Spottedleaf: Useless or Misunderstood? by Small Flower

Small Flower debates over whether Spottedleaf was a waste of prey or just mistaken.

Art by ClimbToTheStars

**Minor spoiler warning. Read at your own risk**

A huge amount of the fandom absolutely despises Spottedleaf for being a stalker and/or a granny. I disagree — an opinion not shared by many. However, Spottedleaf haters, don’t kill me yet. I see your point in hating her. She loved Firestar even when she was a medicine cat, and she didn’t let the code stop her. But she was never mates with him — yes, they loved each other, but that doesn’t automatically make them mates, unless there’s some part of the warrior code that I never knew about.
OK, let’s get to the point.

According to the unofficial Warriors wiki, Spottedleaf is a…

small, lithe, dark tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat with large, warm amber eyes and white-tipped ears. Her coat is distinctively dappled and mottled with orange and brown markings, and she has a small pink nose. One of her eyes is rimmed with darker fur than the other, and she has small white paws and a black-tipped, gold and brown striped tabby tail.
That’s it. Word for word.

Now, she loved Firepaw. That is the main reason we — or rather, most — hate her. But is it really that big of a deal? Firestar — er, Firepaw loved her back. However, they both knew they could never be mates, both because of a huge age difference and because of the fact that Spottedleaf was, in fact, a medicine cat.
We also hate her because she’s a “granny” and a “Mary Sue” and a “stalker”, but that’s not the point. The point is that Spottedleaf was wise — wise enough to realize that she could never have kits with Firepaw. It would be risky and stupid.

Okay, fast-forward to when Spottedleaf dies. ” She was alive for, like, 100 pages! She did one important thing and then died. ” Let me explain what’s wrong with that.
First of all, YOU knew her for about 100 pages. You have no idea what she was like as a kit, an apprentice, and a medicine cat before Into the Wild — unless you’ve read Spottedleaf’s novella, “Spottedleaf’s Heart”, which if you hate her you probably haven’t. Perhaps you’ll feel bad for her after knowing what she had to sacrifice. ” That’s not so bad! Stop — ”
No. YOU stop, fake commenter. I respect your opinion completely; I agree with you a little bit. But I think, she deserves more love than she actually gets. She’s a great character, and I’m terribly sorry that she died — TWICE. (( Imagine dying twice! Wouldn’t that be horrible? ))

Now — Spottedleaf’s cons.

Spottedleaf was NOT self-absorbed in any way, however, I can and will admit that she was a bit too old for Firestar. Now, if you hate Spottedleaf but ship Bracken x Sorrel, you are the most literate hypocrat in Warriors history. Brackenfur is like, what, 9 years old when Sorreltail dies? And she was about 5 or 6?
I know. This is supposed to be SPOTTEDLEAF’S CONS. I’m losing control here.
Back to the point. She was a medicine cat, but she was rebellious enough to show her love for Firepaw — which I can see how the fandom sees disloyalty in that. She was also a pretty average medicine cat, despite the fact that she was *ahem* EXAGGERATIVELY beautiful. We get it, she was beautiful, it was mentioned at least twice in the first book. I mean, she is pretty good-looking, though. No joke.
Also, being a medicine cat, she was like a mother to the Clan. It just would have been weird if she took a mate, and especially if she and Fireheart/star had decided to have kits.

I’m still really sad that Spottedleaf died, despite her pros and cons. She wasn’t a flawless character, she was actually kind of Twoleg-like — surprising, right? She had her flaws — she was overprotective and worried too much — and there’s not a good reason, well, not to like her.

That’s really all I have to say — thanks for reading! Have a great day <3

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30 comments

  • Great article! I really defend Spottedleaf.
    I’ll Be Complete

  • Yeah this does not make me like Spottedleaf anymore than 50/50. Just because FirexSpotted may of been true but I like FirexSand much and CinderxFire is behind Spottedleaf’s one but not working on me.

  • i know this article is super old but i thought it was an interesting read. my main criticism is the comparison of spottedleaf’s attraction to firepaw to brackenfur and sorreltail or thornclaw and blossomfall. the difference is that spottedleaf (the equivalent of a grown or at least college aged woman) is attracted to firepaw, an apprentice (who appear to be the equivalent of middle or high schoolers). while bracken and sorrel and thorn and blossom have pretty big age differences, their relationships can still be considered healthy since both pairs were fully formed adults when they got together and there was no possibility of grooming (at least so far unless the erins decide to retcon this later lol). again, super neat article but i just had to put my 2 cents in haha

  • She died (the second time) to save Sandstorm! proving that she had moved on and wanted Firestar to be happy! Haters gonna hate.