Hated Cats – Article One: Blossomfall by Sky

Sky starts off a series of defense articles by talking about Blossomfall.

Hello BlogClan! I’m making a defense article series in defense of some hated cats – both the ones commonly hated and the ones more liked than hated. This is article number one, where I defend Blossomfall. I’ve chosen her because she seems to get her fair share of almost every emotion available to a warriors fan. Along with those emotions is hate.

NOTE: When I say “many people,” I mean many people who hate her, not the majority of the fandom.

Blossomfall. This cat is part of the core the reason as to why I dislike Millie. Many people hate her because she was “irresponsible, whiny, unappreciative, and a brat.” However, I don’t see her in this light. Let’s look at two major reasons as to why people hate her and my responses to those reasons.

1 – “She was so irresponsible, dragging Ivypool into the tunnels. Whitewing didn’t yell at Ivypool because Ivypool didn’t want to go. Plus, Millie had every right to yell at her – Millie was concerned! Also, don’t your parents yell at you sometimes? Do you hate them? No. So Millie was justified and Blossomfall shouldn’t have been so sensitive and went to train with Dark Forest cats.”

MY RESPONSE: No, she was curious. This was a sometimes negative attribute in her genetic makeup! Also, did Whitewing know that Ivypool was the one who got convinced into it? Nope, she didn’t. For all Whitewing could’ve known, it was – or could have been – Ivypool who initiated the adventure. I also have to add that Ivypool went along with it, so obviously she did want to go a bit. There’s another scene in the books that reveals that Millie was actually not concerned about her ending up like Briarlight – sick and unable to fully be a warrior. In one of the books, Hazeltail calls to Millie saying that Blossomfall had a cough in leafbare. In that cold season, even a small cough is something to be concerned about. But what does Millie do? She mews a small “Okay” to Hazeltail’s words as if she didn’t hear them(and she probably didn’t) and goes off to give prey to Briarlight, who probably doesn’t even WANT all the attention Millie pours on her. This was just breaking another straw in the sparse haystack of Blossomfall’s hope for her mother’s attention. I highly suspect that the scene after Ivypool and Blossomfall go into the tunnels was one of the last straws. “Where did the other straws go?” you may ask. Well, it’s showed multiple times that Millie snaps at Blossomfall and Bumblestripe. So I think that those snaps slowly broke all of the other straws. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “Why didn’t Bumblestripe run off to the Dark Forest?” Because EVERY CAT is DIFFERENT. Bumblestripe is more independent and understanding than Blossomfall, who seeks love and attention. This might make her sound clingy, as most parents in the first series barely interacted with their kids after they become warriors, but that was because, in the first series, most parents were dead or the Erins didn’t even know that they’d become parents! In all future books, we see relationships between parent and child, most much better than the one between Millie and her children. If I grew up and my only interactions with my mom after my sister got injured were her snapping at me and yelling at me, I’d start feeling terrible. Call Blossomfall sensitive if you’d like, but sensitive people tend to need more positive nurturing care, something Blossomfall didn’t have. (By the way, this is psychological. The higher-reactive you are, emotional-wise, you really do tend to need more caring and kind care from an older figure as higher-reactive people are more sensitive.) Graystripe ignored his second litter and Millie was always snapping, so Blossomfall wanted some cat to appreciate and nurture her. This is what the Dark Forest gave her. Support.

In addition, I consider the sister part a large part as to why Blossomfall reacted so strongly, especially in comparison to Bumblestripe. So I’m not being sexist, but siblings of the same gender tend to get along better, feel a stronger connection, and turn to each other more than two siblings of opposite genders. This is pretty much a given in my opinion. Siblings of the same gender ALSO tend to expect the same treatment. So since Briarlight got so much attention, Blossomfall only expected the same treatment! Bumblestripe, as a cat of another gender, doesn’t really expect that in the same way.

2 – “Blossomfall knew that the Dark Forest was where evil cats went, yet she still trained there. Plus, she hates her sister – what kind of a cat is she?”

MY RESPONSE: She trained there because she wanted attention. That sounds weird, I guess, but it’s true. It probably seems bad because other most of the other trainees didn’t know that the DF was evil, other than the evil trainees. The thing is is that I see Blossomfall as a Bramblestar case. She believes that the cats in the DF can help her, and it probably helps the DF cats that Blossomfall wants attention, so it’s a package deal for her – training and attention together! Like Bramblestar, she knew that her trainers were bad cats, but she stayed not because she wanted to be evil, but because they offered her almost everything that she wanted in her life then. In response to the hating sister part, she said that she hated her sister for getting injured. She never said that she outright hated her sister! I take it that she hates her sister’s injury and indirectly hates that her sister got herself injured. She hates the ACT of her sister getting injured and that her sister let herself get injured, not entirely her sister herself. I think that that’s okay. Plus, Millie wasn’t being helpful. In fact, Blossomfall probably would never have said or thought that had Millie been a good mom. You see, Briarlight getting injured caused Millie to treat her other kits horribly. Therefore, even if Briarlight had gotten injured but Millie treated her kits well, Blossomfall would have nothing to hate about the injury other than the fact that her sister was hurt.

I’ve covered the two main reasons as to why people hate Blossomfall. Hopefully this has altered your view to a more positive one of Blossomfall!

~ Sky

P.S. – Please trust me on the psychology thing. Not making it up, promise. I went through a lot of psychology audiobooks in the car with my mom…

Next Article: Dovewing