Mousewhisker x Minnowtail: Why I don’t like it by Ivystone

Ivystone takes a look at Minnowtail and Mousewhisker.

I think I’ve made it obvious enough that I don’t like the MinnowxMouse ship all that much…but yeah, let’s make an article on why just because. I’m prepared for the flames and flying chairs to come. Minnowtail x Mousewhisker shippers (basically most people who I’ve seen so far), take this with a grain of salt and don’t expect to change my mind…it’d probably be best for us not to have a debate over this, because if you know how I still hate Ivypool and refuse to budge, then it should be obvious I refuse to budge on this.

I personally don’t like this ship because we only have one scene hinting at them, and even then it’s completely one-sided on Mousewhisker’s side. To be blunt, I think this wasn’t love at all, it was purely infatuation and there’s a difference. I’ve mentioned this several times before, this love/infatuation thing has happened with couples such as TwigxFin, JaggedxRainswept (if you can call that…that disaster a “crush” on either end), and even RaggedxYellow. And I feel like people get confused over this very often, as there is a difference. Behold, the separate definitions of both love and infatuation:

Love: (Derived from Dictionary.com)

As a noun:
1; a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2; a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3; sexual passion or desire.

As a verb (object):
1; to have love or affection for
2; to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).

As a verb (no object):
1; to have love or affection for another person; be in love.

Infatuated: (Derived from Dictionary.com)

As a verb (object):
1; to inspire or possess with a foolish or unreasoning passion, as of love.
2; to affect with folly; make foolish or fatuous.

For further proof, see this article on 14 differences between infatuation vs. love.
14 Signs It’s Infatuation Vs Love
I particularly think that signs 1, 3, and 8 closely resemble their relationship. Let me explain. For reference, I’ll be using their apprentice names as this is when the MinnowxMouse scene took place.

Reasoning of 1-
“You’ve only known each other for a short time.” – Definition:

“I’ve known people who have said they were in love after a few days. But, a few months later, they realized that they hated everything about the person, which showed that when they claimed it was love, they hadn’t taken enough time to really get to know the person enough to really love them.

If you’ve only known the person for a short time, then it is infatuation vs love. Love takes a while to develop. It takes intimacy, which requires a connection or attachment to someone. Love is about being familiar with someone, where a bond has been developed. You may feel attached to them, but if you have not taken the time to develop an intimate connection, then that attachment is coming from being infatuated, not real love.”

Yes, Mousepaw and Minnowpaw may have been friends, but the thing is that they’re very far away from each other in terms of borders. See, Mousepaw is around 9-12 moons old by this time if I’m correct, and states that Minnowpaw is one moon older than him. They are only apprentices, and have most likely only been to a couple of Gatherings. As Mousepaw’s age is unstated (idk what it is basically) so a solid range of how many Gatherings he’s been to would be 1-5 at the most, if we’re assuming he was made an apprentice in between Leafpool’s Wish and After Sunset: We Need to Talk. As Minnowpaw is older than him, we can guess that she’s been to around 1-6 Gatherings.

Now, Gatherings only last one night. Meaning, there wasn’t too much time for Mousepaw and Minnowpaw to get all that cozy with one another (to become friends) as they might not have gone to every Gathering, and that RiverClan and ThunderClan don’t share a border with RiverClan any more. This is why I believe their relationship was purely out of infatuation, if any sparks of attraction in that way were affected. While I personally headcanon Mousewhisker as ace/aro, I believe that this was either infatuation or a squish, which is the platonic equivalent of a crush. They barely could’ve developed any intimacy at all, judging by how Gatherings work and the like. Mousepaw and Minnowpaw would barely have any time to talk at all during a Gathering, as they would be silenced quickly. Usually the Clans mingle, but sometimes leaders have their Clans leave earlier than the others for various reasons. Not to mention they might not have gone to every Gathering, as they’re only apprentices at this current time.

Reasoning of 3-
“They seem high above you.” – Definition:

“It’s common to put someone we are infatuated with on a pedestal so high above ourselves that feel we lucky that they can even see us. In short, we make them out to be something they are not. We see their strengths, their perfections, their positive attributes, but we are blind to their weaknesses, imperfections, and negative attributes, while we can clearly see ours.

If all you can see is perfection in them, then it’s infatuation vs love. Nobody is perfect, no matter how much it seems that way. Every one of us has faults and makes mistakes and can get a bit annoying to other human beings. When you truly love someone, you can see them for who they are – the good and the bad – and love them anyway.”

Now now, I know I’m going to get a lot of responses to this. Let me explain myself real quick before y’all start throwing chairs at me. Even if we don’t have his POV, we can tell from Mousepaw’s interaction with Minnowpaw that he, in a way, put Minnowpaw on some kind of pedestal. Let us reread the scene, shall we?

But Mousepaw didn’t hear him. “Minnowpaw!” he mewed. He was staring at a young gray-and-white RiverClan she-cat whose pelt looked as downy as kit fur.

“She looks barely out of the nursery,” Lionpaw remarked.

Mousepaw’s ears twitched. “She’s a whole moon older than me,” he corrected. “Come and talk to her,” he went on. “You’ll see she’s not as soft as she looks.”

