Why Antpelt Should Have Been Given a Second Chance by Cheetahpaw

Cheetahpaw discusses why Antpelt should’ve been given a second chance.

*SPOILERS FOR OMEN OF THE STARS*
Hello everyone! Cheetah here, with another article. So, in case anyone didn’t know, Antpelt is my favorite “evil” cat. I’m using quotes around evil because I don’t think Antpelt should have gone to the Dark Forest after he died. Yes, I do know that Antpelt was one of the cats that was more… um… enthusiastic about destroying the Clans. But let’s think about this for a second:
Like most of the other cats that trained in the Dark Forest, Antpelt thought that he was just there for training, and nothing else, at the beginning. He was one of the first cats to train there, so after staying there for so long, he obviously thought that he could trust the cats that told him that they only wanted to help make him a better warrior. He would also feel loyalty towards the cats that seemed to care about him more than his Clanmates. Antpelt didn’t have anyone to help him and talk him out of what he was doing like Dovewing did with Ivypool.
In fact, the only reason Ivypool turned out any different then Antpelt was because she had friends and family that cared for her and convinced her that what she was doing was wrong. Antpelt had nothing like that. After I checked the Warriors Wiki, I saw Antpelt has no known parents, no known mentors, apprentices, etc. Obviously, Antpelt did have parents and a mentor, but since we don’t know who they are, we don’t know if they were alive when Antpelt went to the Dark Forest so they could talk him out of it.
And yes, I know there is no excuse for training with evil cats, because Antpelt obviously knew they were evil if he’s heard anything about Tigerstar or Brokenstar. But it actually did show in some moments how Antpelt showed restraint while fighting or showed bits of kindness. And if he had lived to see the Great Battle, I honestly can’t say whether or not he would fight for the Clans.
And after Antpelt was killed the first time, I don’t think he should have been eternally punished by staying in the Dark Forest forever. I mean, Ashfur went to StarClan. But I also don’t think that Antpelt should have gone straight to StarClan when he died.
You’re probably thinking, why would Cheetah say she didn’t want Antpelt to go to the Dark Forest and then say that he shouldn’t go to StarClan? Yeah, I’m weird like that. Really though, I think I have a solution.
Antpelt shouldn’t have gone to the Dark Forest after death because of some naive mistake of him training with the DF cats. He didn’t know any better, and he really didn’t deserve it. But he also didn’t deserve to go to StarClan. He did show signs of liking what the DF were doing, and he wasn’t exactly a saint. He even says later on that he prefers the Place of No Stars to StarClan. So the solution? Reincarnate him.
Okay, at this point my solution to everything is reincarnation. But think about it. Antpelt was in the worst possible circumstances. He was a warrior during the rise of the Dark Forest, he wasn’t old enough to face the “wrath” of Tigerstar and Brokenstar, and in that time, joining the DF was basically the what “all the cool kids” were doing. What was Antpelt supposed to do? You can’t exactly reject these cats. Remember what happened to poor Beetlewhisker? If Antpelt was born in a different time, and under different circumstances, I actually think he would be a pretty good cat.
Let’s say that Antpelt was reincarnated as a WindClan cat again a little bit after the time he was killed first. He would have been a kit during the Great Battle, so all that junk with the DF cats would have been behind the Clans by the time he was old enough to even be an apprentice. He would have grown up during a “relatively” peaceful time. Yeah, there would have been some not-so-fun stuff going on, but there would be no evil cats waiting to corrupt young innocents.
He also would have been born after Firestar had died, so Onestar wouldn’t have been that hostile with the other Clans. So little baby reincarnation of Antpelt would have been brought up right in a happy, healthy environment. You know, as healthy as you can get with the Clans.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to give me your opinions in the comments. It’s weird even to me that I’m defending Antpelt when I don’t like most evil cats. But still, I’m trying to be more forgiving, and I really do think Antpelt didn’t deserve what happened to him 🙂