Waffleheart shares their two cents on Mapleshade’s actions.

In the Warriors community, there are many amazing things. Firestar doesn’t like waffles, Jay x Stick, Starkit’s Prophecy and Mothpool to name a few. However, there is also a surprisingly large side of our community that are Mapleshade fans. And its a common belief in the fandom that Mapleshade “didn’t deserve” to go to the Dark Forest. I am here to debunk that theory.
I get that people like Mapleshade. She got a fanbase likely because is the only female villain if you don’t count Sleekwhisker, and the only female lead figure in the Dark Forest. And I understand that. But still, she deserved to go to the Dark Forest. Like, I love Bellatrix Lestrange — partly because she’s the only high figure death eater in the Harry Potter series — but that doesn’t take away from the fact that she deserved to go to Azkaban.
The main comparison I see Mapleshade praisers make when discussing whether or not she deserved the Dark Forest, is comparing her to Ashfur. This is completely ridiculous. Ashfur pre-TBC, really hadn’t done anything wrong compared to Mapleshade. He had *planned* to do many things, like kill Squirrelflight’s kits and her dad, but when the time came around to do those things, he always chickened out. When he got Firestar stuck in that fox trap, he ran back to camp to get help. When he was going to kill Squirrelflight’s kits in the iconic fire scene, he just ran away from them to tell everyone because “everyone knowing the secret would be worse than me killing these kits” because they weren’t Squirrelflight’s biological kits. Keep in mind, Squirrelflight had raised these kits from the moment they were born. This to me sounds like an easy way out. He didn’t actually want to kill anybody, so he came up with the excuse that exposing her would be worse than killing her adopted kits. Which is completely ridiculous! Even if Squirrelflight didn’t have any connection with these cats, three people getting murdered because of you is obviously worse than some dude you dated for two weeks in high school to tell everybody that you’re kids are adopted. And that’s why pre-TBC Ashfur wasn’t really a bad guy, just incredibly annoying, grudge-holding, lonely and desperate.
Mapleshade, on the other hand, is a whole other story. Mapleshade lied to her leader and said her kits’ father was his newly dead son because she knew her half-Clan kits wouldn’t be accepted. Then, she decided to tell everyone her kits were actually half-Clan. Obviously, everyone threw a tantrum because this is warrior cats. She then decided to go to RiverClan even though RiverClan cats don’t accept half-Clan kits either. She decided it was a brilliant idea to take her kits over to their father in RiverClan via the river. The ice cold, streaming river. And all three of her kits died. She then went to RiverClan and found out Appledusk, her mate, had cheated on her. She absolutely snapped and went on a murder rampage, murdering two innocent cats and Appledusk himself. Killing these people lit a fire in her and she seriously enjoyed it. And then she was killed and went to the Dark Forest. And when she realized where she was, she was happy, and satisfied. So clearly, she was where she wanted to be.
I like to say that Mapleshade is the source of all evil, because she has literally trained every cat in the Dark Forest ever, and is one of the oldest spirits out there. Ashfur, on the other hand, didn’t do anything seriously evil until three arcs after his death.
Mapleshade killed many innocent people and it gave her joy. The fandom forgave her because her boyfriend cheated on her?? Make it make sense guys.
After reading this article I hope all you Mapleshade lovers out there have changed your mind about whether or not she deserved to go to the Dark Forest. Waffle OUT.
I agree and disagree. Mapleshade made for a very interesting villain, hence making her my second favorite character. But, she did deserve the Dark Forest. She was hallucinating about her dead kits, yes. But she could have sought out solace in ShadowClan or WindClan, especially the medicine cats. Instead, the killing spree began and so did her downward spiral towards insanity.
I agreee!!!
…Mapleshade did not tell her clan. I don’t think.
Ravenwing (TC Medicine Cat) guessed that they were half-RC because they liked to swim, then guessed that Appledusk in particular was their father because of their pelt color.
I actually agree with the Mapleshade part. She did kill three innocent cats(Appledusk broke the warrior code, but…). However, I feel some sympathy for her because her kits died in the river, her mate and her Clan betrayed her and all. But it’s not okay to express that anger by killing anyone. I disagree with the Ashfur part, because I believe that he actually wanted to kill Jayfeather, Lionblaze and Hollyleaf. He just wanted to hurt Squirrelflight just because she chose Brambleclaw(Bramblestar) over him. It was just pure jealousy but he decided to express it the wrong way.
Anyways, everyone’s opinion is important! Nice article! (= OwO =)
absolutely agreed
Great, incredible, well-written article that I enjoyed reading and I agree
I really like Mapleshade and I do think she deserved the DF buuuut I do feel sympathy towards her bc of the exiled from clan dead kits etc
Also I DESPISE Appledusk
He is a lying cheating code breaker who deserves the DF as much as Mapleshade
( this still doesn’t make Mapleshade innocent though)
I agree, Mapleshade deserved to go to the DF because she still killed a lot of cats even though her actions were influenced by others. However, that does not make me hate her, only defend and like her. Fantastic article though Waffle!
I disagree on Ashfur- I truly think he was evil. His decision to help Hawkfrost can be defended as an impulsive decision, but he had so long to let go of his feelings when the Fire Scene happened. But, as for Mapleshade, yeah. I made my own article on why it was Mapleshade’s fault her kits died, and I think you’d like it!
No one ever said that the Dark Forest is worse than Starclan. The Dark Forest is where cats go if Starclan cats don’t accept them. And Starclan cats don’t have any power, are all mousebrained and all did mousebrained things while they were living. So don’t say whether a cat deserved Starclan or deserved the Dark Forest.
Well this article has a lot of true statmemts but she still belongs in starclan, mapleshade killed to avenge her kits, if anyone cheated on me or my kids died i would also go insane, she only was glad she went to the dark forest because the cats there understand why she killed, also frecklewish WATCHED HER KITS DIE, its against the code to let kits suffer, but ravenwing and appledusk is also for the blame of her kits died, ravenwing told her secret, and appledusk barely tried to save them! Also oakstar is part reoson why the kits died, he exiled them causing them to cross the river, tho shr did not kill oakstar