Origins of Warriors Part 1: Darkstripe by Brambleheart

Brambleheart takes a look at Darkstripe. How much do you know about him?

Hey everyone, Brambleheart here with another article! So recently, someone asked who Darkstripe’s parents were, and that got me thinking… we don’t know a lot about him due to the time skip in Bluestar’s Prophecy. Today, I will be trying to solve these mysteries about this villain.

So first up, his parents. We don’t know a lot about the time when Darkstripe was born, but it has been confirmed that Willowpelt is his mother. This makes Darkstripe and Graystripe half brothers, which is really interesting considering their names, and relationship in The Prophecies Begin, ESPECIALLY their conflict in The Darkest Hour, which eerily parallels Firestar and Scourge.

But what about Darkstripe’s father? Willowpelt being his mother makes sense, but for a while, we all thought/it was cannon that Tawnyspots was Darkstripes father. However, this presents A LOT of issues. First is the age gap. Now this isn’t too bad at face value, as we have seen this with couples such as Blossomfall and Thornclaw. But Willowpelt and Tawnyspots being mates brings a lot of issues with the fact that Willowpelt’s littermate, Spottedleaf, dealt with Thistleclaw and their uncomfortable age gap. This would probably make Willowpelt… drift away from this idea? Not to mention that Tawnyspots was already basically an elder when Willowpelt was an apprentice, and was (most likely) dead by the time she became a queen. So most likely, it’s not him.

But who is it? Perhaps it could be Whitestorm, of all cats. Willowpelt and Whitestorm were very close when they were young, and even went on to have Sorrelkit, Rainkit, and Sootkit together. Perhaps they also had Darkstripe, but broke up for a bit around the time Graystripe was born (Graystripe’s father is Patchpelt). Whitestorm is the most probable option, as other toms were either out of Willowpelt’s age group, were taken or were related to her. But hey, Willowpelt DID have kits with her brother Patchpelt…

If Whitestorm truly was the father of Darkstripe, that would also make Sorrelkit not his half sibling, but his full sibling, adding a whole other layer of disgust to when Darkstripe poisoned her.

Finally, let’s talk about his apprenticeship. We know that Tigerclaw was his mentor, and it may not be too much of a coincidence. You see, Whitestorm and Tigerclaw were very close as young cats, and even thought of eachother as brothers. So, when Darkkit became an apprentice, Whitestorm could have requested Tigerclaw as a mentor. Remember that at this point, Bluefur was either deputy or leader, and trusted both Whitestorm and Tigerclaw, as this was before Tigerclaw spiraled to evil.

Eventually, Darkstripe became the warrior we all love to hate, and also around that time, Longtail became his first apprentice. Judging by the time gap, Darkstripe must have been very young when he earned his warrior name, and got Longpaw, meaning that he was a promising apprentice thanks to Tigerclaw’s training. This could have influenced Bluestar to appoint Tigerclaw to mentor Ravenpaw very shortly after.

Finally, we need to talk about Graystripe. He was most likely born when Darkstripe was a young warrior, training Longpaw. Due to Darkstripe being bitter and hostile thanks to Tigerclaw, and busy training Longpaw, the two brothers weren’t close to one another, leading to a distance between the two. It is entirely possible that Graystripe lived without even knowing of his shared blood with Darkstripe.

Graypaw never got another mentor after Lionheart died, so Tigerclaw helped share the training. Since Tigerclaw was deputy when Graypaw earned the name Graystripe, it is entirely possible that he requested that name in honour of Darkstripe.

So anyways, these are my thoughts on the origin of Darkstripe, his parents, and relationships with other cats. I hope you enjoyed, and comment down below what you think of these theories!