A Look at Lionblaze: A Defense Article by Sparktooth

Sparktooth takes a look at Lionblaze.

Can you believe it, bloggers? Sparktooth has finally found the time to write another article! For this article, I was recently talking with my sister, Skykit, everyone’s favorite 😛 😛 . She took a quiz online to see which Warriors character she’d be, and got Lionblaze. Suddenly, even though she’s never read a single Warriors book with Lionblaze in it, he’s now her favorite character. When I told her that most people think Lionblaze is a Mary Sue, she got very annoyed. So now I’ve been semi-forced to defend him XD.
However, after doing a little rereading and research of the books, I’ve actually begun to think that Lionblaze isn’t that much of a Mary Sue as I once thought.
I always thought Lionblaze was an okay character, but I always found myself being slight more interested in Hollyleaf and Jayfeather’s chapters as I would read the books. The only storylines I remember being very interested in with Lionblaze were both when he was an apprentice. The first one was when Tigerstar and Hawkfrost were slowly trying to lure him into the Dark Forest, and the second was his forbidden relationship with Heatherpaw(tail). However, as I’ve started to reread the POT to refresh my memory, there was so much about Lionblaze that I never really noted the first time around, and proved that he’s only not a Mary Sue, but a much no more interesting character than people give him credit for. So it’s time for me to share why:

Spoilers for POT, but you probably already knew that lol.

A lot of people complain about how Lionblaze was a Mary Sue because he never had too big of a struggle with adjusting to his new powers and coming to terms that his fate is to “control the power of the stars with his paws.” That is true, but there is a perfect reason for this, that shows why he is not a Mary Sue.
Let’s remember, the definition of Mary Sue is a character who is perfect and has no flaws. Lionblaze was an arrogant apprentice, and had a lot of overconfidence in himself and his powers. He thought that nothing could touch him, and that he had so much power.
This builds on how Lionblaze always seems to overlook things and not stop to think about them, he always just wants to leap into battle because he’s confident that way he’s guaranteed to win. Right off the bat, that is a flaw that can be relatable to some people irl. This flaw also causes many mis-communications with Hollyleaf and Jayfeather, such as when he’s very quick to trust Sol’s judgement when having little to no information about him.

People also complain about Lionblaze and how he was never able to die or get badly injured in fights. Again, this goes off of what I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Lionblaze may have been quick to jump into a fight because of this power, but he was very flawed when it came to planning ahead, analyzing, etc. He preferred to act on braun rather than brains. This can cause many problems for someone, and we see Lionblaze deal with consequences. Such as killing Russetfur by mistake when she attacked Firestar, and he acted without hesitating. When he stopped and saw her body under his claws, it left such a scar on him, it was something he regretted so much.

He also has a hard time seeing from other cats’ perspective. He tends to form his own opinion on a subject and stick with it. Like with his habit of hastily jumping into battle. This shows a struggle of self-control and struggle to relate to others opinions. Such as when he’s so confused about why Cinderheart doesn’t like him anymore after telling her about his power, then jumps to the conclusion that she could never understand. However, we do see a change in him by the end of his arc, when Hollyleaf “dies.” He starts to slow down, and think about everything that’s happened.

Lastly, let’s talk about Lionblaze’s little character development in OOTS. This is one of the major reasons why he got lots of hate, because he was pretty pointless in that arc. I agree that the number of chapters he was given in those books were very unevenly balanced when compared to other characters given the screen time. Not to mention there wasn’t much for him to do, accept trying to adjust to life without his powers, and wondering what Jayfeather was up to. It’s very sad that this happened, because I feel if more chapters and a better story arc had been given to Lionblaze, he could’ve been so interesting to read about! However, I don’t want to let that take away his story arc that was told in the POT series, because he was an exceptional character in those. He deserves more recognition for that arc than he gets.

So, what’s your outlook on Lionblaze now? I actually managed to change my own opinion with my article, I wasn’t even aware that was possible! 😛 Hope you enjoyed reading, see you next time!