StarClan vs. The Dark Forest: Judgement of the Afterlife by Mistlepaw

It’s my theory that, it’s not actually Starclan alone or some unspoken higher power that decides where a spirit goes. Rather it’s the ‘collective consciousness’ of both Starclan and the Living Clan Cats which decides, even if it may be subconsciously. However the more faded a spirit, the less influence they have. So the modern generations of Starclan, like Yellowfang and Bluestar, do have a some say, but the majority of power goes to Living cats.

So it’s decided by what others think of that character. So sadly, even if they haven’t done any crimes, if they’re unpopular/hated enough, they’ll go to the Dark Forest regardless. Unfair, yes. But it’s meant to explain inconsistent and often unjustified judgment of cats, other then it’s ‘bad writing’. This would be the in lore explanation.

In the Ashfur case, this could help to explain more. As the Starclan Cats seem unconfrontable with Ashfur being there, but can’t do anything about it. Yellowfang, gives a vauge excuse and carelessly places it onto Squirrelflight with the word “Maybe”, implying she made it up on the spot. And when she’s fairly asked to clarify, she snapped that Jayfeather should “figure it out” and storms away. Then later on, Bluestar sternly insistent Jayfeather can’t see Ashfur at all and gives another vauge explanation that “Starclan can’t decide everything”.

So let’s put this theory into context:

Ashfur – The reason he allowed into Starclan was becuase he was unexposed at the time of his death. Besides from a select few, to the majority of Clan cats, Ashfur was just a hard-working senior warrior, with no reason to think he didn’t deserve Starclan. And with such an overwhelming majority, Starclan could do little but resultantly accept him.

Mudclaw – Probably quite a narrow one. The living cats quite divided on him. Though due to the whole event being mortally grey; with roughly half believing he was actually the rightful leader and others probably being sympathetic, it balanced it out. It seemed only a few Clan cats generally hated Mudclaw and thought he didn’t deserve Starclan. Even Onewhisker was sympathetic.

Brokenstar’s followers – Even if they didn’t do any crimes themselves, the hatred for Brokenstar was put on them. So since basically everyone thought Brokenstar didn’t deserve Starclan, that belief went onto anyone who was close to him.

Hawkfrost – Even if most of his crimes weren’t directly clear to most Living cats, by the time of his death, the majority of the Clan cats were suspicious, knowing he done something. With his connection with Mudclaw, some of that stigma went onto him. And alone, he had; obvious jealousy of Mistyfoot, spreading rumors and manipulation of his Medicine cat sister. Finally, when Hawkfrost’s body come back with a stake in his neck, this just confirmed it to many of his Clanmates – That he’d been doing crimes. The fact, he was also Tigerstar’s son added the living cats’ hatred of him, increasing his chances of going to the Dark Forest.

Hollyleaf – Thunderclan thought Hollyleaf running away and ‘accidental’ (Brambleclaw’s lie) murder of Ashfur was justified/understandable, as by that time, Ashfur’s crimes had finally been exposed. (Too far past his death for his afterlife to change). Leafpool’s attempted murder was never revealed. Then after that, Hollyleaf worked overtime to rebel herself. To her clanmates, some may be been still distrusting of her (Though not proper hate) but majority forgave her. For Clan cats outside of Thunderclan, desides from publicly revealing the secret and disappearing, didn’t know about her murders, so had no real reason to think she didn’t deserve Starclan.

Hawkheart – Despite it being strange that it was a Medicine cat, Hawkheart killing Moonflower wasn’t seen as that big of a deal. As especially in those times, warriors being slain in battle was just seen as harsh part of life. Also, since Thunderclan’s attack was unjustified and used dirty tactics, many didn’t hold it against him, even some Thunderclan cats.

Antpelt – For cats like him, who ended up in the Dark Forest despite not exposed for training in the DF and not being universally hated – I theorize, that he wasn’t overly loved either, just seen as an average warrior. Of course, the Clan cats would think he deserved Starclan, but they weren’t overly bothered about it either. So that meant Antpelt wasn’t given much of a defense against Starclan, who still have some influence. They knew Antpelt wished to be in the Dark Forest and they weren’t going to stop him. Willing for his wish to be fulfilled, they managed to overpower the small amount of support he got from the Living, sending him to the Dark Forest.