My Favorite Villains (SPOILERS!) by Butterflyflower

Butterflyflower shares some of their favourite villains from the series. Spoilers ahead!

This article is about some of my favorite villains from Warriors (and in general).
There will be spoilers for a lot of the books, including A Vision of Shadows!
Also, I may have typed some of this in past tense and some of it in present tense… 😛
Anyway, here are some of my favorite villains!

Scourge:
Scourge was a kittypet named Tiny. He was bullied by his siblings, and they continued to treat him badly even though their mother Quince yelled at them for it.
His siblings were adopted, and his sister (Ruby) told him that unwanted kittens got thrown into the river, so Tiny left his home and went into the forest. There he ran into Thistleclaw, Bluefur(star), and Tigerpaw(claw/star).
Thistleclaw wanted to “teach him a lesson”. Bluefur tried stopping him, but instead, Thistleclaw let Tigerpaw attack Tiny. Tiny would’ve been killed if Bluefur hadn’t stepped in.
Tiny was left with scars, both physical and emotional, and he wanted revenge on Tigerpaw…
Tiny went into the city. There were lots of cats there who treated him the same way his siblings had, only worse because they weren’t kittens. There was one old cat who treated him kindly though, but she wasn’t there for long.
Tiny realized that he was called a “kittypet” because of his collar, so he tried to get it off, but it wouldn’t come off, and the other cats laughed at him. Later, he found the tooth of an old dog, and so he used it to try and get it off, but instead, it got stuck in his collar.
When he was looking for food, other cats asked him how he got the tooth, so Tiny told them he had killed a dog and kept the tooth as a trophy. They didn’t seem fully convinced, but they gave him some food anyway.
Later, two rogues (Brick and Bone) came to him and told him there was a dog keeping cats away from a lot of food, and they asked if it was true that he could kill dogs. He asked them to show him where the dog was.
Tiny decided to fight the dog, though he ended up not needing to really do anything because the dog was scared of his shadow. The other cats saw him as a hero from that moment on, and he told them to call him Scourge.
Scourge became the rogue leader, and when outsiders came into the city and started attacking other cats, Scourge killed one of them, which scared them away.
The rogues followed Scourge more than ever now, partly because of how scared they were of him.
Scourge’s siblings (Socks and Ruby) came to the city seeking help because they had been abandoned. Scourge didn’t let them stay, but he did let them eat some food before they left.

Scourge spent the rest of his time as a tyrant ruler. He made horrible rules and had cats who didn’t follow them killed.

Finally, Tigerstar came to the city, wanting help with his ultimate plan of taking over all four Clans. Scourge agreed to help him, but he had a plan of his own.
After Firestar told Scourge why he shouldn’t trust Tigerstar, Scourge decided to wait on having a battle, but Tigerstar turned on him, so Scourge turned back on Tigerstar and killed him (nine times to be exact).
Scourge also still wanted to have a share of the forest, and the Clans had three days to decide if “BloodClan” could move in.
They decided it would be wrong to have a group of rogues in the forest, so they turned Scourge down, but Scourge wouldn’t leave without a fight. He succeeded in taking one of Firestar’s lives, but Firestar came back and killed Scourge.

I don’t think any of the bad things Scourge did were justified, though he did have a sad story. I do think it did have a lot to do with his influences though. After he went into the city, he was with a bunch of rogues, and he wanted to prove himself. He didn’t really start to get bad until he killed that rogue, because now he had a thirst for blood…

“I had to have ice in my veins to do what I just did. I expect the ice to melt… but it doesn’t. It just gets colder and colder…. And I welcome it.”
(The Rise of Scourge, page 71)

“Oh yes. Blood is everything. But the only blood I’m interested in flows from my enemies. Look around you! These cats are bathed in blood. It soaks their fur and laps at their paws. This is why we survive! We are BLOODCLAN!”
(The Rise of Scourge, page 74)

When it comes to Socks and Ruby, I think they were horrible to Scourge, and they were responsible for their own actions, but they weren’t evil. They were kits when they bullied Scourge, and as bad as they were to him, they might not have realized just how badly they were affecting him. And I don’t know what Ruby was thinking when she told him he would be thrown into the river. She might not have been expecting him to run away.
As adults, I think they were probably better cats, but I don’t totally blame Scourge for making them leave the city. I think it would be interesting to have a novella about one of them though.

