Mediator is a Bad Idea by Gingerpaw

Gingerpaw discusses the mediator position. How do you feel about the newest rank in the series? Spoilers for AVOS!

Art by BIizWolf

Hello, welcome to my *counts* second article? Beware of spoilers for AVoS, specifically The Raging Storm. (Oof I havn’t even read it) Today I will be talking about an important member of AVoS, Tree. Most people either love him or hate him. I’m not a huge fan myself, but I can stand him. Tree was given the position of mediator mostly for two reasons.

1) He is unbiased between the clans and can see easy solutions clearly
2) He has to have some job, and he clearly isn’t fit to be a medicine cat or a warrior

Now, there are some issues. First, let’s start with issue one. Tree may have been non biased to begin with, but how do you think he is going to be now that his mate is pregnant with kits in SkyClan? He may try to be non biased, but he clearly cares about the clans now. Let’s take a random example. Say SkyClan and RiverClan are having an issue with prey stealing. (idk) When Tree first came to the clans, he may have thought of a clever and fair solution. Now that he has Violetshine and his future kits to worry about, though, he may be inclined to give SkyClan a slight advantage. Another problem is taking an apprentice. Kate has confirmed that Tree is the only mediator in all the clans, so there are two options when it comes to taking an apprentice.

1) Not taking an apprentice, and being the only mediator in the history of the clans. There is one issue with this. It would basically be admitting that Tree doesn’t fit into the clans, and they had to invent a position for him to fill.

2) Taking an apprentice. There are a few issues with this. For one, how will he choose one? Mediator is already a pretty unbalanced role, as they come from only one clan, but any incoming apprentice may have to stay with Tree in SkyClan, and they would surely also be biased for their own kin. They clans can’t take in a loner every time their mediator dies.

In conclusion, the position of mediator is unbalanced and will cause trouble in the future. Thank you for reading!

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22 comments

Leave a Reply to Moondapple Cancel reply

  • I’m just going to copy and paste my thoughts since I’m too lazy to actually type anything new:

    I actually like the idea of a mediator. Sure, cats can solve their own problems but not all of them. What if they have an issue that they can’t solve on their own (like mental issues, relationship issues or under plenty of stress) and they need help with it? I personally feel like mediators can be like therapists in a way, since medicine cats aren’t meant to listen to a cats social/mental problems, they’re meant to heal. Same goes with leaders. And although people say that the role was just an excuse for Tree to stay in SkyClan and such and such, I feel like it was needed for the Clans. The Clans have fixed point of views on pretty much everything, and since Tree wasn’t born as a Clan cat and doesn’t share those fixated opinions, that’s what makes this role stand out. Yes, not all of the Clan cats have this view, but not all of them are willing to speak out like Tree was.

    This role can possibly help with Clan disputes, such as border issues, prey theft, etc. Although Tree may be in SkyClan, I don’t think it means that he’ll always agree with his Clan. I’d like to believe he speaks from the heart on the problem, and although some may not like that, he quite usually has a point.

    One thing I’d like to see for training though is that the mediator spends time in other Clan. This seems like a wise thing for training, especially since the role is meant for mediating problems. Either way, I still like the inclusion of mediators because honestly I don’t think being a medicine cat or a warrior would’ve suited Tree very well. And yes, he does need to learn how to hunt for the Clan as well but I think that Violetshine should be able to help him on that front.

    Mediators have only been seen in action in one book, so I personally say that we don’t know for sure what it’s for besides the description given. It might change by the end of TBC, who knows. That and each Clan will be getting a mediator. Plus, there are cats in the Clans that may have Tree’s POV that we don’t know of, so that’s my input.

  • Honestly I agree, the role of mediator was a dumb addition. They don’t even solve anything tbh. I feel like they should at least have one mediator from each Clan that NEGOTIATE a peace together. It’s stupid to just have a mediator from one Clan.

