Yellowfang Should’ve Stayed a Warrior! by Ravenflight

Ravenflight shares their opinion on why Yellowfang should have stayed a warrior.

Yellowfang is a medicine cat.
That’s her life, her purpose, and she is better off like that.
Or is she?
Let’s bactrack a bit. Yellowfang was born along side her littermates, Rowankit (Rowanberry), and Nutkit (Nutwhisker). They all started their training as warriors, and gained their warrior names. And then there were some complications, specifically Yellowfang experiencing pains whenever someone around her got hurt (technically she had been experiencing these pains since she was a kit, but she only started noticing them now). The medicine cat ,Sagewhisker, notices these pains, and convinces Yellowfang to become a medicine cat, even though that means giving up her warrior life, and her love, Raggedpelt. And of course, we know she performed extremely well in this role, and excelled as a medicine cat, blah, blah, blah.

But she just couldn’t give up her relationship with Raggedpelt. She continued to visit him in secret, despite her duties as a medicine cat apprentice. Something to note: at this point, she is able to control her pain-sensing abilities, which are rarely mentioned at this point. Eventually, she becomes pregnant with Raggedpelt’s kits, but she is a full medicine cat now, so she certainly can’t have kits now!

And here lies the plot hole. The only reason she became a medicine cat was because of her special abilities. These abilities are now easily controlled, and have for the most part faded into the background, sparsely mentioned. And having kits is a huge reason to become a warrior! Yet she remains a medicine cat. There are even parts in the book where she talks about longing to go hunting and fight again!

But she doesn’t, and has her kits in secret, two of which die, and the other has a strange expression on his face when he is born, full of rage and anger. Yellowfang states that she hasn’t seen an expression like that on a full-grown cat, much less a newborn kit. Yellowfang buries her two dead kits, Hopekit and Wishkit, and brings the angry kit, Brokenkit, back to camp to be raised by Lizardstripe, a resentful queen who doesn’t even love her own kits.

So, Brokenkit grows up angry and bitter from the taunts about his mother beinga kittypet or a rogue, as Yellowfang never reveals herself as his mother, for obvious reasons.

And just UGHHH. If she had made the obvious decision and become a warrior, the Brokenstar would’ve grown up with two loving parents, which probably would’ve have benifited his mental health.
Think about it. Most big villians in Warriors grow up with only one parent, which causes them to grow bitter and resentful. (Embix edit: Please note that not every child who is raised by a single parent will be aggressive later on. There are plenty of people who grow up just fine, and these notable cases are not indicative of single parenting being a bad thing in general.)
Tigerstar – Father (Pinestar) left to go be a kittypet.
Hawkfrost – Mother (Sasha) was rogue who didn’t stay with the Clans.
Darktail – Father (Onestar) abandoned his mother.
I think I see a pattern here!

If only Yellowfang had become a warrior…literally, deaths could’ve been prevented!
If you count deaths Brokenstar has caused as caused by Yellowfang, then she has killed Mintkit, Marigoldkit, Mosspaw (who was technically a kit), Badgerfang (another technical kit), Spottedleaf (by connection), Raggedstar (Brokenstar’s FATHER), and many other unnamed kits sent into battle too early.

Just…..sigh.