminder mate. It’s sad but seems rather true.

GRAYXMILLIE –

First off, I just don’t like the love with these two. They’re like…. friends. Simple friends, barely as close as Firestar and Graystripe.

Secondly, Millie was just a bad mother. Graystripe sorta floated apart with her, silently, when she started being Rainflower2. I get that Briarlight was injured, but that doesn’t give Millie rights to yell and embarrass her daughters! When Blossomfall came out of the tunnels with Ivypool, Whitewing asked Ivypool is she was alright before gently scolding her, while Millie flew off the handle, not even checking to see if Blossomfall was okay. Briarlight doesn’t even need that much attention, and she didn’t want it! If anything, Millie was HURTING Brairlight by fussing over her because Briarlight knew how hurt her siblings were.

Thirdly, Graystripe obviously loved Silverstream’s kits better. I feel like, Millie was Silverstream remembrance, but his kits all looked pretty different from Feathertail and Stormfur.

AND….. that concludes my article! No flaming, please.

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31 comments

  • Ugh I’m so lazy but I will try to come up with good explanations with my opinions without blowing up the place.

    Okay,I believe that when Millie shouted at Blossomfall, it was more of the fact she was worried about having another kit dying (Briarlight didn’t die but she could at any time). So she couldn’t handle that, and so all the stress and worry had finally exploded. Millie I don’t take as the kind of cat to express her worry by telling someone, or being soft. She seems more of the cat who will try to hide it, and would rather get her message across (her worry) without saying it. If that makes sense. Honestly, I don’t see why everyone hold on to that one scene.

    And the whole “Millie is a clone of Silverstream” is just stupid to me. Just because they look a lot alike people assume this.

    When people fall in love, they will probably have an appearance they are attracted to. Like example, for me it’s mainly men with blondish-brownish hair and brown eyes. They are SO CUTE!!! And they also have a personality they are attracted too, for me, it’s someone who is kind, gentle, understanding, and brave. Same with cats!

    Obviously Graystripe is attracted to silver-gray she-cats, with blue eyes, and with a personality of brave, stubborn, kind, and sarcastic. The point is, Millie isn’t a clone, it’s just that he is attracted to that appearance and personality. Trust me, all my TV crushes have the basic appearance and personality that I listed above. If you want a list, I can give you one 😛

    • Great Article, Sky! Of course you already know my opinion on it, but Blue took the words right out of my mouth. It couldn’t have been said better.

    • I doubt that all people have a look and personality they are attracted to.

      Millie was TOTALLY being obnoxious. She didn’t EVER care about Blossomfall. She didn’t check to see whether or not Blossomfall was hurt. And in one scene, she brushed past Blossomfall even though she was sick.

      • Maybe not all people. But my Grandpa is the same way. But I think most people have something they are attracted to. Like Silv on WikiChat once, we were talking, and she found out she likes people like Jayfeather.

        How can you see into her brain? You don’t know what goes on in there! Being a Warrior is stressful enough, but having kits, and having a kit possibly die, and then suddenly have one who could have died, is a lot to take in. Millie obviously didn’t know how to handle it very well. Not everyone thinks the same way! Everyone has a different personality. You have no idea whether she regretted it or not. You may not have shouted at her. But obviously that was the only way Millie could think of to not flip out. Being a mother is one of the hardest things to do. And my Aunt told me this: “If your kids don’t hate you, you’re doing something wrong.” And I believe that with all my heart. Blossomfall and Briarlight both have reasons to not like their mother. Parents make mistakes. Your children make mistakes. But without knowing what the other is actually thinking, you have no right to judge. They both did something wrong. They both could have handled things better. But that doesn’t give you a reason to hate them. For me, that scene was just like any other scene in the books, but everyone seems to hold onto it and hold this huge grudge and they don’t look at the overall picture. I haven’t read AVoS yet, so I can’t judge her actions there. But you can’t ever say Millie never cared about Blossomfall. You aren’t in her head. Just what you see on the outside isn’t was is on the inside. Millie may act like she doesn’t care about Blossomfall, but deep down, all those memories of them being kits, probably still warm her heart.

