Why I don’t like Jayfeather- Unpopular Opinions by Fawnleg

Fawnleg argues against Jayfeather’s widespread popularity

Jayfeather is the most overrated cat in the entire series. He has so many shippings and is paired up with cats more than any other cat. If you hate or merely dislike Jayfeather, the fandom will get mad at you. They will say you don’t deserve to live and pester you with comments about how Jayfeather is great. I am not saying many people are like this, but there are some people that are like this. Jayfeather is overrated for being grumpy and blind. Longtail or Yellowfang doesn’t get that much love as he does.

If you combine all the fandom’s love for cats and compare it with Jayfeather’s love, the difference will be a light of a firefly to a moon. That is how much the fandom loves Jayfeather in comparison. They treat Jayfeather like a cat from Starclan and it’s the greatest thing the Erin Hunters gave us. He is loved because of his unique personality and grumpiness. However, unlike the majority of the fandom, I hate Jayfeather. I do not passionately hate him and he is not in my top ten least favorite cats list, but I dislike him.

Hello everyone. I am Fawnpaw, and this is my fifth article in Blogclan. Today, after reading Littlewhispers article, I decided to step up and present my opinion on Jayfeather. Before I begin, I like to give my thanks to Littlewhisper for giving me inspiration and Nightsky for helping me fix my grammar mistakes. Please note that this is my opinion, so I respect your opinion. If you disagree, feel free to debate in the chat. I will first give you a brief summary of his whole life starting from when he was a kit.

It is confirmed that he is the last kit in the litter, following Hollykit. From the start, he has a grumpy personality that makes cats irritate. The clan made sure that he was safe and sound. He struggled under the weight of being pressured by Leafpool to train as a medicine cat, as he wanted to be a warrior. Since a blind warrior is never possible, he hates himself from being blind. Even though he knows he is skilled to be a medicine cat because he is good at memorizing herbs and other things, he refuses to accept the fact that he must be one.

Fortunately, he became a warrior apprentice under the mentor of Brightheart. Jaypaw does not like the fact Brightheart is his mentor, he disobeys her numerous times while comparing himself to other apprentices. This results in him being almost drowned in Windclan territory, but survives thanks to the Windclan patrol to find him. After Spottedleaf gives him a prophetic dream about his destiny, he decides to become Leafpool’s apprentice when Hollyleaf wants to be a warrior apprentice since she is not cut for a medicine cat.

Jaypaw then discovers that he and his siblings have a very special destiny. He is a good medicine cat, but he always argues with Leafpool about his powers and is often impatient with his patients. He finds a stick and uses it to communicate with the ancient cats, Fallen Leaves and Rock. He pays them a visit by reincarnating as Jay’s Wing. Half Moon appears, and he leads the ancient cats to the mountains. After assisting his Clan during a greencough epidemic, he is given the full medicine cat name Jayfeather.
Jayfeather and his siblings are trapped in a fire with Squirrelflight while Ashfur blocks the entrance to the camp. Ashfur wants revenge on Squirrelflight, and Squirrelflight tries to save them by revealing Jayfeather and his siblings are not her kits. Jayfeather put his memories together with Yellowfang’s help to discover Leafpool and Crowfeather are his real parents. He confronts Leafpool, who confirms it is true. Hollyleaf reveals the truth at the Gathering, and Leafpool steps down with Jayfeather as the only medicine cat.

Now, back to his apprenticeship. He whines about Brightheart as his mentor being useless and constantly compared to other mentors like Brackenfur. Brightheart is trying to do her best to make Jayfeather a great warrior, but all he does is to complain and disobey her. He should have accepted that Brightheart is the only choice for his mentor. Blind warriors are different from normal warriors. They have to cope with their blindness by hunting and fighting. The mentor that has the most experience on this is Brightheart.

“Oh, great. Let’s lump all the useless cats together and hope a tree falls on them!”
The Sight

Longtail is blind, and he retired. It is not fair to make Jaypaw a warrior when Longtail is not. The clan knew this, yet they still made Jayfeather a warrior apprentice because they wanted him to have an opportunity to become one. Jaypaw doesn’t like how the leader chose Brightheart to be his mentor, refusing to do anything for her. He keeps on complaining how he learns things differently in his apprenticeship than his littermates. This is not justified because a blind warrior apprentice needs special training to become a warrior.

