Defending Villains by Whiterabbit

Whiterabbit takes a shot at defending some of the villains from the Warriors series. Can you find it within yourself to forgive these cats?

This contains spoilers for almost everything imaginable, so don’t read this unless you are up to date on the series! It probably sounds at least a bit weird that I am trying to defend villains, but I do have some good reasons, so, let’s get started!

Thistleclaw
I decided on writing about Thistleclaw first because he kind of leads us into the other ones. So, why did cats think that Thistleclaw was so evil, like, what bad things did he do? Well, most people think that he was evil because he trained in the Dark Forest. Our hero Bramblestar also did that, but Bramblestar just wanted to be a better warrior. Well, so did Thistleclaw. And, Mapleshade is much more evil in the Dark Forest than she was in real life, and she can be very persuasive, even Crookedstar fell for her. A lot of cats are eviler in the Dark Forest than they were in real life because they got put in the Dark Forest. Anyway, back to Thistleclaw. Thistleclaw was also battle-hungry, but that may have just been because he wanted to show off the cool battle moves that he had learned in the Dark Forest. That makes sense. He just wanted to show the clan what a good warrior he was, and he excelled in fighting, so why not start a battle and take it as a little challenge. Also, people criticize Thistleclaw for training Tigerclaw like he did, but he was just trying to be a good mentor to him and teaching him all that he knew, from his ThunderClan mentor and from the Dark Forest. Maybe, if he had lived longer, he would have turned his back on Mapleshade. Maybe, he would have become a great cat and a great leader like Bramblestar, but he probably would have fought many unnecessary battles, but on the other hand, most of the unnecessary battles would have been won if he had trained his clan as well as he had been trained. When he died, he went to the Dark Forest, and Brambleclaw probably would have gone there too, if Hawkfrost had killed him at the fox trap scene before he made his decision to let the ThunderClan leader live. So, Thistleclaw went to the Dark Forest and got mad at the cats who had killed him before he had had a chance to explain himself to his clan, and he was probably mad at StarClan, too. Also, consider that Thistleclaw also had love in his heart. He wasn’t just one of those meany kitties who don’t care about anything but taking over the world. He had a kit! He also loved more than one cat, which is maybe double evidence that he wasn’t so bad. Anyway, let’s get on with the next villain…

Tigerclawstar
So, this cat is recognized as one of the worst villains ever. His mentor, mentioned above, taught him how to kill cats and fight like a “real warrior” fights. When he was a kit, he was the only one in his litter that survived; he was strong from the beginning and destined to become a great warrior. When he was an apprentice, he was urged on by Thistleclaw to go ahead and teach Scourge, at that time Tiny, a lesson he wouldn’t forget. Tigerpaw always loved a chance to show off his skills as a warrior and an apprentice, and like Thistleclaw, he wanted to start unnecessary battles. When he became a warrior, he killed Redtail, but that was after he had saved Redtail from a hawk. So, Redtail wouldn’t have been alive to become deputy if it weren’t for Tigerclaw, but he would also still be a deputy if Tigerclaw had decided not to kill him at sunningrocks. Anyway, Redtail owed Tigerclaw his life, and I’m not sure this is a law or anything, but he killed Redtail for an (I would say good, but this was not a good) reason. Tigerclaw was just too ambitious. He just wanted to become a leader, and in the end, that’s what he got, but as Pinestar said “Perhaps not the choice I would have made” and Pinestar also said something like “but you have traveled a long way to get here and you deserve your reward”. I agree with Pinestar, kind of. Tigerclaw would have turned out something like a maybe more ambitious version of Lionheart if somebody who wasn’t Thistleclaw had mentored him. He did kill a lot of cats, though. Even more than Mapleshade! He also indirectly killed a lot of cats, and so I do think that the killing was just the need for revenge on the clan that had thrown him out on the day that he would have reached his dream of being a leader, had it not been for Fireheart. I understand his hatred for Fireheart. Tigerstar might have actually loved, I am not sure. I cannot think of a good reason why he mated with Sasha other than he actually fell in love with her. He might have loved Goldenflower some, closer to the beginning of their relationships. But the queens who are known as queens (Ferncloud, Brindleface, Goldenflower, Frostfur) usually have multiple mates, so they probably do not love them all equally. I don’t have any more to say about Tigerclawstar, but I defended him some, but there is no other way to defend him. He would defend himself as “well then, why didn’t you give me a better mentor”. Anyway, the next cat is…

