Leopardstar VS Bluestar (Part 1) by Sorrelpaw

Hi, I’m Sorrelpaw and I’m here to present on whether Leopardstar was a better leader, or Bluestar.

Was Leopardstar a better leader or was Bluestar? Common sense tells me that Bluestar was a better leader. She kept ThunderClan safe, she found Firestar and she kept Thistleclaw, who most people agree was evil, from becoming the deputy and later the leader. Basically she was a great leader, Bluestar was. And now Leopardstar. Leopardstar! What good is there to say about Leopardstar? She joined forces with Tigerstar!! She has to be evil to forge an alliance with that… that bloodthirsty and cruel cat! How can such an evil cat hold a candle to the brave Bluestar?

Well, that’s what my common sense tells me. Bluestar was a way better leader than Leopardstar!

Most of the time, I trust my common sense. Don’t we all? After all, common sense is mostly what led us through all the years we’ve been alive. We believe in it, it has to be right. But sometimes, to prove that your common sense is indeed tight–or to prove that it is wrong– you should take a closer look.

Bluestar. We’ll start with Bluestar. What is Bluestar’s greatest contribution to the Clan? What did Bluestar do to help the Clan most? In my opinion, I think that Bluestar’s greatest contribution to ThunderClan is that she found Firestar, the “fire” that will “save our Clan”. She accepted a kittypet into ThunderClan, for StarClan’s sake, which is practically breaking the code! But because she believed that Rusty (as Firestar was called then) had the potential to save her Clan, she allowed him in, even mentoring him herself at one point. Firestar later did indeed save the Clan– saved all the Clans!

Having seen Bluestar’s contribution, let’s try to find a matching one in Leopardstar.

What did Leopardstar do for her Clan? Well, Leopardstar didn’t find a kittypet who was prophecied to save her Clan — or all the Clans– but she she did find a cat who would save all the Clans.

Mistyfoot and Stonefur were half-Clan cats, born to Graystripe of ThunderClan and Silverstream of RiverClan. Now, don’t think me as mean for saying this, but half-Clan cats weren’t supposed to exist because intermarriage (intermating?) between Clans was not allowed. After the Tigerstar crisis where Leopardstar allianced with Tigerstar (something which we shall discuss later), Leopardstar allowed Mistyfoot to remain in the Clan despite being half-Clan and even made Mistyfoot the deputy!

This action of allowing a cat who technically went against the warrior code by being half-Clan was similar to Bluestar’s action of accepting a kittypets into the Clan against the Code. And Mistyfoot, like Firestar, later did save all the Clans. Remember the first book in Omen of the Stars? Remember The Fourth Apprentice? Firestar had announced to the Gathering that he had a plan to send patrols from all four Clans to find whatever was blocking the water and free the water. Basically, a plan that in the end saved the Clans from dying of thirst. Well, ShadowClan and WindClan were pretty quick to agree to the plan, but Leopardstar of RiverClan wasn’t so keen. She was about to just refuse the plan and then go home, when Mistyfoot, the deputy at the time, convinced Leopardstar to agree to the plan. So firestar’s plan was put into action and later the patrol made up of RiverClan, ThunderClan, WindClan and ShadowClan cats freed the water and saved the Clans from dying of thirst. Had Mistyfoot not persuaded Leopardstar to let a patrol from RiverClan go, then the Clans might not have been saved. So in the end, Mistyfoot saved the Clans.

Now back to Bluestar! Bluestar did something else besides finding Firestar. She kept Thistleclaw from becoming the deputy. Thistleclaw, the way Bluestar saw him, was a ruthless, merciless and cruel tom-cat. Bluestar knew that she could not let Thistleclaw become the leader. So she gave up her kits to become the deputy and to stop Thistleclaw from becoming the deputy. She stopped an evil cat from becoming the deputy, and then later the Clan leader! Surely this must count as an important contribution?

Now let’s look at Leopardstar. Leopardstar also stopped an evil cat from becoming leader. Remember Hawkfrost? When Mistyfoot had been captured by the Twolegs in The New Prophecy series, Hawkfrost replaced her as the deputy. And he was a really good deputy, too! But when Mistyfoot returned, Leopardstar removed the really good deputy Hawkfrost as deputy and instead she re-installed Mistyfoot as the deputy. Leopardstar could have just let Hawkfrost keep on being the deputy, and he was so strong and young and bright, he would make a really good deputy! Yet Leopardstar must have seen that Hawkfrost was not truly a good cat, for she insisted upon letting Mistyfoot take the deputy position.

So, Bluestar and Leopardstar! After examining their contributions, who can say that the two she-cats weren’t equal?? Bluestar was NOT a better leader than Leopardstar, Leopardstar was no worse a leader than Bluestar! Someday I’ll make another article to analyze their weaknesses and see if they’re equal in weakness as well as in contributions.

Welllll that’s it for today! Farewell, keep faith and May StarClan light Your Path!!

~Sorzi