Flamecloud takes a look at one of the worst couples in the series.


Warning, the following article contains some spoilers from Bluestarās Prophecy, as well as regarding various couples in the Warriorās series.
Warriors has a fair amount of couples who arenāt exactly a perfect match. Some, like Bumblestripe and Dovewing, didnāt respect each other’s boundaries or communicate well. Then, thereās cats like Spiderleg and Daisy, who barely seem to have feelings for each other at all and the former of who was not very interested in being a father. And, of course, you have the questionable age gaps like with Blossomfall and Thornclaw, creepy manipulation like with Thistleclaw and Spottedpaw(leaf), and the good olā uncle/aunt x niece/nephew and cousin x cousin matches, like Dustpelt x Ferncloud and Hawkwing x Pebbleshine.
But which couple is the worst? I think I have an answer for you, and itās not listed above. The pairing that takes the prize is Pinestar x Leopardfoot, the parents of the well known villain, Tigerstar.
There are a lot of reasons why this ship should have sunk before it even began. The first being the absolutely atrocious age gap and unhealthy power dynamics these two have.
Just how big is that age gap, you ask? Well, letās find out. I like to use the timeline on the warriorās wiki for things like this, feel free to follow along if youād like. https://warriors.fandom.com/wiki/Events_timeline
As revealed by his novella, Pinestarās Choice, Pinestar is born at the beginning of 16 YBF (years before Firestar.) Fast forward a tiny little bit of time, and you find Leopard and her brother, Patchfootās birth at the end of 7 YBF, during Bluestarās prophecy.
That makes the age gap between them almost 10 years.
Yikes.
Letās put that in prospective real quick, before we move on. This is far longer than the commonly hated gap of Thornclaw x Blossomfall, which is āonlyā about 6 years, along with Spottedleaf x Firestar, which is 5 years. Quite a few cats donāt even live that long. According to google, warriors usually retire around 8 years old. This seems like a reasonable number, given the age of well known elders throughout the books. Mousefur, for instance, is 12 years old when she dies. Firestar only lives to be 8. So, can we agree that by the time Leopardfoot is born, Pinestar is plenty old enough to be an elder?
To make matters worse, we canāt even be sure that theyāre both adults when their relationship starts. In Pinestarās Choice, while talking to Jake, Pinestar tells his friend that āThere is no other cat I can talk to like this.
To which Jake replies, teasingly, āWhat about Leopardpaw? Youāve mentioned her often enough.ā
Ah yes, the joy of a friend teasing his (elderly) friend about his crush, who happens to be a minor.
Additionally, Leopardfoot was still an apprentice during the battle with Windclan, which happens at the end of 6YBF, during Leaf-fall. By the next time we see her in Bluestarās prophecy, sheās a warrior. My guess would be that her ceremony occurred sometime during the leaf-bare of 5 YBF. Sometime during the season after that, Doestar informs Pinestar that Leopardfoot is expecting his kits, one of which might destroy Thunderclan. Meaning that Leopardfoot was a warrior for around 6 moons at best before becoming pregnant with Pinestarās kits.
Now, we donāt get to see any of their interactions at all before Leopardfoot moves to the nursery, but no situation I can imagine makes this less creepy. For this reason, I feel like this pairing has the potential to be even worse than the terrible Spottedleaf x Thistleclaw ship. I am by no means defending that ship (I hate that ship, itās definitely another creepy ship), but while Spottedpaw was indeed a minor being manipulated, she and Thistleclaw only have about a 1 year age gap. (Although it should be noted that Spottedleafās Trust doesnāt line up quite right with Bluestarās Prophecy.)
At least Thistleclaw was not the leader of Thunderclan.
Imagine what a horribly unbalanced power dynamic that must have been. We have the 10+ year old leader of Thunderclan showing interest in a <1 year old apprentice. He very easily could have pressured her into a relationship with his status, be it intentional or unintentional. In fact, theoretically, he could have ordered her into a relationship. Leaderās word is law, right? Regardless of how much pressure he purposefully applied to her, Leopardfoot might have still felt like she couldnāt say no to being his mate since he was leader.
Even if we set aside the age gap and power dynamics, they still donāt make a good couple, because Pinestar is a horrible mate.
For starters, the two hardly interact. In Bluestarās prophecy, Leopardfoot just magically moves to the nursery. Even in Pinestarās Choice, which is from Pinestarās perspective, they donāt have any chemistry. āHe did like Leopardfoot, and he had been spending time with her recently, but he didnāt want to make a statement to the entire Clan about itā, followed by him imagining being a father, is about as close to a cute couple moment that we ever get.
