Romance in the Warriors Universe by Leafpatch

Leafpatch rates relationships from the series.

Romance in the warrior universe is.. interesting to say the least. Sometimes the Erins produce total train wrecks like Thistle and Spotted that make you go “What were they thinking?’ Other times they produce masterpieces like Cloudtail and Brightheart, with everything in between, ofc. There have been a lot of Romances In warriors so it would be impossible to cover it all so instead I’m going to divide this up into two sections. Top 10 most liked Cannon couples and Top 10 most liked non-cannon couples. I will be rating these couples on a scale from 0-10 that I’ll be calling the Love-o-Meter. 0 for absolute garbage 10 for god tier. Keep in mind this is MY OPINION ONLY so no need to harass me. I’m going to be starting with the canon couples.

1. Leafpool and Crowfeather

Love-o-meter rank: 4

Yes, I know you are screaming, but they’re not that great of a couple. Crowfeather and Leafpool had nothing in common, and before they “fall in love” They see each other 2 times and then Crow saves her. Like, what the heck? You see each other twice without knowing a thing about each other and now you’re in love? They barely had any interactions and had nothing in common. Like Berrynose, he fell in love quickly after Feathertail’s death but the difference between the two toms is that Berry x Poppy had something in common. Grief. Which I will go into later. Leafpool and Crow did not. Leafpool hardly knew Crowfeather and love couldn’t have really been there, not with so few interactions with each other. Their love was also fragile and didn’t last long. I think they really blossomed after they split apart when they could truly see how much they meant to each other.

2. Berrynose and Poppyfrost

Love-o-meter rank: 8

You’re screaming again. You’re probably saying that Berrynose is a brat and he fell in love with his dead wife’s sister 6 moons after Honeyfern’s death. But their love is beautiful. After Berrynose lost Honeyfern and Poppyfrost lost her as a sister, clearly love blossomed out of that shared grief. Unlike Crowfeather and Leafpool, they both had things in common and both lost someone they cared for and they could lean on each other relating to each other’s sadness, and clearly love blossomed from that grief which is BEAUTIFUL. Poppyfrost knows Berrynose can be a bossy know-it-all and she has enough spunk to teach him some sense and respect when he needs it.

3. Spottedleaf x Firestar

Love-o-meter rank: 1

Sorry Spotted x Fire fans, this ship is garbage. First, Spottedleaf is significantly older than Firepaw, who is just above kit age, and their love had nothing to it. All they did in the books was stare at each other and Firepaw drink in her scent and gawk at her “tiny paws” I really wish we could’ve seen more from this relationship but it was killed before it really got a chance to grow. Spottedleaf becomes his dreamworld girlfriend while he practically ignores his wife. His whole life he was dedicated to his childhood crush and Spottedleaf was the same. Clinging onto those precious times where they just stared at each other. So meaningful. Firestar should’ve let go of Spottedleaf long ago and so should she. She nearly ruined his relationship with Sandstorm by clinging to a married man with kids her whole life. Her death wasn’t meaningful because she was Firestar’s overused love interest.

4. Cinderheart x Lionblaze

Love-o-meter rank: 3

They’re just.. terrible. They have no chemistry and nothing in common. The writers just went: “Ok, Lionblaze needs a mate” and pulled her out of the dust. Lionblaze is constantly comparing her to Heathertail and they have one “meaningful” moment where they run together in the forest and Cinderheart just ghosts Lionblaze for moons.

5. Cloudtail x Brightheart

Love-o-meter rank: 11

I know I said 0-10, but they are just THAT GOOD. Before the dog attack, Cloudtail was a selfish brat, but the dog attack was his wake-up call. He saw what Clan’s life truly was a strived to be a better cat. He helped Brightheart find worth in her life after she lost her eye and her ear and she was named Lostface by Bluestar. He believed in her who no one else would and no one else wanted to. He worked with her so she could become a warrior and achieve her dreams. They were also amazing parents who raised some of the best cats in the clans. They work through things together and are just.. perfect for each other.

6. Graystripe x Silverstream

Love-o-meter rank: 7

They’re ok. They had good chemistry and stuck together to the end, but that’s it. Before dating, Graystripe Silverstream had a lot of personality but she was watered down a bit to the generic love interest. She’s personally not my favorite cat and I don’t really have anything to say about this couple.

7. Jayfeather x Half Moon

Love-o-meter rank: 4

Ugh.. what were the Erins thinking?? The people wanted Jayfeather to have a love interest so they invented Half Moon. Half Moon was in love with Jay’s Wing, not Jayfeather. They had nothing going for them and just slapped him with someone. They are nothing special.

