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Fan Articles
Solardapple lists the worst mothers in the series. How many of these fickle felines need some parental advice?
Number 10: Smoke
I guess I can’t blame Onestar’s former mate to be bitter towards the clan. Onestar, who was Onewhisker then, had met with Smoke, who was a kittypet. When Smoke had kits all but one died, she offered the kit to Onewhisker who said he wouldn’t be cut out for clan life. After a few more attempts she grew bitter and raised the kit, Darktail, to hate the clans. I mean, I know Onewhisker did you a bad turn, but Smoke could’ve just accepted his wishes.
Number 9: Nightcloud
Nightcloud is on the lower end of the list, she loved Breezepelt. But, because Crowfeather didn’t truly love her she spread lies about him and corrupted Breezepelt to think his father was a horrible cat. Breezepelt grew up on Nightcloud’s lies a hated his father.
Number 8: Brightflower
Brightflower was always kind and loving towards her kits, but whenever Yellowkit argued that she didn’t eat the old sparrow that caused her brother, Nutkit, to get a bellyache, Brightflower doesn’t believe her even though she argued strongly against it. At the end of Yellowfang’s Secret Brightflower had another litter, their names were Mintkit and Marigoldkit. They went missing and Yellowfang finds them dead, Brokenstar hints that Yellowfang didn’t try to treat them and Brightflower, for some reason, believes that Yellowfang would kill her younger siblings. Like, seriously Brightflower? Your kit, Yellowfang, who loves you and the kits so much, will kill them? Geez.
Number 7: Pinenose
We all know that Pinenose wasn’t the best mother out there. I wasn’t so sure if I should even out her on this list, but after I read about how she treated Violetkit I thought otherwise. She definitely wasn’t the most caring mother when it came to the kits, she treated Violetkit like an outsider and made her have self-doubts when Pinenose should have been supporting her and making her feel like she fit in, not like she didn’t belong.
Number 6: Wind Runner
Wind Runner wasn’t the best mother in the world. She lost two of her kits to sickness and despised the way Moth Flight was without understanding how Moth Flight felt. She cast out her own daughter because she didn’t understand how special she was. Moth Flight lacked characteristics of a warrior, she couldn’t hunt well and couldn’t really fight and Wind Runner rejected the way her daughter seemed to get lost in her thoughts. She just couldn’t believe that her own daughter was special. She doted on Dust Muzzle and left Moth Flight out in the dirt.
Number 5: Leafstar
Don’t yell at me for this one. In Hawkwing’s Journey we hardly see Leafstar interact with her mate or kits. She doesn’t show much emotion when Firefern, her daughter, dies and we don’t see her really interact with Harrybrook, her son. We hardly ever see her talk to Billystorm, her mate.
Number 4: Millie
I know, I know. Millie did make the list for these reasons: She did love her kits a lot, but after Briarlight got injured she showed zero care for her other kits and became entirely obsessed with Briarlight and left her other kits out in the dust. She barely even cared for them anymore and when Blossomfall went into the tunnels with Ivypaw and got lost Millie told her she was irresponsible, even though what Blossomfall did was kind of irresponsible, it has nothing to do with how it affected Briarlight.
Number 3: Lizardstripe
Lizardstripe was horrible mother, we all know this. Before she had her kits, she practically resented them, saying she didn’t want to deal with brats. When they were apprenticed, she might’ve been proud, but she still didn’t really care. You could tell she was relieved when they were finally able to be out of her care. She always resented the thought of having kits and didn’t care at all about Brokenkit, I mean I know he wasn’t hers, but she barely even loved her own kits much less him.
Number 2: Palebird
Okay, we all know that Palebird was distraught after Finchkit died, but after that happened, she played off like she was sick and almost completely ignored Tallkit. She should have rejoiced that one kit survived, not grieve because the other was lost. The later on after Sandgorse died, barely any time in between, she becomes Woolytail’s mate and has his 4 kits. After that she actually barely regards Talltail as her son anymore, she’s too obsessed with her new family and hardly acknowledged her first-born. That’s not really a good mother in my opinion.
Number 1: Rainflower
Rainflower was definitely not a good mother. Before Crookedkit was injured she doted on him and loved him, always calling him her ‘brave, handsome kit’. But after he got injured and broke his jaw, she thought of him as an ‘ugly mess’. Just because your own child is ugly doesn’t mean you should stop loving them.
I know some of you might not agree with my views on these mothers, and I don’t blame you. Everyone has their own opinion, and this is mine. Thanks for reading!
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🩵🦅 Eagleflight (Aquila)🍃🎶
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Disagree about Palebird entirely. She never “played off that she was sick”. She had postpartum depression. She was depressed!
“Postpartum depression (PPD), also called postnatal depression, is a type of mood disorder associated with childbirth, which can affect both sexes. Symptoms may include extreme sadness, low energy, anxiety, crying episodes, irritability, and changes in sleeping or eating patterns. Onset is typically between one week and one month following childbirth. PPD can also negatively affect the newborn child.”