      • Actually, I know a lot of people who have a look and personality they happen to be attracted to. I personally tend to be more attracted to guys with dark brown hair and dark eyes, and who have a very nice, caring, mischievous personality. But I still am open to other guys as well.

        What about when Blossomfall was a kit before Briarlight got her accident? Millie would pay attention to her a lot as well and Bumblekit and Briarkit too. I also don’t remember Millie brushing past Blossomfall in any of the books. Do you have a quote of that? Or at least know which book this happened in?

    • True, the appearances weren’t a factor, but I find it funny that her personality was completely changed from her time in the manga. Why was this? Because the Erins didn’t want her to become a Silverstream clone. I don’t think they even remembered Silverstream’s personality. Millie was super kind, and a fast learner in the manga, but she turned into a snarky character, to which even Silverstream couldn’t match. He was attracted to her nice personality, and how she could relate to him, even if they were from two different worlds. But I think her drastic change in personality is what made him back away. A mother who has an autistic child does not change her personality because of it, she adapts to what they need and gives them the necessary care for them to grow. What Briarlight needed was to have a learning environment so she could thrive on her own, but Millie refused to give it to her no matter how hard Jayfeather urged it. She didn’t give Briarlight a chance.
      Millie wouldn’t have that stress if she didn’t fuss over Briarlight so much and actually spend time with her other children. She kept comparing Blossomfall to Briarlight, which believe it or not, could have led to Blossomfall thinking that the only way she could get her mother’s attention was to injure herself. Maybe that was why Blossomfall went down to the tunnels in the first place.

  • I agree with this article! Even though I have no opinion on Graystripe’s ships and don’t really care for either of them, I do agree that Millie was a “bad” mother and the fact that Graystripe cared more for Silverstream and her kits than Millie and hers (it seemed like at least). Nice job Sky!

  • 100% agreed

    But even though I do ship GrayXSilveh, Graystripe fighting for his love against his best friend was a dumb thing to do.

    This is one thing I feel isn’t very good about Graystripe and Silverstream, and that is that they are so immersed in their love for eachother they would be willing to go against everything they treasured to break the code.

    I totally understand how they felt, it was tragic, but Graystripe could’ve gone to join RiverClan earlier on instead of joining after Silverstream died. That way they wouldn’t have broken the code, and Fireheartstar would have felt better about it than them secretly sneaking off and all that..

  • Personally I prefer GrayxMillie, it was more developed and I always found Silverstream to be a bit of a brat. And Millie was NOT Rainflower 2.0 she just was scared for Blossomfall and shouting was her way of showing it. Blossomfall may not have liked it, but it was Millie’s way of saying she loved her daughter. Rainflower was just cruel and neglectful. Poor Stormkit…. May you rot Rainflower, you should be in the Dark Forest.

    • If your child were to jump off a cliff, would you yell at them as soon as you got to them, or would you see if they were alright? Millie neglected her child, and caused most her mental issues as she grew up. If all your mother does is yell at you all the time, wouldn’t you feel sad? With the logic you proposed, I could say killing someone is “showing my love” and get away with it. Verbal abuse is no better than physically abuse.

      • There is a line to be crossed when it comes to being mad at someone. I mean, a strict telling off and cold neglection are pretty different. All Millie saw was that Blossomfall had just been messing around instead of doing her warrior duties, and since Millie felt that Briarlight would love to be able to do her duties, Millie thought Blossomfall was wasting her chance to be a warrior. Since Briarlight had been denied this chance, seeing Blossomfall mucking about made her pretty annoyed. Both characters have their faults, and I don’t think Millie should have yelled at Blossomfall like she did I was just saying I understand why she acted like she did.

