Why Brambleclaw Deserved to be Deputy over Graystripe

Cotton talks about why Brambleclaw deserved to be ThunderClan’s deputy more than Graystripe.

Hello, everyone! My name is Cotton, and I’m new to BlogClan. This is my first article on here. Let us begin!

The topic of Brambleclaw’s deputyship can be a controversy one, especially with a large portion of the fandom believing that Graystripe should have been deputy. Today I’d like to talk about why Brambleclaw deserved to be deputy more than Graystripe.

Firstly, let’s talk about their age. A reminder that Graystripe is the same age as Firestar, who was already leader by the time Graystripe’s chance to become deputy arose. By the time Firestar died in the Last Hope, Graystripe was ready to retire. Brambleclaw wasn’t exactly young, yes, but he was still much younger than Graystripe. ThunderClan needed a leader who wouldn’t be too old to lead them, and Brambleclaw could meet that expectation. Graystripe was far too old to lead.

Now I’m going to talk about their morals, and what they have proven themselves to be. Time and time again, it has been shown that Graystripe will put love over loyalty. He follows his heart, and that isn’t a good thing, especially in a leader or deputy. It was first shown when Graystripe fell in love with the RiverClan she-cat: Silverstream (Crookedstar’s daughter, might I add). Graystripe was willing to leave not only ThunderClan, but his friends too, for the cat he loved, which is what he did after the death of Silverstream, when Graystripe left to be with his kittens in RiverClan. He later returned to ThunderClan after realising he would never be able to attack ThunderClan in battle. He felt no remorse for his actions, even though he betrayed his Clan and the Warrior Code.

His morals are shown again when he takes Millie as a mate, despite the fact it is still against the Warrior Code. In this case, it isn’t as severe, since both of them were away from ThunderClan at that point, but they were still trying to find it. Graystripe was okay with breaking the code once again to follow his heart.

Brambleclaw, on the other paw, has always been loyal to ThunderClan. Despite all the stereotyping they did due to Brambleclaw’s similar appearance to Tigerstar, Brambleclaw has shown time and time again that he loves his clanmates and will do anything to prove that he isn’t like his father. He also remained loyal to ThunderClan even after his sister, Tawnypelt, went to ShadowClan. He would do anything for his Clan, even if it put his life at risk.

I also believe that Brambleclaw deserved to be deputy simply because he worked harder. Graystripe was handed the deputyship because Firestar was his best friend. Graystripe didn’t truly even want to be deputy, he was more “alright then” with it. Brambleclaw actually had to work hard and prove he was loyal. He wanted to be deputy, and he earned that deputy position after pushing passed Firestar’s biased opinion on him, which was made very obvious. Firestar did not trust Brambleclaw, nor did some others, yet Brambleclaw still did his best to become deputy through it all.

In conclusion, Brambleclaw worked hard to get where he is today. He was a loyal, hard working warrior who struggled with stereotyping from his clanmates but managed to complete his dream through the hardships. Graystripe, no matter how kind or funny he was, was a warrior who wasn’t afraid to break the code to follow his heart. He never struggled with the issues that Brambleclaw did, and he was handed most of the things he got.

Thank you for reading!