Firewing takes a look at ShadowClan’s reputation by Firewing

Firewing takes a look at ShadowClan’s reputation throughout the books. Spoilers for AVoS!

Hi! This is my first article, so please bear with me. I also recognize that I’m not the best at writing. In any case, I’m going to take a look about the thing that was introduced to us at the beginning of the core series, and is now an issue in the newer books: ShadowClan’s reputation.

ShadowClan is introduced to us under the reign of Brokenstar, possibly one of the cruelest leaders in the core series. Just like that, we already have a bad reputation for ShadowClan, as when your leader makes kits prematurely fight in vicious battles and drive out other clans for not consenting to unreasonable demands, you can begin to see why this might rub a viewer (or even in this case, Firepaw) the wrong way. Graypaw even makes a point to him when they first meet that ShadowClan was “so fierce, they would have shred you without asking questions.” This is likely because Brokenstar was in occupation during Graypaw’s youth. In any case, we already see what a terrible clan ShadowClan is displayed as in the core series; Whitestorm says that “the cold mountain winds blow over ShadowClan’s hearts,” they attack the ThunderClan in their own camp more than once in The Prophecies Begin, and they nurture and allow Tigerclaw to grow in power and allow him to become one of the main antagonists and the leader of ShadowClan, Tigerstar.

Hi! This is my first article, so please bear with me. I also recognize that I’m not the best at writing. In any case, I’m going to take a look about the thing that was introduced to us at the beginning of the core series, and is now an issue in the newer books: ShadowClan’s reputation.

ShadowClan is introduced to us under the reign of Brokenstar, possibly one of the cruelest leaders in the core series. Just like that, we already have a bad reputation for ShadowClan, as when your leader makes kits prematurely fight in vicious battles and drive out other clans for not consenting to unreasonable demands, you can begin to see why this might rub a viewer (or even in this case, Firepaw) the wrong way. Graypaw even makes a point to him when they first meet that ShadowClan was “so fierce, they would have shred you without asking questions.” This is likely because Brokenstar was in occupation during Graypaw’s youth. In any case, we already see what a terrible clan ShadowClan is displayed as in the core series; Whitestorm says that “the cold mountain winds blow over ShadowClan’s hearts,” they attack the ThunderClan in their own camp more than once in The Prophecies Begin, and they nurture and allow Tigerclaw to grow in power and allow him to become one of the main antagonists and the leader of ShadowClan, Tigerstar.

So what happened in AVoS? When Rowanstar first rose to power, his clan was perfectly capable of fighting anything, and in TAQ, Needlepaw even mentions that there were “so many young cats, Rowanstar didn’t know what to do with [them.]” You’d think a clan with many members would be powerful, as ThunderClan is easily the most powerful clan in the forest with about 40+ cats and so many young warriors, but Needlepaw’s connection with the rogues literally ruined everything for them. If it wasn’t for her, the other cats would have been angry, but eventually content to listen to their mentors. Since they had somewhere else to go, they took the opportunity and went to the rogues instead. Because these nine moon old cats are now living in a group of vicious cats who fight each other on the daily, they become vicious themselves, and Rowanstar’s quiet pacifism makes it so that he can’t win them over or even win a fight over leadership against Darktail. And somehow, the entire clan except Violetpaw and Rowanstar had NO idea their camp was about to be invaded. And in the end of Darkest Night, after ShadowClan regains some of its warriors, Rowanstar gives up his territory and cats to SkyClan just because his son left. It’s almost appalling to me how easily ShadowClan gives itself up without a fight, and without anyone at all thinking: “Hey, what if we want ShadowClan to survive?” Even Tawnypelt gives in, and she’s supposed to be the voice of reason within ShadowClan. What do you guys think? Again, I’m sorry for the choppiness of this, it’s my first post and I’m not exactly the best writer.