My Rant About Gray Wing and His Potential by Spottedheart

Spottedheart talks about Gray Wing’s life and potential as a character.

I shouldn’t have chosen this as a subject. You’ll still be reading this article in a few hours because I have so many things that just shouldn’t have happened in Gray Wing’s life. I have 1151 words in this article. (* Writes mental note of not to write about my favourite characters*) No cat should go through this much suffering. I apologise in advance. I will definitely go off track with mini rants about the undeserved deaths of many. I’m ready for the comments to light up in positive and negative opinions relating this article!

Before I get to 500 words from the first paragraph alone, I’ll start my little, friendly rant with a not so famous quote. “The past is the past, it can’t be changed, but we can choose how we look back on their life and base our opinions on that” -Spottedheart, February 28, 2018. So, as we all should know, Gray Wing was the main character of Dawn of the Clans, so only read this article if you read all six Dawn of the Clan books! Gray Wing did not plan on going from the Tribe to the place visioned by Stoneteller, but when Jagged Peak ran off to catch up with them, Gray Wing was put in charge of finding Jagged Peak and the party going to the new lands. Gray Wing had an extremely important but hard life, he was the one to give all of the clans their names, and he made most of his group’s decisions at the peak of his healthy life. He had to lose his brother to his ambition, where he was basically turning into a psychopath. Please pardon me if I make some mistakes. I’m a bit rusty on the Dawn of the Clans series!

My first issue is that Clear Sky blamed Gray Wing for the death of his first mate, Bright Stream. That was extremely wrong of him. Gray Wing couldn’t get to the hawk in time because he was extremely tired from the journey, adrenaline wasn’t enough to help him save Bright Stream. He definitely did not try to let her die, Gray Wing admitted that he liked Bright Stream too, but she was already with Clear Sky. Gray Wing isn’t the type of cat that would become jealous and try to kill her! No way! Gray Wing was a well known hero, not a murderer.

Gray Wing had to go through so much: Part 1: Clear Sky’s stupidity: *Sighs*. I have nothing against the separation of the cats into Moon Shadow’s group and Clear Sky’s group, everyone has their own opinions, but… He wanted to start a war because he needed more prey and land? I don’t really think that that was the issue. He wanted to take over the forest for his own wild group, pushing Moon Shadow’s group farther and farther away. It was an extremely useless fight, and all the blood was left in the hands of Clear Sky, it was all his fault.

The next issue was of Clear Sky stealing Gray Wing’s mate, now they may not have officially been mates yet, but you could see that they each liked the other one. But when they went to visit his brother, they fell in love from looks! Not personality, which really hits close to my heart. Gray Wing really wanted to love her, but Clear Sky just wanted to… Use her. He didn’t let his own kit into the clan! What! Horrible parenting.

This is directed towards the Erin Hunters: Why are the main characters clueless! We could see that Cinderpelt liked Firestar but Firestar couldn’t see what was below his nose. The same thing happened with Turtle Tail. Honestly Gray Wing!! He pretty much made Turtle Tail leave, and whenever he came to the town, Turtle Tail’s hopes rose through the roof, but he was looking for Storm. After reading the part when Turtle Tail left to the town, I went to bed and dreamt about Turtle Tail getting together with Gray Wing, which was all I ever wanted from the first book to be completely truthful with you. I was absolutely ecstatic when Turtle Tail came back!

I have a very strong opinion about this issue, you’re lucky that you’re reading me say this and not hearing me yell it with pain flashing through my eyes: Why did you have to die Turtle Tail? Why, why, why, why? All Tom wanted to do was make everyone suffer and get his kits From Turtle Tail! But he second handedly killed Turtle Tail! I was heartbroken. Before this moment, I had cried at two deaths, maybe three: Dobby, the house elf from Harry Potter (Don’t judge, I was in grade three), and Firestar. I said maybe three because Spottedleaf’s second death was cruel, but I may have only been crying from the shock of Firestar watching her die, and then when Firestar himself died. Now you may add poor Turtle Tail. *Please have a moment of silence, I don’t care that they are fiction characters, I had a space in my heart for them*. Gray Wing and the kits were heartbroken, but Gray Wing had to seem strong and comfort the kits. That death was the definition of cruel. Come on, covering her body in flowers, so sad!

Anyways, on a bit lighter note, (just saying, these points aren’t really in a timeline), I will bring up Gray Wing’s asthma, which ultimately led to his early death (On the bright side, he was able to be with Turtle Tail!). He got it from the fire that raged through the forest when he had to jump over a circle of fire and inhale the toxins. He had to eventually give up his leadership from it, but at least he was still a highly respected cat. *Shakes head at how his career was ruined from twolegs (I think)*

That must be it, right? NO NO NO!! There’s more! He had to see his brother KILL someone! Okay, so he turned down Jagged Peak and Thunder, and we knew that he killed a mother (I think her name was Fox), but Gray Wing watched him kill Rainswept Flower, who was always there when Gray Wing was having a hard time, he had to see “his” (He was the only father that actually loved them) kit(s) leave him and join another group. Thunder did it TWICE!! And then he died from his asthma, nit before saying good-bye to his super young kits and naming all of the clans.

In conclusion, Gray Wing should have been a leader, should not have lost his mate, should not have had such a bad brother, and just had a horrible life.

Did I miss anything? If so, tell me, I’d love to have some more fuel added to my fire! Until next time, may StarClan light your path!