[Dovewing and Ivypool sit beside and look at each other]

A Defense of Dovewing and Why I Don’t Like Ivypool by Stormtail

Stormtail shares their opinion on Whitewing’s two daughters, Dovewing and Ivypool.

Art by PureSpiritFlower

*Spoiler warning for “Omen of the Stars” and series beyond that, and for “Spottedleaf’s Heart” and “Tigerheart’s Shadow”.*

Hi everybody! Stormsong here. This article is going to be about Dovewing and Ivypool and my opinions on them both.
Personally, I feel like Dovewing is underrated and Ivypool is overrated. As hard as I try to like her, I have some problems with Ivypool. Of course, this is an article and it isn’t meant to be opinionated, so here are the facts, and why I think these facts make Ivypool out to be a bit of a jerk and why Dovewing is better than people think, all based on this point of view of these characters of the series:

Dovewing
People call Dovewing a “Mary-Sue”, which is someone who is perfect in every way. Either that, or they call her annoying.
Dovewing is not a Mary-Sue because she DID make mistakes. She broke the warrior code, fell in love with a cat from ShadowClan, had kits with that cat from ShadowClan, and left ThunderClan to join him. Twice. Also, she was very upset when she lost her powers, and someone who is a Mary-Sue would have little to no problem losing their powers (unrealistic as that would be).
People say Dovewing is annoying for freaking out about losing her powers; they especially talk about that scene when she went into the cave and kept on saying “Hello?” (Now, I am going to defend her in a way Brightkit did in the article “Dovewing is my Favorite Character—Here’s Why”, so you should totally go read that article as well and see what Brightkit said.) If you think about it in real life, it’s like she suddenly lost a lot of her sight and hearing and much of what she has always known and from a young age has gotten used to… Slowly but surely her hyper-senses (that were her normal senses for her) just vanished!!! Imagine if you were used to being able to survey large areas and then all of a sudden you couldn’t anymore. Wouldn’t that suck?! I think I would be freaking out ten times worse than she did.
I think the Tigerheart/star & Dovewing ship is completely justifiable. I’ve always been a rebel about the warrior code so I might be biased, but the facts are that Dovewing was trying to stay loyal to ThunderClan. Really, she was. She didn’t join Tigerheart when he left ThunderClan after Darktail’s reign. She visited him sometimes, but it was an improvement from seeing him every second of every day. But then they accidentally had kits together. She had to leave so her kits wouldn’t die (read “Tigerheart’s Shadow”), and I think this journey away from the Clans made her even more close to Tigerheart, since she was with him almost all of the time once again. Yes, she was with other cats, too, but those cats were not exactly the same to her as Clanmates, so Tigerheart was the main cat she had for support. See, with Clanmates, you grow bonds with them since birth (usually), and for these cats, Tigerheart and Dovewing just kind of met them. Eventually they did grow to become like Clanmates to the couple (probably), but living away from the warrior code meant Tigerheart and Dovewing were allowed to be together! And they had no intentions of going back at the time! So of course they’d take this opportunity that could last a lifetime to become closer. They had to raise a family together!!!
Dovewing had tried before not to become too attached to Tigerheart; as said prior, he had to stay in her Clan during Darktail’s reign and when he left, she kept going to see him, but she didn’t turn her back on her Clan. But this did it; “Tigerheart’s Shadow” broke her last chance of staying in ThunderClan. She was too attached to Tigerheart. I think she made the responsible decision in owning up to the fact that she’d broken the warrior code and going to join her new family in their Clan.

Still not certain Dovewing had justifiable actions? Think about this: If you had kits with someone from another Clan, what would you do?
A.)Join your mate and your kits so that they have all of their parents in one place?
B.)Separate your kits?
C.)Ignore your kits and pretend you’re not their mother; pretend they don’t exist or something?
If you said “A”, that really is the only good option!!!

Another reason why it’s justifiable that Dovewing left ThunderClan is that Tigerheart had just become Tigerstar, and he would probably need all the support he could get as a leader. Dovewing needed to join ShadowClan, for her kits’ sakes and for ShadowClan’s sake as well! Now the kits would have a true mother and father, together as a couple, in the same Clan, and the kits wouldn’t be uncertain of where they belonged, like would happen if Dovewing had stayed in ThunderClan and they’d known she was their blood mother. And, to reiterate, as a bonus, Tigerstar has his mate’s support as leader now, too.
Dovewing is my favorite character. This part of the article was why she isn’t a Mary-Sue or annoying, and why falling in love with Tigerheart and eventually joining him in ShadowClan is justifiable.

