Related Leaders by Whiterabbit

Whiterabbit takes a look at leaders who were related to each other.

So, I am making a new article, this time about leaders. I have noticed long strings of leaders who come from the same family, and I felt like talking about it.

So, let’s start with Oakstar. His son was Pinestar and he was also a leader, hence the name. As we all know, Pinestar’s son was Tigerstar, who also became a leader, but perhaps not a very good one. And then, out of his four children, Bramblestar became a leader. His other child from that litter was Tawnypelt, and she gave birth to the second Tigerstar. That is five related leaders and five cat generations is a lot.

Now, let’s figure out why this happens. I think that leaders are more likely to chose highborn cats to be their deputy. So they would be more likely to choose leaders’ children or deputies’ children to be their new deputies. The leaders figure that if the father or mother was a good deputy, then the child will be too.

Another thing I realized about leaders is the leader chain where one leader mentors some apprentices, and one of the apprentices becomes a leader. I’m not sure who Sunstar’s mentor was, but I seriously doubt that it was Pinestar. Anyway, Sunstar was Bluestar’s mentor after Stonepelt died, and he chose her as his deputy. Firestar’s mentor after Lionheart and Tigerclaw was Bluestar, and she chose him as her deputy. Firestar’s apprentices were Cinderpelt, Cloudtail, and Bramblestar. Cinderpelt became a medicine cat, therefore she could not become a leader. Cloudtail didn’t believe in StarClan and he was a little too pricklyish if you know what I mean. So, the perfect choice was Bramblestar. So, before a Veil of Shadows came out, I thought that either Berrynose or Sparkpelt would be the next ThunderClan leader, and I was really hoping that it wasn’t going to be Berrynose for obvious reasons. I don’t think that Sparkpelt could be the next leader either, just because. But, Berrynose died in the battle at the end of A Veil of Shadows, and I was kind of relieved.

Anyway, let’s try and figure out why this happens. Well, it makes sense that a leader would trust the cat they mentored if they could be trusted, just because they would know the cat better. Sunstar chose Bluestar as his deputy because they kind of knew each other and Sunstar knew that he could trust Bluestar. Bluestar chose Firestar because she went crazy, but she might not have been so quick to accept his words if he had not been her apprentice. I think that Firestar chose Bramblestar to give him a chance, just like Bluestar had given him a chance. He wanted Brambleclaw to prove he could be a loyal deputy, in hopes of making the clan forget and forgive for things that Brambleclaw didn’t actually do.

Okay, I hope you liked my article! Goodbye!