    • I don’t think Millie was scared for Blossomfall when she shouted at her. Nothing in her words or body language indicate that “Her tail-tip was twitching with annoyance…’Where have you been?’ Millie snapped. ‘You’ve wasted a whole morning when you could have been hunting!’ Glancing back at Briarlight…’Your sister would give anything to be able to help feed the Clan! It is time you grew up, Blossomfall, and started to behave like a proper warrior.’…’There’s no harm done,’ Brackenfur meowed, blinking at Blossomfall in concern. ‘Both cats are home safe, and that’s the main thing, isn’t it?’ ‘Is it?’ Millie drew her lips back in a snarl. Her eyes were full of bitterness as she went back to Briarlight.”(Hunter 254-255)-Warriors Omen of the stars Sign of the moon.
      She belittles her daughter. It is implied that she is angry at Blossomfall for being healthy while Briarlight is sick.
      Millie speaks to Blossomfall the way Uncle Vernon speaks to Harry Potter. Like Vernon doesn’t value his nephew, Millie seems to have a low opinion of Blossomfall.
      Compare how Millie scolds Blossomfall to how Mufasa scolded Simba in The Lion King.
      Mufasa’s scolding is a prime example of a parent scolding out of love. He doesn’t yell though we can hear the anger in his voice. He states his reasons for being angry, such as the fact that Simba could have been killed and had deliberately disobeyed him. He also gives his son a chance to talk. Mufasa finishes his scolding by telling his son that he was afraid of losing him. Afterwards we can see the bond between father and son mended.
      Millie explodes in anger at her daughter without even knowing how Blossomfall got hurt. All Millie is aware of at that point is Blossomfall went on patrol and came home hurt. Her statements have nothing to do with fear of loosing her daughter or her daughter putting herself in danger.
      Millie made the judgment that her daughter was messing around with no evidence. Remember, Millie was in camp the whole time; she has no idea what Blossomfall did all morning. For all Millie knows her daughter may have been hunting, attacked by a fox, or captured by two-legs.

      Even if Millie knew for certain her daughter was messing around, she handled the situation in an inappropriate manor. Shouting doesn’t solve anything, people are less likely to listen if they are being shouted at. It is possible to scold someone without shouting or yelling. I this for a fact because, I used to work as lifeguard at an amusement park. It is never o.k. to publicly humiliate and degrade someone, that is verbal abuse. Bringing up Briarlight’s condition was also inappropriate, it was manipulative. It is not Blossomfall’s fault her sister is paralyzed. Not to mention that this must have made Briarlight feel terrible as well. How do you think Briarlight felt hearing her mother use her condition to belittle her sister?
      Millie could have privately talked to Blossomfall after her injuries were all patched up, or left it up to Firestar to handle the situation. Firestar is clan leader, technically it is his job to discipline warriors. Blossomfall is not a child, she is an adult child. Parents don’t yell at adult children, they talk to them. Once a child is no longer a minor, his or her parents no longer hold parental authority over him or her.

      There is a big difference between justified discipline and publically degrading someone!

  • Alright. Let’s talk.

    Let’s get one thing across first. I am a GrayXSilver fan. No questions asked.

    However, I don’t like people giving Millie so much hate. I’m not saying I love her. She’s totally not my favorite. But she doesn’t deserve all the dislike people throw her way. She had a personality. It was just who she was. She was worried about her daughter, like Blueheart said above.

    I’m not saying I like GrayXMillie. I’m just saying people shouldn’t not like Millie herself.

    But this is an excellent article, Sky, and you have made some great points I agree with!

    • It’s fine. I don’t absolutely positively hate her. I just seriously dislike her. Millie didn’t care about Blossomfall, ever.

  • to be fair, Millie was already sick with grief over one injured cat, and Blossomfall almost lost her own life, so I feel like her snapping was acceptable. Millie is not innocent in this, but Blossomfall is kind of at fault too because it sometimes felt like she was kind of acting a little childish and wanted a little more attention.

    As far as the similarities between Silver and Millie, I think that’s because Vicky based Millie off her coworker’s cat. The co-worker was a fan of Millwall Football Club, which Millie is named after.

    I think Silver and Millie will be cool with eachother in StarClan. And let’s hope that Millie gets to bury the hatchet with Blossomfall and Briarlight, if they haven’t already.