Even though Brighteharts warns about stumbling into another clan’s territory, Jaypaw thinks this is a great idea. This results in him being almost drowned in Windclan territory, but survives thanks to the Windclan patrol to find him. It was his fault that he endangered his life. But he still complains that his mentor didn’t pay close attention to him. Brightheart was doing her warrior duties. She already warned him. Warriors cannot always be next to their apprentices, as they have other things to do.

Jayfeather never thought he was lucky to be alive. Most cats that are blind either go to the elders’ den or become a medicine cat. His littermates never bullied him and they were very supportive of him. His parents loved and cared for him much, fearing his safety. All the response from Jayfeather is that he yells at them and tells them to go away. Longtail didn’t reply the same way when he became blind, even though it was shocking to Longtail that he cannot be a warrior. Most blind people grew adapted to their disability and are grateful for being alive.

Jayfeather’s personality is even worse. He constantly argues with people until he gets what he wants. He goes far saying that he doesn’t have to apologize to Brightheart because she isn’t good to care about. He makes a full medicine cat apprentice deal by doing whatever he wants with his patients. He has an arrogant attitude that makes him think he knows everything and always complains when someone helps him. For example, when Honeyfern tries to help Jayfeather to defend Breezeplet from killing Poppyfrost, he says that he can take care of himself when clearly isn’t.

Jayfeather: “You are sticking your nose into a bees’ nest, aren’t you? Okay, fine. I’ll talk to Bramblestar about it. He’s reasonable; he’ll probably take this seriously. If you want my advice, WindClan needs to sort itself out. If you had brought this up right from the start, maybe Nightcloud would still be here. If nothing else, the Great Battle should have taught all the Clans the importance of working together.”
Crowfeather: “You’re right, of course.”
Jayfeather: “I always am.”
Crowfeather and Jayfeather about stoats from Crowfeather’s Trial

Jayfeather didn’t tell anything about the three for the clan. He only told it in the last minute of the Great Battle because Firestar told him too. He wanted to hang out with Half Moon rather than saving his classmate’s lifes. He was selfish to keep a secret for moons, and told everyone when it was pointless. The Great Battle is already coming, and the only thing the clans can do is to plan out the defense when dark forest cats invade. If he told the clans earlier, they could prepare for the battle which could prevent many cats’ death.

Jayfeather was blamed for Flametail’s death, but he didn’t care. He said himself in the books that he didn’t care if Brightheart was the medicine cat, which was bad for the clan because she can’t communicate with Starclan. He only went to the Moonpool to unite the Starclan cats for Flametail to tell the truth about his death because Leafpool said so. This shows that he doesn’t really care that much for his clan, and wants everyone to pity him while he tells everyone in their faces to go lost.

He reacts so horribly when Brightheart was expecting kits. Brightheart is middle aged, and it is less likely that she is expecting kits. His reason is because the Great Battle was coming and it was dangerous to have kits. Brightheart did not know this because Jayfeather didn’t tell about the prophecy of the battle. She cannot read Jayfeather’s mind, and it is very rude to say that in her face. Kits are special, and they are gifts from Starclan. Cats should congratulate the mother, not pressure them.

When he discovers Leafpool is his real mother, his response is whining about not being a pure clan. He gives cold shoulders to his mother and Squirrelflight, as well as ignoring Brambleclaw when he asks if he is okay. Brambleclaw didn’t know about the truth, so it is not justified for him to do that. But in the book, Sign of the Moon, he does not want to leave the tribe and wants to become mates with Half Moon. Hypocrite right there, because he is the one who complained about his birth and turned around to have a forbidden relationship with Half Moon.

Rock: “So much is the same…You can’t stay here. You know that, don’t you?”
Jayfeather: “Why not?”
Rock: “You are too powerful to be lost in the past.”
Jayfeather: “I can be powerful here! I could raise kits, teach them everything I know, and then go back to the Clans. I…I don’t want to leave.” —Rock and Jayfeather from Sign of the Moon

Overall, Jayfeather is a cat who expects everyone to pity him to get what he wants. In my opinion, he was a jerk. He became more mature in the books, but it is his personality that I don’t like. He might be unique, but it does not mean he should be overrated. I don’t see why people hate characters that are less jerkish than Jayfeather when they love Jayfeather with passion. I hope after reading this article you can change some views on him.

Fawny out! 🙂