![[Mapleshade lying down as she bleeds from a wound, saying "Leave me alone. I don't need anyone."]](https://blogclan.katecary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Mapleshade-740x555.jpg)
Fan ArticlesCloverpaw shares their opinion on Mapleshade.
Hello! This is Cloverpaw with a SECOND article! Today I’m going to talk about Mapleshade, and why I think she’s overrated.
(LOL I haven’t even read Mapleshade’s Vengeance, but I do know a lot about her xd)
Spoilers for Mapleshade’s Vengeance and Darkness Within!
Okay, first. I never, EVER see a different opinion about Mapleshade. I respect it, but it’s always like: “Mapleshade didn’t deserve to go to the Dark Forest! She deserved StarClan!” Ok.. what I don’t get here is HOW she deserved to go to StarClan. Now, I understand that her kits drowned, and that Appledusk just watched them die. I would have been mad too if someone didn’t help MY kits while they were dying. And she was also exiled from ThunderClan and all that.
Second of all, she killed cats. Yes, I get it, she wanted revenge. I mean it IS called “Mapleshade’s Vengeance”. She killed Ravenwing, Frecklewish and Appledusk. I get Ravenwing told Thunderclan about her secret, but that means loyalty to the Clan, right? But even though, I still hated how he got her exiled, that’s just pathetic, Ravenwing, really pathetic. Appledusk let her kits drown, and cheated with her. And what did Frecklewish do again.. AH! I forgot what she did. But what I remember is that she died to poison because Mapleshade… poisoned… heeeeer? Anyway, the part I don’t get is WHY she deserved to go to StarClan if she killed three cats. These 3 cats might have had some fault, but that doesn’t mean Mapleshade had to kill them. StarClan won’t accept cats that kill for revenge.
THIRD OF ALL, I know many people compare Mapleshade with Ashfur. I always see the same words (or at least completely similar): “Mapleshade kills 3 cats, and goes to the Dark Forest, and Ashfur kills 4 cats, and goes to StarClan. That’s unfair!” Okay, let me get into this. Ashfur ATTEMPTED to kill 4 cats. (well I guess he kind of succeeds with Firestar,) and yes, he goes to StarClan. He didn’t kill 4 cats EXACTLY. (again, Firestar) he ATTEMPTED to. Mapleshade actually managed to kill 3 cats, which, see a patter here? 3 Cats killed, 4 cats ATTEMPTED to be killed.
And I go to my final reason, Mapleshade also “Loved to much”, now I get how she’s similar to Ashfur, since she pretty much almost had the same reason. Mapleshade could have gotten over her kit’s death, I know that could have been hard, but did she really have to kill cats? Ashfur did the same with Squirrelflight, similar? They BOTH could have gotten over it, but they didn’t. A reason I do agree with is that Ashfur deserved to go to the DF. I mean, he’s evil. Uh, hello? Body taker? Impostor guy? Bramblestar possibly banishing?
My point in here is, I don’t get why Mapleshade deserved to go to StarClan. Ashfur didn’t either, but why is Mapleshade different from Ashfur?
(I probably shouldn’t have written because people are probably going to scream in the comments that they don’t agree and Mapleshade isn’t evil. But please respect my opinion just like I do with yours. Also please tell me if I missed a point or I wrote a wrong part, like a death or reason. 🙂 )
This has been Cloverpaw, and I hope to see you and my next article! UwU
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I get why she murdered them, and their reactions to her where mean. Exiled because of ravenwing, apple dusk cheated on her before the kits drowned, but frecklewish is the only one that didn’t have to die. She had the same reaction of all her clanmates.
Ravenwing did not get her exiled, that was Oakstar. Ravenwing got a sign from StarClan, telling him there were three things in his clan that belonged to the river. He than happened to walk in on Mapleshade flirting with Appledusk and realised what the sign meant. Once Appledusk left, he confroonted Mapleshade. Telling her about the oman he had, and asking her if she knew what it could mean. she dismissed it, so Ravenwing went further, as he wanted to hear Mapleshade confess to him. But she didn’t. She kept saying she didn’t know anything. Eventually, he had to tell her he knew about the kit’s real father, and that he could not ler her lie any longer. Mapleshade, after ignoring all the chances she got to get on his good side, than continues to try to guilttrip him and is very disrespectful. Ravenwing than tells her he will let the clan know she lied, as they have a right to know, he continues with telling her he’s sorry for her and her kits, and leaves. Her tells Oakstar the news. Oakstar tries to get her to confess, but again, Maple ignores any chance she might have for telling the truth herself, so Ravenwing is forced again to tell the truth for her. He never agreed to kicking her out, he never disagreed to it either. He was completly neurtals and only did what he was supposed to do. Inform his leader about the omen he got.
I agree, maple shade didn’t deserve starclan, but that’s not my only point. ash fur only got into starclan because of yellow fang, whose judgement was clouded by ragged star. and maple shade only killed because of everything she went through. see, no one is at fault, not even the ones maple killed; they had their reasons. lots of people who talk about maple don’t understand this, I think it could even be the entire point of her novella.