From wikipedia. Palebird shows so many symptoms of it she’s the literal definition of a mother with it..
It’s made worse with Finchkit’s death, which is why she’s so distant. She was a hollow shell, she had to DRAG herself to the fresh kill pile because it was so bad. She’s a grieving mother for Starclan’s sake.
And she does NOT “obsess” over her new little with Woolytail. Wha? Where did you get that? Palebird didn’t even have a mate who cared about her before him, Sandgorse was too focused on tunneling and barely even paid any mind to her condition. Sandgorse didn’t even care for her, so she had to deal with a debilitating condition on her own most of the time. Woolytail cared for her, and the kits they had all survived and she’s showing to recover from her condition because of her new kits and mate. Why is that terrible?
We’re only believing her having kits with Woolytail to be bad because of Talltail/star’s biased PoV. He thinks her getting a new mate and litter is terrible after all. She is allowed to move on and heal. I doubt she’s neglecting him on purpose, and I believe she DOES love Talltail and wants to show it, but the depression is making it hard. She’s not a terrible mother for what her depression is doing to her, and it’s rather ech to me that people are blaming her for it without looking at the deeper picture.
Yeah, I don’t see why people think that remarrying/getting another mate is bad. They’re not being unfaithful to their previous partner. It happens a lot in real life, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t happen in a book series.
Just saying.
Ok, I understand your views on Palebird, but this my opinion and I would appreciate it if you respect it like I respect yours.
And I don’t think that remating is bad.
About Brightflower, I do think it’s reasonable to treat Yellowkit more harshly than Nutkit, as she was lying. There’s no other explanation for her bellyache. In all honesty, fans judging Brightflower for not guessing her daughter has superpower is farfetched and borderline impossible.
As for Mintkit and Marigoldkit’s deaths, it’s important to remember that Brokenstar was manipulating the scene, which he’s a master of. Brightflower wasn’t the only one fooled, many others were too, including Brackenfoot, the father. Yellowfang thought a fox killed the kits, however, that’s just an assumption because she heard a distant bark of one but nothing else. However, no trace of the fox was found on the kits’ body. Brightflower, Russetfur and Frogtail could confirm this. So Yellowfang was wrong and others that could easily be read as her lying.
Even more speciously, Yellowfang hadn’t used any herbs to attempt to save the kits. Clanmates also pointed out how Yellowfang’s behaviour had recently changed during her questioning. With a lot of evidence stacked against Yellowfang: Brightflower isn’t a terrible mother for believing it. Plenty of characters in the series have killed Family: Breezepelt and his siblings, Raggedstar and Hal, Hollyleaf and Leafpool etc. So Yellowfang killing her siblings isn’t something so outlandish, it shouldn’t even be considered.
I will remind you that Wind Runner didn’t exile her daughter. Moth Flight left herself leave after she was yelled at by her mother, mixed with her own lack of self-confidence. So while Wind Runner didn’t directly cast her out of WindClan, her actions certainly caused her to.
I disagree on a few of these. Firstly Palebird. Well I won’t go into further detail or too much detail as many points were said earlier, I personally don’t think it fair to call Palebird a bad mother because she was depressed. She was a grieving mother and eventual mate that didn’t get the time she needed to heal as there was tragedy after tragedy. And it isn’t fair to compare her grief to another character’s as everyone handles it different. Obviously up to speculation, but she could not have meant to hurt or upset Talltail. And she is entitled to her own happiness and moving on. It’s not up to Talltail.
Also with Leafstar, most of the book just wasn’t about her and her family. Her in the manga is probably the best to show her relationship with her kits but HJ just didn’t feature or show many relationships between Leafstars family.
Lastly Nightcloud too.
I feel like Crowfeather’s Trial did her justice and to avoid spoilers, I won’t say too much but I feel like she was a desperate mother who owned up to what she did and redeemed herself. And she never stopped caring about her son even to a fault.
But either way, great article and you brought up great points.
Totally agree, especially with Nightcloud! (I love my girl 😛)
I think Smoke shouldn’t be on the list, because Onestar did reject her. But maybe? I agree with mostly everything else, though! Great article! 🙂
My thoughts:
Smoke- we really don’t know much about her. She had a reason to be upset with how Onestar treated her and even gave him a second chance before being turned away again, which is what made her so upset. We don’t actually know WHAT she said to Darktail and she probably didn’t intend for him to torture and kill completely innocent cats (like SkyClan and literally everyone other than Onestar). She might not have even wanted Darktail to kill Onestar either. Darktail was ultimately responsible for his own actions.
Brightflower- I really don’t know since I haven’t read Yellowfang’s Secret, but someone else made a good point about her.