Hawkfrost:
Hawkfrost was the son of Tigerstar and Sasha. His brother Tadpole died as a kit, and it really devastated him.
Sasha brought Hawk(frost) and his sister Moth(wing) to RiverClan. Leopardstar accepted them, but Sasha left, leaving her kits with RiverClan.
Hawkfrost and Mothwing were visited in dreams by Tigerstar. Hawkfrost followed him. Mothwing didn’t. Hawkfrost schemed with Brambleclaw(star) and Ashfur. He succeeded in taking another of Firestar’s lives, and he let Brambleclaw finish him off, but Brambleclaw stayed loyal to his Clan leader and killed Hawkfrost.
Hawkfrost went to the Dark Forest and continued to do bad things. He trained other living cats, like Ivypool. He tried to kill Ivypool in The Last Hope, but he ended up killing Hollyleaf instead.
He tried to kill Ivypool again, and he was killed instead again by Brambleclaw (again).

I like Hawkfrost because I think he’s a good villain, and he was adorable as a kit, and he just looked amazing as an adult. 😛 So pretty much the same reason I like Scourge.

Darkstripe:
Darkstripe was friends with Tigerclaw/star and Longtail. Tigerclaw was actually his mentor, and Longtail was his apprentice.

In the book Code of The Clans, there was a short story (A Dark Path Chosen) about how the Warrior Code says that kits, queens, and elders must be fed before the rest of the Clan. Darkstripe went hunting with Longtail while most of the other cats were sick. They caught a squirrel, and Darkstripe wanted to eat it.
Longtail told him they should bring it back to the Clan, but Darkstripe convinced him that they should eat first to get strength for the rest of the hunt. Longtail gave in and he and Darkstripe ate the squirrel.
After that, they only caught two mice and a blackbird. When they went back to camp, they found out Poppydawn, an elder, had died. Longtail feels guilty about it and says it was all their fault for not bringing back the squirrel, but Darkstripe says that Poppydawn wasn’t strong enough and that their lives were more important than hers. He also says that if Longtail tells anyone about the squirrel, he’ll tell them that it was Longtail’s idea and that Longtail forced him to eat the squirrel.

So already, Darkstripe isn’t a very good cat…

In the first series, Darkstripe is still loyal to Tigerclaw, and he’s always around him and Longtail.
Longtail eventually walked away from what they were doing and became a better cat, but Darkstripe continued to be loyal to Tigerclaw/star and even fed a kit (Sorrelkit/tail) deathberries because she had seen him talking to Blackfoot/star. Sorrelkit would’ve died if it hadn’t been for Graystripe.

“I feel no loyalty to ThunderClan. In the whole forest, the only cat worth following is Tigerstar.”

Even after Tigerstar was killed, Darkstripe wanted to kill Firestar. Tigerstar had been the only cat he was loyal to, and when he was dead, Darkstripe wasn’t loyal to anyone. He attacked both the BloodClan rogues and the Clan cats who sided with Firestar. He was eventually killed by Graystripe.

“You’re mine, kittypet. It’s time for you to die.”
“Every cat in the forest can turn to crowfood for all I care. All I want is to see you dead.”

In the Dark Forest, he was more scared and upset because he thought he would be in StarClan, and he felt lonely in the Dark Forest, especially when Tigerstar left him alone.

“Why is it always dark here? Where is the moon? I thought we would be hunting across the sky with our warrior ancestors, and watching over our Clanmates.”
“You can’t leave this forest. I know-I’ve tried. But however far I walk, the trees never end, and there’s no light anywhere.”

I think he’s an interesting character. He was a bad cat of course, but he was a decent villain (though he was kind of cowardly 😛 ). And it is interesting to see how he acted differently than the other cats while he was in the Dark Forest, though he was still loyal to them in the Great Battle.