I agree that the victims of Mapleshade’s killings are relatively innocent (I mean, no one really blames Crowfeather for ‘cheating’ on Leafpool) but I do think Mapleshade was still to blame for what she did. Yes, good characters have killed in the past (such as Lionblaze killing Russetfur). However, Mapleshade seems to be carrying out these murders as though these cats deserve it, which you’ve said they don’t since they are innocent. Is it okay to kill cats who don’t deserve it? I haven’t read Mapleshade’s Vengeance myself, but I do know most of what goes on in the story. Mapleshade would have gone to StarClan if she was a good cat. I know Ashfur is an argument against that, but that would require us to believe that the authors of Warrior Cats intended for Ashfur to return evil, which I doubt that they did at the time of Ashfur’s death. Since Mapleshade died before that point, the authors would not question putting an objectively ‘bad’ cat in the Dark Forest, and she remains evil there as we see with Crookedstar’s Promise. We don’t know what exactly catalyzed Ashfur’s plan from beyond his own life, but we have no way of knowing that there weren’t outside forces meddling with him either. As far as I’m concerned, Mapleshade should be held responsible for her actions, whether she felt they were justified or not (since an unbiased cat watching all this would pinpoint her as the bad cat in this case). I apologize for rambling a bit, I don’t get into Warrior Cats discussions as much as I want to and thought I’d share my input :).
What I was saying is that Mapleshade had her reasons for killing, whether good or bad, and whether her vengeance was justified in your opinion. Her reasons for believing her kills were justified were one, she believed false information (such as frecklewish “letting the kits die”), and two, she was already going insane with all the kitten hallucinations and stuff. She remains insane in the dark forest, and she also haunts all of Appledusk’s descendants because she believes his kin should suffer like her kits did. I never said she was completely “innocent” or “good” or “justified”, since that lies entirely up to interpretation. I only said that she had her reasons, and so did everyone who harmed her. This is why, in my opinion, the dark forest is absolutely where she belongs, but no-one bad is ever truly bad.
Unrelated but it’s completely fine for you to ramble, I ramble a lot as well 🙂
I’m sure most of you know that I’m not the biggest fan of Mapleshade, but no one can deny that despite all her faults, she is a great villain. Whether it’s because of all the stereotypes she breaks, or her unique backstory, but she deserves to go down in Warriors history as one of the most fiercest and evil villains.
Mapleshade is just a good character. Sure, she’s evil. But she’s that good kinda evil that makes you say, “oooh, not forced”. Maybe, possibly, ‘Overly forgiven’ might be a better word than ‘Overrated’?
great work! I like Mapleshade, but I agree with you!
1st of all, no one watched Maple’s kits die. Frecklewish had already left the scene by the time Maple decided she’d try to swim over the river, and Appledusk basically jumped in immidiatly when he heard his children were in the river.
Ravenwing also gave her planty of chances to confess herself, but she kept denying she did anything wrong. He had to literally tell her himself that he knew her kits were halfclan, and she was still acting entitled and disrespectful to him. He told Oakstar her secret, yes, but ulrimately, it was Oakstar who decided Maple and her kits should be banished. Raven had no say in that part.
than, she didn’t even paln to kill Appledusk, she killed him on accident. She wanted to kill Reedshine bc she was pregnant with Apple’s kits.
i do agree with you btw, just wanted to clear things up.
Mapleshade is a moral dark grey. Horribly mentally tormented and drained by everyone and more, especially by those who trust seemed assured. Imagine your relationship not only being illegal, but then once getting exiled with your kits (seriously?) you have to watch each painfully drown, as your partner watches, and as you confront them you find out your already insecure relationship was a lie and the whole time you kept it secret your partner was out with other girls and already had new kits, replacing you, your (and his) children and treating you like garbage. Surely you would’ve snapped? Mapleshade is in the wrong in some aspects, as is everyone else.
I think the reason she gets so much attention is because of her motives. Nearly every single villain is motivated by powe. But Mapleshade is motivated by revenge. She was driven into madness after exile and being cheated on but mainly her kits dying. She hears them mewling and crying for help and every time she kills the cats responsible for their deaths the fading stops. And attempting to kill four cats is just as bad as murder. The intention was still there an it does not excuse his attempted murder.
I agree with the most. I hate the way everyone try to exuse her actions.
I’m saing this to everyone who blames Oakstar and thinks Mapleshade couldn’t think clearly to cross the bridge and that’s why her kits died, well Oakstar couldn’t think clearly too, he fined out that the father of her kits was not his son but his killer, yes he could exaile just her and leave the kits but still, this is just my opinion (sorry for wrong spelling I’m croatian)
So, what happened with Frecklewish is that Frecklewish watched Mapleshade’s kits drown without helping (im pretty sure) and Mapleshade lead her to snakerocks. A snake bit Frecklewish’s eyes and that killed her. But just imagine, you find someone you love, have kits with them, and everything is perfect until one of your own clanmates just get you exiled, your best friend calls you mean things and hurts you before you leave, you go for help, your kits DROWN while you try providing for them, and you have to TAKE their lifeless bodies with you since you can’t just bury them, find out your mate is CHEATING on you with someone else, aren’t accepted into that clan, and then when you ask your mate for help, they refuse and hate on you. I would also probably go crazy. She has been through so much.
I do think Mapleshade deserves to go to Starclan, but Appledusk deserves to go to the Dark Forest, and you can’t change my mind since he broke the Warrior Code, cheated on his own mate after making her carry his kits and lie for the sake of the kits having a better life as warriors (or med cats) and was in the end, cruel to her.
She suffered so much. People beg for more female villains, yet they couldn’t even handle Mapleshade.