Ivypool
Ivypool can be a jerk sometimes. Okay, so I am a bit confused about why Spottedpaw in “Spottedleaf’s Heart” instantly knew that Thistleclaw was fighting in the Dark Forest, but Ivypool and a lot of other cats (who were older than when Spottedpaw saw it) went there in a future generation and thought it was StarClan, just because of the way the spirit-cats were acting at first… I believe this is the first reason Ivypool can be seen as slightly annoying sometimes. But this could have just been messed-up writing, so I’m putting this in the introduction of this section to just throw it out there.
First of all, it’s true that Ivypool never completely broke the warrior code. She was fighting in the Dark Forest to become a better warrior, then to spy for the good guys. Great, right? Well… kind of? The thing is, she never once seemed sympathetic for Dovewing for breaking the warrior code. That she was in love with Tigerheart. Ivypool, instead of supporting her and trying to talk her out of her feelings calmly, was always snappy about it! Never once that I recall did Ivypool sit down beside Dovewing (or even Tigerheart) and say peacefully, “I understand how you feel. But you have to stop. I just want to help you. I feel you, I really do. But, trust me, not falling in love with each other would be better for everyone.” Instead, Ivypool would say to Tigerheart, “YOU’RE A TERRIBLE MATE TO DOVEWING!” She said, “You need to stop seeing her, EVER.” Then she said, when Dovewing disappeared, “You should be out there with Dovewing! You’re better than her having nothing!” I feel like this contradicts what she said before, because she basically said before that no matter what, Tigerheart should stop seeing Dovewing and caring about her. Now she’s like, “Actually, go to her.” This is one reason why Ivypool can be a jerk. She is seemingly not sympathetic about cats making mistakes in the form of breaking the warrior code, so much so that she grows distant with Dovewing and angry with Tigerheart because of their mistake…
Another reason Ivypool can be a jerk is because she was so envious of Dovewing. This paragraph is going to be short, because you’ll all be screaming at me that if it were real life and my own sibling surpassed me in everything, I’d be upset, too. Yes, I would. But Ivypool screamed at Dovewing, asked her what her secret was in a harsh way! Okay, so that’s just one mistake, right? Ivypool lost it once? …Kind of? Ivypool was almost always envious of Dovewing, though. She didn’t seem to be happy for Dovewing for her successes enough to me…
Yet another reason Ivypool can be a jerk: Her kits. She wants her mate, Fernsong, to take care of their kits all the time. Yes, it’s ABSOLUTELY fine if it swaps and the father is the main parent and the mother does the (commonly, I’m not saying it has to be whatsoever!) “fatherly” things. But… It seems to me based on what she’s said, as far as I’ve read, at least, that Ivypool doesn’t want to spend much time with the kits. Won’t the kits feel like she’s basically neglecting them, once they get old enough to speak and understand parent relationships? Shouldn’t they have two supportive parents, their mother and father, instead of just their father and a mother who only is there to support them about half of the time? Because, yes, I’m sure Ivypool loves and cares for her kits, and is proud of them (I haven’t read far enough to see their relationship), however if she’s always off doing other things, she isn’t really helping her kits. I know, another not-very-well-put-together-paragraph. I might be completely wrong anyway. This is why this paragraph is in the middle.
The last reason why Ivypool can be a jerk is that she hardly ever told Lionblaze, Jayfeather, Dovewing, Bramblestar, etc. about what was going on in the Dark Forest. She was supposed to be the spy, and she almost always just didn’t tell them anything! Yes, of course she told them when the Great Battle was going to be, as she should, and as was the whole point of it all… But Lionblaze and Jayfeather (in particular) were specifically asking her what was going on in the Dark Forest, almost every other day! And what Ivypool said, almost every single time they asked, was “It’s not important; I’ll tell you if it’s important!” And she said it in a snappy way, as well. Aren’t you supposed to be more helpful as a spy?

Thank you all so much for reading! This was my first-ever article, so sorry that it’s extremely long and if it drags. And sorry if my points are falsely stated or unclear. I feel like all of this is true, but ah well.
Once again, that was a defense for Dovewing and how Ivypool can be a jerk sometimes (why I like Dovewing and dislike Ivypool). These reasons are why I personally consider Dovewing to be my favorite character and why I dislike Ivypool extremely. But I cannot force you to change your opinion, only ask you to read this article, consider my points, and decide what all of the evidence (that could go in any direction) from the books means to you.
Remember: This is just what I took from the books and how I feel about these characters; if you don’t think Ivypool can be a jerk at times and if you believe Dovewing can be very annoying, that is all up to you to decide, and PLEASE don’t take offense from this!
What is your opinion? Go ahead, tell me in the comments or with your own article! Only if you want to, of course.

