The Dark side of Starclan by Mellowix

Mellowix takes a second look at StarClan.

I was reading the last of Pinestar’s choose, a specific scene literally made me stop reading and stare into space, stunned.

Now this is a small snippet of the scene that I think gets my point across. Now if you don’t want spoilers, then obviously don’t read. However, Pinestar’s choose only really covers already established story points, only told in more detail/alternate viewpoint.

He was laying on icy stone, somewhere high up, with only the starlit sky above him. Silver-furred cats surrounded him, their faces obscured by mist. Pinestar tried to sit up but he was pressed down by invisible paws. “Your son is evil!” hissed one of the cats; Pinestar couldn’t see which one because the fog was too thick. “He’s only a kit!” Pinestar protested. “He won’t be a kit forever!” “Your Clan is in danger!” “What can I do?” Pinestar wailed. There was a moment of silence, when even the wind dropped. Then a voice murmured, “Kill him.” Pinestar flinched in horror. “No!” “Kill him.” “Kill him.” “Kill him! It is the only way to save your Clan!” Pinestar flung off the unseen paws and leaped to his feet. “I cannot kill my own son!”

-Pinestar’s Choice, pages 192-193

What the heck… I can’t tell what worse, the fact that Starclan of all things is trying to encourage a father to kill his own kit. Or this is in a kids book. This confirms to me, that Starclan isn’t this righteous wise spiritual guardians but a bunch of dead cats, who are still just as biased as they are in life. Starclan is flawed. Probably sending several cats to the Dark Forest out of personal feelings/bias, rather than a ‘higher form of fair judgment’.

It would be ridiculously contrived if Pinestar had actually gone with it. No matter how evil Tigerstar may have been in the future, Pinestar is still killing his last surviving kit, who hasn’t done anything wrong yet. Where would of Pinestar ended up in the afterlife?: If he goes to Starclan, that seriously messed up considering he’s a kit/child murderer. But at the same time, if they sent him to the Dark Forest, that’s equally messed up, punishing him for something they told him to do. It would be some serious figure-pointing on Starclan’s part. If they didn’t want to be hypocritical, all of the Starclan cats who suggested it to him, should go to the Dark Forest too, reasonable for a kit’s death. For me, no matter the reason, if a character kills a kit, that’s it, that Dark Forest.

And what about Tigerkit himself? Do they send a kit to the Dark Forest for the crimes he might of done? Or do they send him to Starclan, living among the cats that had ordered his father to kill him, trying to excuse themselves by claiming, ‘it’s for the best, you would of been a future evil’.

Destiny:

This is a problem I have the series in general, is destiny. Wondering on whether the Warrior Cats world is a free-willed or destined one. Becuase it seems no matter what the characters do, Starclan’s prophecy are always fulfilled. During Flametail’s and Mosskit’s deaths, it was vaguely mentioned ‘it was their time’. So does that mean every cat’s death per decided? During Goosefeather’s curse, he received prophecies that wouldn’t take place until years later, making you wonder if the whole history is predetermined.
So for argument’s sake, let’s just say this is true and let’s explore it’s worrying implications:

What about when you apply this concept to characters such as Brokenstar and Tigerstar? Goosefeather stated, that even from a kit, Tigerstar was destined to be “evil” because he should of ‘died alongside his sisters’. So what? Any cat that doesn’t ‘fit in the grand scheme’ are condemned to eternal suffering in the Dark Forest? Which is cruel depending if there’s actually free will in the Warriors series. It there is no free will and only destiny, that means Tigerstar had no choose other to the Dark Forest, intended to wander in complete isolation for eternity.

And it becomes a lot worse with Brokenstar’s case. As Yellowfang mentioned how she thought “Brokenstar was a punishment from Starclan”. Working with the idea of this being true for a moment, that means he’s made purposefully evil, for a crime his parents did before he was even born, he had no control of. So it’s arguable that Starclan is reasonable for all the innocent kits Brokenstar kills. And like Tigerstar, with Brokenstar being destined to be evil, he’s also condemned to suffering in the Dark Forest. A simallar thing happened with Jayfeather. Leafpool thought his blindness was also a punishment from Starclan. If this is true, yet another cat suffering for a crime they didn’t do.

Another problem I have with Starclan and the Dark Forest, is the Dark Forest Trainees like Antpelt and Redwillow. If Starclan actually is this ‘holy’ form of judgement, I think personally that when a cat is judged, they should be judged on individual actions, not the group they happened to belong to. Starclan’s judgement should be devoid of biases. It should never be a matter of sides.