Darktail:
Darktail is in the A Vision of Shadows series and the Super Edition, Hawkwing’s Journey.
In Hawkwing’s Journey, he convinced Hawkwing that he was just like him and succeeded, only to end up leading rogues into SkyClan camp and driving SkyClan out. He also killed Hawkwing’s father, Sharpclaw.

In The Apprentice’s Quest, Alderpaw(heart), Needlepaw(tail), Sparkpaw(pelt), Molewhisker, and Cherryfall make the journey to SkyClan’s camp. (Sandstorm was with them too, but she never made it to their camp…)
Darktail convinced them that they were SkyClan cats, though Alderpaw knew there was something wrong.
When Alderpaw met a former SkyClan cat and was told what had happened, Darktail came and killed the SkyClan cat. Then he had Alderpaw and the rest of the Clan cats thrown into a den to be guarded by rogues.

In Thunder and Shadow, Darktail came to the lake territories with his rogues. They ended up getting some of the younger ShadowClan warriors and apprentices on their side and eventually drove Rowanstar, Tigerheart, and Tawnypelt out.
Darktail also gouged out one of Rain’s eyes.

Darktail also does the same type of thing with Violetpaw that he did with Hawkwing: convincing her that they’re alike.

In Shattered Sky, Rain tries to kill Darktail, but Darktail kills him instead. Darktail also has kittypets join and swear an oath of loyalty to his rogues which he calls “The Kin”.
He leads his rogues (and the kittypets) into RiverClan territory. They drive RiverClan out. Some RiverClan and ShadowClan cats were killed, one of the kittypets were killed, and Darktail keeps the injured RiverClan warriors in a prisoner’s den.
When Raven tells Darktail about how Needletail let Alderheart and Mothwing inside the medicine den to gather a store of herbs, Darktail asks Violetpaw about it, seeing if she would tell the truth. He said he wouldn’t punish Needletail if it was the truth, and Violetpaw ended up telling him. He then has Needletail thrown into the prisoner’s den.

He also drowns cats. He drowned Dawnpelt and maybe some others. There were some who escaped though.
When Sleekwhisker saw Violetpaw messing with food, she told Darktail, and Darktail asked Puddleshine what was in it, and he found out that they were poppy seeds and that they were powerful enough to put a cat to sleep.
Darktail, Sleekwhisker, Roach, and Raven went to the lake with Violetpaw and Needletail. Darktail starts drowning Needletail, but after Violetpaw tries pleading with him, he decides he won’t kill her if she can kill Violetpaw. Needletail lets Violetpaw escape and is killed by Darktail, Sleekwhisker, and Roach.

Darktail’s backstory is also revealed in Shattered Sky. His parents were Onestar and a kittypet named Smoke.
When Smoke was pregnant, she traveled to WindClan and asked Onestar (then Onewhisker) if she could join. Onewhisker however, turned her away. She started going back to her twolegs but started kitting on the way there, and with no one to help her, all of her kits died except for one (Darktail). When Darktail (no one knows what his name originally was) was older, Smoke decided to give Onewhisker a second chance. She brought her kit to WindClan and asked Onewhisker to at least take in the kit, but Onewhisker refused again, making Smoke angry. She said she would raise her kit to hate the Clans.
No one really knows what he did before finding SkyClan…

After Onestar revealed to all the Clans that Darktail was his son, there was one final battle. Darktail and Onestar killed each other in the middle of the lake.

Darktail is one of my favorite villains because I think he had a decent backstory that connects him to the Clans, yet separates him from them at the same time. He had the same type of charm and a way with words like Hawkfrost and Sol (and maybe also Tigerclaw/star). He also had the same type of power as Scourge (though maybe not as much as him…) and Tigerstar.
He had a lot of cats thrown into a den and pretty much starved. He took in innocent kittypets who didn’t know what was going on and didn’t let them leave when they wanted to, causing one of them to die (RIP Max).
And as I said before, he drowns cats!

Altogether, I think he’s one of the best villains!