    • mm, I like the idea of them being friends. I even had a time when I thought if they were alive and one of them was a male, they might even be mates. Now I don’t think that but whatever, you know?

  • I agree with you. I don’t think it was acceptable at all for Millie to humiliate and degrade her daughter in front of the Clan. She was completely out of line when she lashed out at Blossomfall.

    I don’t think Blossomfall was childish. Most people would feel hurt if someone they had a relationship responded with apathy when they were hurt. It doesn’t seem like Millie is on good terms with Bumblestripe either. When he took Briarlight out of camp to cheer her up, he was afraid of Millie finding out. Cinderheart told him not to let her find out. Briarlight lies to cover for her brother. Blossomfall doesn’t get any support from her clanmates. No one reached out to comfort her when her mother humiliated her. When she asks Bumblestripe to train with her, he informs her that he will be training with Dovewing. She tried to connect with her brother but, he is too busy with his crush. It is no wonder she felt neglected. Everyone needs to be noticed and loved. Nobody would want to go through life unnoticed without anyone who cares about them.

    Millie could be kinder to her other children. Look at how other characters treat their adult children. Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, and Leafpool still give Lionblaze and Jayfeather support from time to time. Daisy was worried about Mousewhisker when he got bellyache. Whitewing is shown to care about her adult daughters on more than one occasion. Millie doesn’t even treat Blossomfall and Bumblestripe like clanmates, let alone family.

    I get that she is grieved but many queens have suffered greater grief and did not take it out on everyone. When Cinderpaw was brought home practically dead, after being hit by a car; Frostfur is sad a the thought of losing her daughter but, she doesn’t take her grief out on everyone. She remains calm and treats Fireheart and Yellowfang with respect. She still takes care of Brightkit and Thornkit. Brackenpaw gets support from his clanmates. Sorreltail and Ferncloud lost many kits but they don’t take their grief out on anyone. Speckletail was heart-broken when she lost Snowkit, but she didn’t make her clanmates miserable with her grief.

    Even prior to the Blossomfall/Briarlight drama Millie was not a nice cat. She disrespected Squirrelflight, when Squirrelfight told Blossompaw to get out of the leaders’ tree. Many Millie fans claim this was an act of motherly love. But Millie was out of line, she had no right to yell out Squirrelflight and made Dovepaw uncomfortable.

    She is also rude to Jayfeather when he is doing everything he can to take care of Briarlight. All of her yelling at him is counter-productive and probably make Briarlight feel more miserable. It must be upsetting for her to see her mother yell at her clanmates over her.

    Millie gives Bramblestar a hard time when he is trying to get Briarlight to safety in Bramblestar’s Storm. She yells at him rather than doing something productive like coming up with a way to get her daughter to safety.

    Another issue with Millie is her clanmates never call her out on her behavior. At least Rainflower got called out by her mate and the rest of Riverclan tried to be there for Crookedstar. Somebody needs to tell Millie to stop it with taking her grief out on everyone. The whole Clan is just as hurt and sad over Briarlight, they do not need her to wear them out with her grief.

    I also don’t like Millie because she felt like an unneeded throw in character. I would have preferred if she left after bringing Graystripe home. She didn’t really add anything to the series as a supporting character, and I honestly did not want to see more of her after the Warriors manga. I would have preferred to see more of Stormfur, Brooke, Ravenpaw, Barley, Sasha, or Cody.

    Even though Millie and Graystripe had more time to develop their relationship, it never felt like they were in love. It was so random when Graystripe asked her to be his mate in the manga. They didn’t have much chemistry. Tigerstar and Sasha only had one manga book to meet and fall in love, and I got the sense that there was some attraction between them right away. Graystripe never seemed attracted Millie. They did drift apart after they had children. Graystripe doesn’t really spend time comforting Millie or sitting with Briarlight. He hardly has much of a relationship with his children by Millie.
    Graystripe is very fond of Feathertail and Stormfur, even when they are adults he still affectionately calls them “my kits”. He worried about Silverstream’s kits more than he worried about Millie’s.

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