8. Firestar x Sandstorm

Love-o-meter rank: 8

Pretty good couple. They stick with each other through every bump in the road despite Sandstorm knowing that Firestar never truly loved her. Only Spottedleaf. Yuck. I loved Sandstorm’s sassy dive get-out-of-my-face personality but as soon as she became Firestar’s mate she was.. nothing. A generic background love interest that had the personality range of a slice of bread. But as soon as old Firestar kicked the bucket she had all this personality and she was adventurous and interesting live an apprentice. She KNEW she want to rot in the elders den and went out with a bang on a quest.

9. Dovewing x Bumblestripe

Love-o-meter rank: 0
W-what?? Why was this on the list?? Who looked at this and thought: “Yes. A good couple right there.”

10. Bramblestar x Squirrelflight

Love-o-meter rank: –

Honestly, I have a LOT to say about this and I’ll probably do an interview or something on it. I have very mixed feelings about them, and honestly, they deserve a post of their own. They have too much stuff to uncover to state it all in a short paragraph and rate them on a 0-10 scale.

And that concludes the Cannon Official couples of Warrior Cats! Cannon couples don’t have the best pairings, but if you look closely, you can find the diamond in the rough! Were going to be moving onto non-cannon couples. Now, this is controversial territory, but I will be looking at polls, various articles, and different discord servers to see which deserve the 10 spots! Here we go!

1. Mothwing x Leafpool

Love-o-meter rank: 7

Wow. This was HEAVILY requested, so here we are! I personally don’t ship them, despite believing Mothwing did like Leafpool but Leafpool didn’t feel the same. They’re not actually that bad of a couple. They support each other and coming to each other’s aid when needed. Mothwing interested Leafpool with her closest secret, not believing in Starclan. And Leafpool didn’t judge her. She loved and supported her no matter what she believed in, something her mentor didn’t.

2. Briarlight x Jayfeather

Love-o-meter rank: 10

Let me be honest, I absolutely LOVE this ship so this is already a bit biased. When Briarlight lost her legs, she felt defeated and useless feeling as if she didn’t have a place in Thunderclan, but Jayfeather not only took care of her, he took care of her mental health and well-being. Not just being a medicine cat but being a good friend or more than a friend in my opinion. He did special things to make her medicine taste better and come up with new fun exercises. Other cats told Jayfeather Briarlight was doomed but he never gave up, pushing through and making sure she enjoyed her time while she was alive. He never gave up and cared for her like no other cat did. They’re like Cloudtail and Brightheart, pushing through every hardship and both giving each other a purpose to be there. Jayfeather understood Briarlight because he knew how it felt to be useless and how it felt to be so out of place. They could relate and clearly love blossomed.

3. Graystripe x Firestar

Love-o-meter rank: 4

I just think its.. weird.. like, they’re best friends. They have shown 0 feelings towards one another other than friendship. It’s really nothing more than just stretching the truth for your favorite characters to fit your molds. The Warriors Community has this habit of stretching the truth and making their favorite characters fit their molds. A prime example of this is Mothflight and Leafpool. The farthest stretch of this ship I’ve seen is calling Mothflight, and I quote, “Mothwing is a gay trans woman, Alderpaw is a gay demi boy, Sparkpaw is a pan nb trans girl, and Leafpool is a bi cis woman.” This is stretching characters to fit your molds and your personal preferences. This is too far, and this is what I think this ship is.

4. Hawkfrost x Ivypool

Love-o-meter rank: 0

Do I even need to explain? I guess I do. Hawkfrost is a dead adult cat significantly older than Ivypaw who is manipulating her to kill other cats and trying to start a war that will kill tons of cats. He constantly uses her, even uses her to cause a battle between ShadowClan and ThunderClan. He does nothing but manipulate and use her and it’s not cute. Stop shipping them.

5. Ravenpaw x Barley

Love-o-meter rank: 7

They’re not a bad ship. They genuinely care for each other and lived with one another until they kicked the bucket. It’s very cute, despite the obvious age gap. They are a bit bland but that’s really all I have to say about them.
(After checking over this I do realize that raven x barley are indeed cannon but I’m still listing them as non-cannon)

6. Fireheart x Cinderpelt

Love-o-meter rank: 0

This is… odd. Fireheart was Cinderpelt’s mentor, not saying that mentor x apprentice can’t get together it’s just.. these specifically. There was just 0 chemistry and Cinderheart became a medicine cat anyway so what’s the point??

I’m ending the non-cannon list early because I just can’t do it. Same for the cannon list. I could not do many of the most popular ships because I haven’t read essential books. There were a lot of ships I really wanted to do but could because of that.. Holly x Fallen Leaves… Jake x Tallstar… Trush x Bluestar… Sunstar x Moonflower… Oakheart x Bluestar.. so many good ships I could really dive deep and analyze but it would be fair to judge a ship if I hadn’t read the book. I also didn’t do Moth flight x Micah despite that being my favorite book in the Warriors franchise because.. like 5 people have read it. I’m sorry I had to cut the list short but I’ll definitely read some more super editions and re-do the list!!