The (incredibly long) life of Blackstar by Robinsong

Robinsong takes a look at the former leader of ShadowClan, Blackstar.

Blackstar. What does that name mean to you? Well, depending on which book you’ve read last, Blackstar could be an evil murderer, a wonderful leader or simply a cat with a VERY long life.

You may have noticed that Blackstar was around for a while, and this makes sense, right? Lots of cats live long lives, Tallstar, Sandstorm, Graystripe… the list goes on. Firestar lived a pretty long life as well, through four sub series as well as a few super editions. “What does this have to do with Blackstar?” I hear you ask. Well, Firestar was barely apprentice age when he joined ThunderClan in the forest. By this time Blackstar had been a deputy for quite a while, and cats don’t exactly become deputies on their second day of being a warrior. So if Blackstar was already a senior warrior when Firestar gave up his kittypet life he wouldn’t have been seasons away from joining the elders den when he became leader. Just knowing this Blackstar already seems quite old. Then you have to take into account that Blackstar managed to outlive Firestar. Soon after Firestar died his oldest friends became elders. Blackstar was a good season or two older than Graystripe and Sandstorm so it’s quite frankly impressive that he managed the walk from the freshkill pile to his nest during the Great Battle, let alone afterwards.

During this astoundingly long period of time Blackstar changed quite a bit. In the original series he was supporting Brokenstar and Blackstar in the murder of countless cats and rule of the entire forest, even killing Stonefur infront of most of RiverClan and ShadowClan. After the death of Tigerstar he seemed to decide to change his personality and not follow in the footsteps of either of his former leaders but become a respectable cat. In fact, it was as though his past never counted as all the other clans accepted him without any distrust. Over the next few seasons he earned himself the reputation of a leader that, despite sometimes forgetting that other clans mattered at all, looked after his own cats well. This reputation he carried for the rest of his life. The next change to his reputation occurred after his death, when Rowanstar proved that, although a brilliant deputy, he did not to be a great leader for ShadowClan and cats remembered more and more of Blackstar’s good leadership skills and care of his cats rather than his slightly unjust behavior to the other three clans.

All in all Blackstar was a cat to be remembered with praise, annoyance and a bit of horror at his misdeeds.

Blackstar

Clan: ShadowClan
Rank at death: Leader
Lifespan: Very long
Death count: 3
Overall good-evil ranking: 70%-30% (feel free to comment what you think this should be but make sure you also write which book featuring Blackstar you read last)