Pinenose- she really isn’t a big focus. Idk, I’ve just never seen her as a bad mother. I thought she was decent to her kits, and she didn’t even seem to be too bad to Violetkit. She could’ve been better, but she wasn’t terrible (I guess you didn’t put her that far up on your list though either). And in Shattered Sky, Violetpaw did actually feel sad when she died and seemed to think Pinenose was actually a decent cat, so Idk.
Nightcloud- she actually did probably spoil Breezepelt too much, but she wasn’t really a bad mother. She cared about her son, and she had to be the only one taking care of him since Crowfeather wasn’t really there. But this whole thing is very confusing because so many different things have kind of been said in the books and aaahhhh. She was a good cat in Crowfeather’s Trial though, but I think in terms of how good a mother she WAS before that… I don’t really know. (Like… I’d still say Crowfeather was a bad father/mate before CT, even if he made up for it in CT, so I’d do the same for Nightcloud, but I don’t know)
Palebird- so many people have already mentioned this one, and I haven’t even read Tallstar’s Revenge
Millie- I’m not going to go too into detail about this one since it would be too long, but I will just say that I think she gets too much hate. Was she wrong to do what she did? Maybe she was. But either way, no one has perfect parents, and one bad action doesn’t make a person horrible for the rest of their life. (She also definitely seemed like a pretty caring mother in River of Fire)
Leafstar- I never thought she was a bad mate or mother. She seems like she really cared for Billystorm and her kits, so what Bramblefire said. 😛
Wind Runner- I haven’t read Dawn of the Clans
Lizardstripe- I agree with you!
Rainflower- also agreed!
Well… I’ll share how I feel.
Smoke:
I actually liked her, simply because it is shown how much Darktail cared for her wishes. The bond between them was obviously strong. (Watch the M.A.P for Darktail that Drakinator made “Kiss My Eyes And Lay Me To Sleep”
Nightcloud:
I think she was just trying her best to make up for Crowfeather’s lack of neglection, as well as cope with understanding that he never had feelings for her. She herself honestly felt just as neglected as her son.
Brightflower:
Haha. Yeah. She was an awful mother to Yellowfang. Like, how could she actually believe Brokenstar, when other cats were defending Yellowfang, and she was her OWN KIT?
Pinenose:
Yeah, I never liked her. She neglected Violetkit and literally pushes her away from her nest at one point.
Wind Runner:
Yeah, I agree.
Leafstar:
I’ve never even liked Leafstar. She’s…idk. I just dislike her. For many reasons.
Millie:
Yeah, she neglected Blossomfall a lot. Just because Briarlight was crippled doesn’t give her the right to forget she has two healthy kits. And when Blossomfall came back injured after hitting her head in the tunnels, Millie doesn’t even care. In fact, she actually gets mad at Blossomfall.
Lizardstripe:
She just hated kits and only had them because her mate, Mudclaw, wanted kits. She didn’t even want to give birth, and really had no love or interest for the kits, especially Brokenkit. She kept calling him a burden and made no attempt to bond with him.
Palebird:
I really don’t know how I feel. She had depression, so I can see why she’d act distant, but it just seemed like she didn’t even care about Tallstar later on in the series, once she was a bit happier with her new mate.
Rainflower:
She’s the WORST
Me: *sees Millie on the list*
Me (hearing voices of literally everyone on BlogClan in my head): Don’t type it, don’t type it, don’t type it.
Also Me: Pfffft I’m not gonna type another Millie defense paragraph!
Everyone: *Sighs in relief*
Me: I’m gonna copy and paste one! 😛
Wind Runner – she was a good cat. Maybe she wasn’t the best mother at the best of times, but you have to remember that she was also the Clan leader, and no-one else had had any proper experience with visions. She had to think of how Moth Flight was affecting the Clan with her inability to hunt. She also had one of her kits die, which would make her much more protective of Moth Flight and make her want her to do well.
1. rainflower- ignores injured son
2. lizardstripe- bullies foster son
3. millie- ignores her non injured kits
Lizardstripe didn’t want kits, it’s unfair to blame her for something that was forced upon her.
Yes, but was it fair for her to treat the kits the way that she did? If she just took them to another queen that would’ve been fine, but she was physically and mentally abusive to her 3 bio kits and did much worse to Brokenkit.
Sorry, Solardapple. I have to disagree with 2 mums. Palebird was a great mum! She missed Sandgorse but moved on quickly. Yes, she snapped at Talltail, but she was scared of losing him and her new kits. Now, Nightcloud was actually an amazing mum! She didn’t tell lies about Crowfeather, because they were true. Crowfeather neglected all four of his kits, especially Breezepelt until Crowfeather’s Trial. Nightcloud was the only one who loved Breezepelt and should be in the top ten best mums, not top ten the worst. However, I agree with you on the rest. Your article was well written!
i can relate to tall star as a kid my mother divorced my dad and went under depression she then remarried and had a new kid i now live at my dads and barely see my mom shes too busy with her new kid i think palebird is a terrible mother