Some trainees cats never do anything outside of their training in the real world, that makes them being sent there seem unwarranted. Now I’ll admit, maybe the grown trainees who are aware of what the Dark Forest is, can be head more accountable to their actions. And for those who use the excuse, “they choose to go to the Dark Forest”, I’ll remind you that some of those trainees are brainwashed from the age of a kit like Crookedstar and Tigerstar. Ones like Crookedstar are even fooled into thinking it was Starclan. Crookedstar just happened to be lucky enough to be strong-willed enough to escape. But what about the more weak-minded kit-trainees? Are they left to their own demise?

Starclan or the Clans have no right to judge/blame those cats, when they have done absolutely nothing to save/help those cats. Former Trainees and Medicine Cats don’t educate young cats about the dangers of the Dark Forest, with Flamepaw(tail) not never knowing about the Dark Forest yet in Sunrise, despite being a Medicine cat apprentice. So if a Medcine cat apprentice doesn’t even know what the Dark Forest is, how can they expect kits to know the Dark Forest is evil?

In Crookedstar’s promise, Brambleberry was even aware of Mapleshade’s visits to Crookedpaw, but reminded silent on the matter, expecting him to get out completely on his own. And Starclan are even worse, they are fully aware that vulnerable cats are being targeted, yet do nothing to help them. Not warning them in a dream, nothing! And you wander how the Dark Forest got so powerful.

And it’s not like the Dark Forest trainees can just leave. They’ve got murderous mentor constantly breathing down their necks, threatening them with death if they don’t stay loyal. I mean just look at those examples; Beetlewhisker got his spine crushed by Brokenstar for saying he was leaving, Mapleshade kept on endangering Crookedstar’s loved ones when he tried to ignore her and
Ivypool was almost killed by Hawkfrost for ‘betraying’ the Dark Forest.

This is why I dislike the Great Battle so much. In most Warrior Cats battles, no one side should be favored over the other in Starclan’s eyes. You kill a cat in battle, that’s increases you’re chance to end up in Dark Forest. Obviously, other factors can be taken into account, like: if it was self-defense, which side attacked first, etc. But at the end of the day, no Thunderclan cat should have a higher chance to go to Starclan over a Shadowclan cat, for the same crime.

However this where the Great Battle differs, in this case, it is a matter of sides. You simply fight on the wrong side; ‘Well screw you, don’t care if you hadn’t do anything outside of that, into cat hell with all the mass murderers, completely alone brainwashed cat.”.

As a quick side note, the line in the Warrior Code that says, “An honorable warrior does not need to kill other cats to win their battles, unless they are outside the warrior code or if it is necessary for self-defense.”. So according to this, it’s wrong to kill another Clan cat, but a Clan cat free to cause a genocide of kittypets?

Deconstruction:

Well, to be honest, all those points do go off of the assumption that the Warriors world is a determined one. So if an Erin or the Books themselves were to confirm after wises, then the first points about Tigerstar’s and Brokenstar’s destined evil wouldn’t be valid. Including Jayfeather’s blindness, as we don’t actually know if Starclan actually has the power to do this or if it just Yellowfang’s and Leafpool’s own assumptions. But if the world was a free-willed one, I would still stand by my points about the brainwashed trainees and Starclan telling Pinestar to kill his own son.

As the spiritual guardians of the Clans, it should be Starclan’s duty to protect cats from the Dark forest, especially since they’re the ones who put cats in there in the first place. And they had more then enough power to do so; all it took was a visiting the dreams of a Medicine cat or even the trainees themselves and warn them. Simple as that. Yet they do nothing. Starclan have failed the Clans.

Former trainees ain’t much better. Especially ones like Bramblestar and Lionblaze. They’re very aware of what the other trainees were going through and should of been more empathetic. Being suspicious instead, is quite a hypocritical reaction. They should of stepped up more, telling their Clanmates the truth and taking the necessary steps to educate them. And if a warrior then chooses to then ignore those warnings, then, they can be held more accountable for their actions, as they had complete awareness of what they were getting into.

Yet that still doesn’t change some others incredibly questionably or even criminal things. There worst one so far, ordering a Father to kill his last surviving kit. Allowing certain cats into their ranks like Ashfur, getting away with their crimes scot-free. Serval Starclan being incredibly pressuring of Squirrelflight to raise Leafpool’s kits, including Yellowfang lying that Squirrelflight that she was infertile. The Starclan cat, Flametail was going to leave the living Jayfeather to die, for failing to save him. When the Four Clans needed them most, Starclan abandoned them from the problem that was their reasonability, cutting off all contact with the living, to save themselves.