Scourge
Scourge met Tigerstar in the forest when he was still just a little kit, and when Tigerstar was Tigerpaw. Tigerpaw tried to kill him, with encouragement from Thistleclaw, but Bluestar let him go away with a few scratches because she knows better than to make a huge fuss over a Twoleg kitten. That meant that Scourge was mad at Tigerstar, mad that these cats are so ruthless. So, he becomes one of the cats that wander around the Twolegplace, eating whatever scraps he can find. Then, when he scratches a dog once and sends the dog scurrying away, he becomes the leading cat in the Twolegplace and has all of the Twolegplace cats in his reach. They respect him and do whatever he tells them to. It is perfectly reasonable that Scourge would want to use his new powerfulness for revenge on Tigerstar, but I do think that he overreacted a little. He led his cats against the clans after killing Tigerstar because Tigerstar promised him land, and now that he was dead, Scourge presumed that he would get ShadowClan’s old land, right? At least, in Twolegplace Scourge would, but he is unfamiliar with the clan’s rules, except he resumes that most of them are ruthless killers because of his one early experience where most of the cats on a patrol do act as ruthless killers to a little kittypet like himself. He figures that he will have to be like the clans if he is to beat them, so he and his group become ruthless killers. Little does he know that the clan cats are not that bad and that he was meeting a rare case of two villains on patrol. I tried to frame what might have happened, but I can’t think of anything else that would have drive Scourge except for that feud with Tigerstar. Now, onto the next cat who is…

Sol
Sol is a very odd cat. He doesn’t believe in StarClan, and there is no reason why he should, kind of like Mothwing. But, Scourge’s mission was not to stay silent and pretend he believes in StarClan, because he wasn’t a clan cat, he was a loner. But, after meeting the clan cats, maybe he starts to feel sorry for them, sorry that they are bound by invisible rules, and always have to look up to StarClan, whatever that was. Maybe he was just trying to free Blackstar, free ShadowClan from the invisible force that was limiting his actions. Sol must think that StarClan was an absurd idea! But, persuading Blackstar to stop believing in StarClan wasn’t the only sin he was accused of. He was also accused of killing Ashfur, but guess what? Hollyleaf killed Ashfur! He wasn’t even the one guilty of the crime. That was easy. Those two are pretty much the only reasons that Sol is regarded as being a villain, and those reasons are not very hard to justify. Now, our next villain is…

Darktail
I cannot justify him capturing and torturing cats, it just can’t be justified. But, I refuse to believe that it was just him that made him so evil. I’ve been blaming different cats for one cats’ evilness earlier, like Thistleclaw for Tigerstar, and Tigerstar and Thistleclaw for Scourge. I blame Onestar for Darktail. If Onestar hadn’t fallen in love with a kittypet/rogue? then Darktail wouldn’t be a thing. At the very least, if Onestar hadn’t abandoned Smoky, then Darktail wouldn’t have grown up to hate Clan cats. Seriously Onestar? You could have guessed that that would happen if you left your mate to believe that clan cats are never loyal to their mates and leave the queens to take care of the kits alone. Anyway, that’s it. I blame Onestar 100%. On to the next kitty…

Mapleshade
You could have guessed that this was coming because this is one of the villains that is easiest to defend because she had really good reasons. I also have an article about Mapleshade vs. Ashfur, because I think that Ashfur’s crimes were worse. Anyway, Mapleshade mated with a cat from another clan oh no! Wait, that happens all the time. Couldn’t you at least have given Mapleshade a trial, like Leafpool? Admittedly, Leafpool didn’t kill anyone, but she was a medicine cat! She also had no reason to kill anyone, because her clan didn’t force her into exile! I don’t think that Leafpool deserved a trial she should just go on to StarClan, like Yellowfang, and I do think that Mapleshade deserved a trial! She just loved too much! The defense that everybody gives to Ashfur! As far as I know, Ashfur didn’t even have a trial! What is up with that! Mapleshade did try to kill three cats, but that was after she was sent into exile for committing a crime that happens every day! Also, Mapleshade’s crimes after she died were much worse, because she went to the Dark Forest. If StarClan had accepted her, which they should have, then Mapleshade wouldn’t have manipulated every cat she could get her hands on. But, I blame Mapleshade entirely on Appledusk. Appledusk was the most stupid, fox-hearted piece of mouse dung that could ever have been! And he still went to StarClan! Grrrr… Okay, I could go on talking about this forever, but I think I had better stop and go on to the next cat,

Brokenstar
Okay, this cat is literally impossible to defend, but I have some… things to say about him. I don’t even think that it was his fault that he was evil. I feel like he was born to be evil, to punish Yellowfang for her sins (even though she made it to StarClan and not Mapleshade). Brokenstar was always meant to become the tyrant leader of ShadowClan. StarClan laid out his path from the moment Yellowfang gave birth to him. Some people blame it on Lizardstripe, but I only blame his anger on Lizardstripe, not his evilness. He was always born to be evil, but he could have been that calm, menacing, always glaring at you leader instead of the “if you don’t give me your territory I’ll drive you out just like I did with WindClan”. If Lizardstripe hadn’t mothered him, then he would be the (glares at clan cats) “give me your territory” in a calm voice. So, I don’t blame anybody but StarClan for his evilness.

I probably missed some really important villain, excluding the impostor, because I can’t defend him until I know who he is. Also, this article was really long. (whoops). I probably should have split it up into individual villains, but I was afraid that it would be too short. Comment if you can think of a villain that I forgot. Whiterabbit out!