[a full-body drawing of Ashfur laying down with his tail raised]

Ashfur, Controversy, and What I Think by Spottedpaw

Spottedpaw shares their opinion on Ashfur.

Art by TheBlueDrakeOfDoom

Hello, this is Spottedpaw with my second article!

I was reading an article about Ashfur, and then my brain decided that was more interesting than getting my homework done, so here I am! šŸ˜›

I’ve seen articles arguing that Ashfur is guilty, mostly, but some not guilty ones. To start, I’ll state what he did that would cause that controversy, and then go into how it compares with a cat who is just barely on the other side of the spectrum–Mapleshade!

So Ashfur hasn’t murdered, but that’s setting the bar pretty low. However, if we go in depth, that’s as high as we can set it. First, Ashfur broke up with Squirrelflight and stuff, which was where this whole thing started. He didn’t break up by choice, but his life went on. It went on so far that he ended up mentoring her ‘son’, Lionblaze. He didn’t get along well, but he didn’t make a move. I’m forgetting something, though! He already had made his move, helping to try to kill Firestar, to hurt Squirrelflight. In the end Brambleclaw–who incidentally Squirrelflight left Ashfur for–left his father’s shadow of evil. He saved Firestar’s lives, and became a loyal deputy. He worked extremely hard for what he got, and he understood Squirrelflight in a way Ashfur never had.

Next, moons and moons later, Ashfur trapped who he thought were Squirrelflight’s kits, and only let them go when Squirrelflight confessed they weren’t her kits, and so she didn’t care about them. Ashfur believes this. Anyway, he was killed a day later by Hollyleaf, and sent to StarClan, because all he’d done was ‘love too much’.

That I disagree with. He didn’t love Squirrelflight, per say, but he cared about her more than ordinary somehow. It wasn’t love, because if it were he would never have tried to hurt her and kill her children and father if he truly ever loved her. I’m getting this from an article called ‘Obsession and Ashfur’, by Jetclaw. Maybe he did love her at first, but it got darker. If he loved her, he wouldn’t hurt her.

Anyway, using the ‘he didn’t murder in the end’ is true, but if you get all the facts, it wasn’t him who changed his mind. He was saved from murdering at first by Brambleclaw, and so forcing Brambleclaw to actually murder his own brother to save the Clans. That was luck and circumstance, and Brambleclaw was pushed a lot harder to do that sort of thing than Ashfur was, and yet Ashfur was the one who turned. The next time–proving Ashfur didn’t change, that there was a next time–he only didn’t kill Leafpool’s kits because he learned that they were Leafpool’s. He didn’t change, and Hollyleaf broke herself by killing him. Two cats became murderers unnecessarily because of him. Brambleclaw killed, but so did Firestar, and that was in defense to save the Clans. Hollyleaf is a bit more black-and-white, but she shouldn’t have had to do it at all.

And that leads me to my next point–how Ashfur is connected to other cats, using the highest bar we can set for him, he didn’t murder. What if Mapleshade had been caught by someone? What if a StarClan cat came and made her see through the hallucinations? What if she had the forgiveness and luck of Ashfur? Would she be in StarClan too? It’s hard to say, as I think Mapleshade was invented before her background was. But if she had the same crimes as Ashfur, where would she be?

Another cat is Tigerstar I. He killed Brindleface, Runningwind, Redtail, and Gorsepaw. Actually, as many as if Ashfur had succeeded. There were some deaths he influenced, such as Swiftpaw’s, Bluestar’s, and Lionheart’s, but that was him leading his rogues and dogs. The difference between Ashfur and Tigerstar was only that Tigerstar planned ahead, got allies, and tried to destroy all of ThunderClan, not just Firestar. Ashfur never went to that point, but he did a lot to other cats to hurt Squirrelflight. He didn’t spread it out so far, only attacking cats close to Squirrelflight, but the motivation was still there. He had a much smaller scale, and didn’t succeed, but that wasn’t because he did anything special. He didn’t change. He just schemed and plotted more.

This is my second article! I hope you liked it, I literally wrote it all right now (I’m kind of proud of myself but also worried about the cringe factor) because who likes homework anyway? I don’t need to do that thing, my teachers won’t mind at all! šŸ˜›

I hope you liked the article, and bye!

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8 comments

  • *cough* FYI Ashfur and Squirrelflight were never mates!!!! Squirrelflight never left Ashfur and neither did they break up. They were just friends but Ashfur wanted more and so he pressured her and then went a little coo-coo by trying to hurt her family all because she didnā€™t want to be more than just friends. *cough*

    (sorry lol I had to)

  • Yeah, I agree with a lot of this! You stated in the beginning that Ashfur “He didn’t get along well (With Lionblaze), but didn’t make a move.”
    When Ashfur mentored Lionblaze, they fought regularly. When they had battle practice, Ashfur was VERY rough with him. If Lionblaze wan’t invincible at the time, Ashfur could’ve dealt some serious damage.

    Right after Lionblaze became a warrior, he asks Ashfur to help him in future battles, since he is a senior warrior. Ashfur agrees and a first start training normally, but then Ashfur unsheathes his claws, prompting Lionblaze to do the same. Lionblaze and Ashfur fight as if they are in a real battle, giving each other deep wounds and injuries. Ashfur had the intent to kill him. Lionblaze senses the fire in Ashfur’s eyes as they fight, as a if he is an enemy.

    This shows that Ashfur had no control over his emotions and used his own apprentice to take out his anger.

  • I do think Ashfur deserves the dark forest, I used to thinkhelp deserved starclan but nah he was a bad cat
    I now hate my old article about ashfur, it was questionable to say the least šŸ˜‚