  • I agree. If they all had a mediator, here comes politics. If Free were to have an apprentice, I think he would chose a cat from another clan (kit) and teach him\her at SkyClan. After Tree dies, then the apprentice will go back to their own clan.

    • *cough*It’s been confirmed all the Clans will get a mediator on here and that Tree isn’t biased towards SkyClan in TRS, plus we’ve just seen the mediator role in action in one book. *cough*

  • Mediator was a really dumb addition. To many Politics and having Tree be in Skyclan makes him have a slight bias.

    • Not really if all the Clans get mediators, which it has been confirmed that they will. Also, from what we’ve seen in TRS Tree hasn’t been all that biased towards SkyClan. Even though he lives with them it doesn’t really mean he’ll show that much bias towards them.

  • I agree. He also might not know what to do in a situation or put Skyclan above the other clans and give them a slight advantage. Also, I just don’t like the idea because it’s very different and he is the only meditator. There should be a meditator for every clan, to solve problems in their own clan and maybe meet every half moon like the medicine cats. Idk, I just don’t like the idea of a meditator including the fact that there’s only one..

    • I’m just gonna repeat myself, but it’s been confirmed all the Clans will get mediators so there’s ways of fixing the main issues with it.

  • Actually I like the idea of Mediator, but there’s a way to solve this problem. Every Clan can have a Mediator, from young cat who is good at solving problems.

  • I know I’m pretty much just repeating what Hazel said, but Tree doesn’t seem to actually put SkyClan above the other Clans. He was trying to help both ShadowClan and SkyClan. The only problem was that both sides were being really stubborn and wouldn’t let Tree do anything (and that may have been mostly been because of Leafstar, who’s SkyClan’s leader). Tree was actually really disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to prove himself as a mediator, and he was in a really tough situation, so I think he’ll be a good mediator and won’t be biased, even if none of the other Clans had mediators of their own (but it’s been confirmed that they will, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.)

    I love Tree so much too! From when I first read about him in Darkest Night, I thought he was so adorable and hilarious!

  • I agree with Butterfly and Hazy! I haven’t actually read AVoS yet but from what I know (from spoilers), having a mediator for each Clan would be interesting. We’ve had the positions of leader, deputy, medicine cat, warrior, and apprentice for some time now so it’d be cool to finally have something new in store for the Clans. 😀

  • I think it as noted too early to tell.

    Also let’s remember Firestar for a second here. Honestly even though he was a clan leader, one could argue he was the precursor to this mediator role without the name and despite still being very strongly tied to ThunderClan.

    Firestar definitely put ThunderClan first as he was their leader, but he didn’t ignore the struggles of the other clans. He often went above and beyond to lead his clan to assist others and make sure the others would continue on. He was the one calling for the other leaders to heed the journeying cats back in new prophecy. He lead the clans together when they had to face BloodClan.

    If Firestar could still manage to at least look beyond his borders and still take into consideration other clans, than a position like mediator can work just fine. And it’s better that Tree have ‘some skin in the game’ with Violetshine being in SkyClan

    A big problem that exists in when the governing body becomes too separated from the populace, ie ‘Let them eat cake’ Marie Antoinette queen of france way back when. This was back when a populace was starving from lack of food, and the queen wrongfully assumed they were just not eating the cake they surely had.

    If Tree had no connection to the clans in the form of his connection to Violetshine his decisions might not take into account the struggles of clan life. By experiencing it, and maintaining the mindset that got him this position, he can relate to the clan cats.

    Plus as noted by Hazelholly, all the clans will be getting one. But even if they weren’t I don’t think Tree as a mediator should be written off as a failed role yet.

    And another thing if we start being like ‘eh why are we adding a new role it’s kinda dumb’ I feel is kinda disappointing. More roles for cats is great, and it opens more opportunities for cats. This isn’t one I would’ve thought of but I like that the erins are starting to expand what the kits in the clans can aspire to be besides warriors or healers.

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