Super Edition Ideas: Blackstar by Viperfrost

Viperfrost proposes an idea for a super edition on Blackstar.

Art by Vialir

(POSSIBLE SPOILERS ACROSS ALL ARCS)
It’s Viperfrost, here to talk about a character who isn’t examined as much as he should be: Blackstar. Does he deserve a Super Edition? I’ll try to convince you! 😊 Here’s some reasons Blackstar deserves the spotlight.

1. Longevity. Many people say that Brackenfur deserves an SE, because he lived through so many important events and lost so much, and we should have his perspective. The same could be said of Blackstar. Blackstar lived through the reign of Brokenstar, Tigerclaw’s rogue group, the rule of Tigerstar’s Tigerclan, and eventually became the long-lived leader of Shadowclan. He went on the journey to the lake, and fought in the battles with Bloodclan and the Dark Forest.

2. Reactions. We could see him struggle to remain loyal to whichever leader Shadowclan has at the moment (“I was loyal to Brokenstar because he was the leader of my Clan, just as every ShadowClan warrior should have been. I am still a ShadowClan cat, whatever happens.” – Blackstar to Tigerclaw, Tigerstar’s Fury). We could see more of Tawnypaw’s quest to prove her loyalty to her new clan. We could also see Shadowclan’s reputation being rebuilt from the ground up after all the carnage. We get a glimpse of Shadowclan’s (not just Dawnpelt’s) reaction to Flametail’s death, and to the murder of Russetfur, Blackstar’s well-respected deputy. Moreover, let’s not forget that Blackstar’s manipulation by Sol could be written out in depth. There’s a lot of ground to cover here, and because Yellowfang’s Secret ends with her being driven from Shadowclan near the beginning of Brokenstar’s reign, there would not be too much overlap.

3. Mystery. Unlike Thunderclan, there are not many books centering around life in Shadowclan. As such, not much is known about Blackstar’s inner thoughts and motivations. He was the deputy of Brokenstar, a bringer of death and terror to many cats, yet still feels that it is necessary to repeat the names of those who died by the paws of the Dark Forest every single Gathering. He pledged his undying loyalty to anyone who gained the leadership of Shadowclan, yet also strived to improve Shadowclan’s reputation after he became leader. To summarize, we don’t know much about Blackstar, so it could be more interesting than hearing about a background character that we have heard a lot about and from, such as Brackenfur.

4. Upbringing. Blackstar was close in age to Brokenstar. They trained together, slept in the same den, et cetera. Blackstar was probably one of the closest cats Brokenstar had to a friend. Yellowfang wasn’t able to be very involved with Brokenstar’s apprenticeship and warriorship, but Blackstar would have been there for all of it, and could shed some light on the shaping of Brokenstar. I think that if Brokenpaw were to confide the extent of his ambition to anyone, it probably wouldn’t be Raggedstar. It would probably be one of his friends, one that he felt would understand it. Like Blackpaw.

5. Family. As we know, Blackstar is a grumpy, short-tempered cat with no mate and no kits. Blackstar was the son of Hollyflower (the cat that insisted the patrol save Tigerkit), the littermate of Fernshade and Flintfang, and the uncle of Badgerfang. We could see the aftermath of Badgerfang’s story, with Blackfoot trying to stay a loyal Shadowclan warrior while also trying to comfort his sister upon the loss of her kit and his brother on the loss of his apprentice. In fact, it would be interesting if it turned out that this event caused him to not seek out a mate or a family, since it could all be destroyed so easily.

6. Originality. We’ve had many SEs about heroes (Firestar, Bluestar, etc.) and about those who faced the dark and turned away to become heroes (Tallstar, Hawkwing, Crookedstar, etc.) But what about those who really did take the plunge, who fully committed to the dark side? Even Ivypool, who joined the Dark Forest, didn’t actually kill Flametail. She intended to, and leapt at him, but we don’t really know if she would have done it. Blackstar killed Stonefur at the Bonehill. He was the right-paw cat of Brokenstar, the deputy of Tigerstar’s Shadowclan. It would be a dark story, to be sure, but it could be interesting to see if he carried any guilt, if he struggled with it, and if he sought to redeem himself by restoring Shadowclan.
That concludes my article! 😊 So what do you think? Would you read an SE about Blackstar?

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