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94 comments

  • Read the book before you say ivypool wanted fernsong in the nursery wrong fernsong offered to stay in the nursery while ivypool hunts

  • I don’t agree, dovewing is just annoying, she always acts like she is the leader and needs to protect everyone plus most of the time the clan listens to her and acts like she is a celebrity or something, so it makes sense why ivypool is jealous, I really wish they got rid of dovewing x tigerheart cus it is so annoying. Tigerheart is just a annoying dumb cat who only cares about his clan and dovepaw, while he does not even care about dovepaws clan, and dovepaw should not be able to visit her clan for mating with a darn cat from another clan.

    • Love your name. Dovewing SUCKS!! (no offense to you Dovewing supporters…) and yes, I very much agree with your statement!

        • Also, Ivypool’s not a jerk. Dovewing is. She acts like it’s the end of the world when someone asks/tells her how to use her power. She only uses her power to find out what Tigerhearts doing. All we here from her is Tigerheart. She snapped at her sister, thinking she was supposedly jealous that Tigerheart loved her, and not Ivypool. She only basically cares about herself, and nobody else. She only wants respect, and doesn’t care about anyone else most of the time. She’s prideful, and whines a lot. She also gets mad about small things, and gets upset when another cat is ‘better’ than her.

        • uh NO i do NOT like your name. I guess I’m usually friendly about this sort of thing but you’re just being outright rude and biased. Ivypool is NOT a jerk. She has flaws – LIKE ANY OTHER WELL-WRITTEN CAT! Being snappy – I refuse to say the words ” a jerk”, as that would be incorrect – is literally part of her character, stop hating on her for that! Also Ivypool has REASON to be jealous, as proven already by the books. She is not stupid, instead extremely intelligent and useful.

  • I agree with you Goldenfluff :3. Every clan cat has flaws. It’s like liking one twin better than the other. It’s just no fair.

  • While I love both Dovewing and Ivypool, I have a rebuttle to protect Ivypool. For which part? You may ask, and I answer: Well to the part commenting about how Ivypool was “snappy” with Tigerheart for little to no reason.

    To put this into perspective, imagine your your sibling broke the national law to become boyfriend/girlfriend of someone who stole medicine from your “country”, trained in the dark forest, and was extremely hesitant about not training in dark forest anymore, despite knowing their plans to- well, destroy the earth.

    Yes, she acted harsh to Tigerheart and Dovewing about it, but.. It was fully justified. I mean, why would she trust him after knowing from the dark forest that he’s vengeful and eager to kill. Y’know- just wanted to point that out. Sorry this is so lengthy!

  • I like ivypool more, but that is a matter of opinion. I have nothing against dovewing and i think she is written pretty okay, but i still like ivypool more. I think she has a good reason to be jealous of dovewing, as she is always getting taken out of training and talking to firestar etc, whereas ivypool was just doing average training. she also didnt understand WHY dovewing was getting special treatment and she wasnt because NOBODY could be asked, or thought, to tell her. which annoyed me. I still think that some of the things you have written make sense. One of the reasons she wasnt that sympathetic to dovewing i think is because thats her personality. shes snappy, kind of annoyed, but can be nice.

  • Frostpaw is looking for a mentor to assess me so I can have Frostspark as my warrior name says:

    I like both dovewing and ivypool but i like ivypool a little better than dovewing for some reason, maybe because ivypool is bristlefrost’s mother and i really like bristlefrost

  • Finally, a person who thinks Ivypool is bad! One more thing I’d like to add is I still remember when Ivypool killed Antpelt so the dark forest “leaders” could trust her. It still echoes in my mind, but also the time Ivypool almost killed Flametail. She didn’t have to go that extreme so they could trust her. She could have just pretended to be loyal and not do anything excessive.

  • That’s so true tho! Ivypool is kinda a jerk. Because in Tigerheart’s Shadow, she slices his nose because he didn’t follow her (But he tried)

  • No offense taken! 🙂 I’m not trying to hate on anyone but just trying to contribute my opinion. First for Ivypool – she’s my favorite character. I’m sick of people hating on her for having flaws like any other well-written character. She might be snappy but that’s her character – look you gotta have an anti-hero sometimes ok?
    Also Dovewing is a good cat, she doesn’t deserve to be hated on, even tho she can annoy me at times.
    That’s just my opinion. I hope you don’t take offense to what I said. I like both sisters just fine. Thank you!

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