Overall, Pinestar doesnāt really seem to care for Leopardfoot at all. When her labor begins early, all of the camp is worried for her but Pinestar. Understandably, he has been told that his son is going to destroy his clan and is therefore not thrilled about his impending arrival, but he doesnāt think of Leopardfootās feelings or her well being at all during that scene in Pinestarās choice. In fact, in response to his clanmate’s stressing, he thinks āKits were born all the time! Why was today any different?ā
Meanwhile, his mate is less calm. Remember, sheās only just become a warrior, sheās pregnant, and now her kits are coming early and her mate is nowhere to be found. She is described as ātiny against the moss and bracken, her eyes wild with pain, her pelt matted and smelling as fear.ā And yet, Pinestar spares her not a single thought. Instead, Bluefur tries to comfort her clanmate to make up for it.
Then, he doesnāt go and see the kits. Before meeting his children and visiting his young mate, he goes and visits his kittypet friends. Itās not until the day after that he works up the courage to visit Leopardfoot. Swiftbreeze comments āPoor Leopardfoot. She kept asking for him. What must she think?ā
Likewise, when Leopardfoot sees her mate, she says āYou came. I waited for you all night.ā
When she expresses her concerns for her kits, all who are sickly and frail, Pinestarās touching response is āCalm down.ā He even goes as far as to hope that Tigerkit will die. Itās reasonable for him to be nervous about the kit heās being pressured to kill, but while he fears his newborn son, he feels very little concern for his weak daughters and distraught mate.
Itās also notable that while he spends very little time thinking about Leopardfoot, he spends plenty of time missing Shanty and his kittypet friends. Although he and Shantyās relationship is never quite romantic, the two are quite close, and heās more upset over her death than he is when his mate goes into premature labor.
Pinestar also does not consider how leaving the clans will affect Leopardfoot, not once, nor does he even seem sad to be leaving her behind. He wants to leave without saying goodbye, and tells Lionpaw to tell Thunderclan heās dead. Even when he does go back to the clan to say his farewells, he still nearly makes his exit without saying goodbye to his mate.
āHe started toward the gorse tunnel but Leopardfoot blocked his way. āPinestar, what about our kits?ā she pleaded, her voice high with disbelief. āWonāt you stay and watch them grow up?ā She had brought the kits out of the nursery; Mistkit and Nightkit were huddled together on the ground, barely bigger than the day they had been born, their eyes cloudy and unfocused.ā
His response: āTheyāll be fine with you, Leopardfoot.ā
Wow, Pinestar, such a tearful goodbye. He does not think about how heāll miss Mistkit and Nightkit, nor how heāll miss Leopardfoot. He did not talk to her about his choice, he did not tell her that their son could be evil, he didn’t even consider for the briefest second to ask her to come with him. Instead, he was about to leave without even saying goodbye, let her find out of his choice alongside the rest of the clan, and doesnāt spare her a second thought once he goes to Shantyās twolegs and spends some time feeling sad about her death.
And no, Pinestar, the kits were not fine with Leopardfoot. His young mate had to watch her two daughters grow weaker and weaker until they eventually died, and even though itās obvious that he knew of their condition, Pinestar does not worry about Mistkit and Nightkitās fates nor how their demise might affect Leopardfoot. He also leaves Leopardfoot to be a single mother of Tigerkit, who she does not discipline properly, probably because sheās already lost two kits.
So, in summary:
Pinestar, 10 years her senior, has a crush on an apprentice who then becomes his mate. Despite probably having at least unintentionally pressured her into the relationship in the first place, he prefers the company of Shanty, a random kittypet, to her. When she has their kits, he does not worry about her or the kits. He then proceeds to abandon her with two sickly kits and a potential future murderer, with the reassurance that theyāll ābe fine with her.ā
At this point, the best thing I can say about it is āAt least they werenāt cousins.ā
Thank you for taking the time to read this article! Do you agree? Which cats do you think make the worst couple?
Yeah although Most leaders tend to live longer so the age difference isn’t as significant. (Also Firestar died at 8 YEARS OLD!?)
A lot of strong opinions, I’ve noticed (doesn’t mean that’s bad).
I, for one, agree with you. This relationship is honestly against everything in the real world, and it means that Leopardfoot was only 18 months/1 and a half years old when she got pregnant with Pinestar’s kits. I’m not with this ship at all. It’s so toxic…
Poor Firestar, dying at 8 years old…
O wow. I’ve just realized how messed up their realationship was.
Same here
Same
There are some really bad ships out there,and you discribed this one purr-fectly. Great artical! And here’s one I have on mind: Why did Firepaw/heart/star ever have a crush on Spottedleaf? I mean,she was a medicine cat,he an apprentice,it’s all so crazy! Even if they were the same age,he would most likely accidently pressure her into having his kits,and then they would both get exiled,if not her. And she died anyway before Firepaw/heart even loved her enough to have kits with her,so I guess thats a relive,but still!š„ŗ