Lionpaw followed Mousepaw over to where Minnowpaw sat with two more RiverClan apprentices, one gray and one brown tabby. His nose twitched as he scented them. He knew the stench of ShadowClan and WindClan from their border markers, but RiverClan’s fresh, fish-tinged scent smelled strange.

Minnowpaw nodded to them in welcome. Though she was slighter and softer in looks than her Clanmates, her amber eyes were sharp and intelligent. “Who’s your friend?” she asked Mousepaw.

Mousepaw was staring at her with a wistful look in his eyes. “This is Lionpaw.”

“Hello, Lionpaw,” mewed Minnowpaw. “This is Pouncepaw”—she nodded toward the brown tabby she-cat beside her—“and Pebblepaw.” She flicked her tail toward the gray tom.

“What do you think of the island?” Pouncepaw asked.

“It’s great,” Lionpaw replied.

“We can show you around, if you like,” Minnowpaw offered.

Mousepaw’s eyes lit up. Clearly he liked the idea of a starlit stroll with the pretty apprentice. But Lionpaw would rather explore the place for himself, especially if Mousepaw was going to be round-eyed and moony over Minnowpaw the whole time.

-The Sight

I’d like to point out how the writing describes Minnowpaw for a second here- notice how they make such a big fuss over how beautiful/pretty Minnowpaw is? I think this is how they’re trying to get Mousepaw’s affection for her across, by showing it through descriptions like “slighter and softer”, “downy as kit fur”, and “sharp and intelligent” can really show how the narrative wants to get a point across. This point was most likely that Minnowpaw is a pretty RiverClan cat and that Mousepaw likes her. To me, this feels like he’s putting Minnowpaw on a pedestal judging by how the narrative goes about this, and that’s a basis of infatuation. Shoot, I could find that when Mousepaw had a “wistful” look in his eyes even though he probably hasn’t even known her for all that long (ergo, the Gatherings) meaning that he thinks that he’s very close with her already and knows her. I get that some people connect faster than others, but Gatherings don’t give you all that much time to interact and ThunderClan and RiverClan don’t share a border. This is another part of 1, which is a result of infatuation.

Reasoning of 8-
You are in love with superficial things.” – Definition:

“I hear a lot of people say that they love the way someone looks or walks or talks or laughs, and claim that they fell in love with someone just by watching them. That’s impossible! You don’t connect to the superficial things in a person, you connect to the internal things, such as how they feel, what they believe, what their hopes and dreams are, and how they treat other people. If you love the way they sing or look, then that’s infatuation. If you know them on a deep and personal level, and appreciate those things, then that is love.”

*Dodges flying chairs* Okay okay okay, hear me out. I’m not saying that Mousepaw thought he was in love with her, but this does kind of apply here, you must admit. Judging by how he viewed Minnowpaw and his reaction to a “moonlit stroll with the pretty apprentice”, it seemed to be made clear to me at least that Mousepaw was very much attracted to her features, if we also want to take reason 3 into account. He’s attracted to mainly the superficial things, which would make sense as if we think about it, Minnow and Mouse wouldn’t have too much time to interact and become good friends like that; at the most they would’ve been friends or acquaintances at best. *Dodges even more flying chairs for controversial opinion*

Okay, so therefore I’d like to say one final thing about this before moving onto the next main point that infatuation also wears off, and that Mousepaw most likely got over his crush on her quickly, as they never are seen interacting after that scene. I don’t even think Minnowpaw thought of Mousepaw in that light, but even if she did it was most likely infatuation. Meeting each other wouldn’t be easy, mind you- they couldn’t meet on the Island because WindClan and their scents would most likely still be there. If you ask me, I think that Mousepaw had a small crush/squish on her that he quickly got over, and eventually did one of these: Developed feelings for Hollyleaf, gave up on taking on a mate, or something else idek. Thus brings my first major point to a close.

This one, hoo boy. Before anyone throws the argument of them training in the Dark Forest just to meet each other, then I’d like to say that this is merely a headcanon, therefore this cannot be used as a method of argumentation. Now, I’m going to pick at the theory for a bit and break it down, so if you’re a lover of this idea then please take it with a grain of salt because I’m passionate about tearing it down (sorry, but I’m going to be honest).

Now, I don’t see how this theory could work because in the Dark Forest, the main thing they did was train the warriors. I don’t think that they even knew that the other was training in the Dark Forest until after/right before the battle. What chance was there that they would be able to talk to each other in the Dark Forest? Most likely a DF cat was training them and they couldn’t talk at all, by the fear of being considered soft or being killed. And like I stated earlier, Mousewhisker might’ve lost his crush/squish on her in the first place, so there’s another thing to consider. There were other things going on in his life that might’ve driven him there, but honestly all of the DF trainees were filler so you could think of this with any other cat. Yes, I see this as a very flawed headcanon. I’m not saying you can’t believe this headcanon or like it, I’m just stating why I don’t think this is plausible at all.

Like stated earlier, take this with a grain of salt. I actually used to like this couple until I looked deeper into it, to which I found that I didn’t like it. This is because I don’t like relationships where the main factor that steers the ship is when it’s infatuation, and nothing else, especially when there’s very much proving evidence that you can use against it. My opinion, though. Feel free to try debating with me or convincing me to like it, but…I think it should be obvious I’m not changing my mind.