Why Crowfeather loves Leafpool more than Feathertail by Fawnpaw

Fawnpaw discusses why they prefer CrowfeatherxLeafpool over CrowfeatherxFeathertail

Hello, Blogclan. This is my fourth article in Blogclan. I am very new here, you know. This article will feature my first rant; why Crowfeather loves Leafpool more than Feathertail. I am so excited that I think I will destroy my keyboard! I am doing a topic that I feel strongly about;CrowXLeaf ship. I believe that they are meant together more than Feathertail and Nightcloud. (We all know NightXCrow is a goner and pretty sure that it won’t happen) This brings to the question, “Who will Crowfeather choose in Starclan?”. Feathertail and Leafpool are dead, even though Crowfeather can be a leader there might be a chance that some cat will kill him. We can see in the books that most warrior cat couples come together in Starclan like Oakheart and Bluestar.

LeafXCrow is my favorite ship in the books, probably because Leafpool is my favorite character. However, I don’t like the MothXLeaf ship (also Erin Hunter CONFIRMED that they are just besties, not closer than that). I am willing to defend their ship and I already did it in my second article, “Debating about LeafXCrow and FeatherXCrow”. I can see that Mountainpaw (The one who I had debated against) is going to publish an article about FeatherXCrow so I decided to write this. This is not the only reason I decided to write this. I have seen plenty of perspectives in the reader’s eyes of LeafXCrow, and I do respect these kinds of opinions. However, even when the points they make up get rebutted they still share the same opinion over and over. I was so tired of reading these comments, so I decided to gather information and start my new article.

Before I begin, I want to say that my points are not always right and some of them are contraindicated in books. Anyway, the reason why I love the LeafXCrow is because of their development and chemistry in the books. They care for each other and have concern for the other partner. This makes me admire the ship, and it is (of course) one of my favorite ships. Also, one thing I noticed is Crowfeather keeps on pinning for Leafpool even though their clan go against their relationship. Even though there is a whole evidence about the ship, the majority of the fandoms don’t ship it because of three reasons; one, it was too random when they fell in love, two, Leafpool was Feathertail 2.0, and three, Leafpool made Crowfeather’s life worse than before. I will rebuke these points one by one.

First, let’s go deep into the history of Crowfeather’s love affairs. Learning about history is very useful, and most of the points I have are about it. I am going to include Nightcloud in this one since some NightXCrow shippers are still out there. (Even though ship lovers are almost extinct, let’s just pretend that there are many people who love ships because we have to be fair) I will not be biased here, because the truth is the truth and we can’t ignore it. If you do not know the history yet, look away. This is the list of books you MUST read before really going deep into the specific details of Crowfeather’s relationships with cats. I am not forcing you to do it, though.

Books you MUST read*:
New Prophecy (Second series)
Sunrise (Power of Three)
Last Hope (Omen of Stars)
Secret of clans (Field Guide)
Leafpool’s Wish (Novella)
Crowfeather’s Trial (Super Edition)
Squirrelflight’s Hope (Super Edition)

* There are other books that contain LeafXCrow moments, but these books/books that are mentioned in the list are books that have the core moments in the ships.

Let’s start with Feathertail.

Crowpaw, despite the fact that he was approaching the end of his apprenticeship, never felt at ease. Deadfoot, his father, was a deputy and could never spend much time with him. He didn’t have many friends, and his mother wasn’t always nice to him. Mudclaw was his mentor, which didn’t help matters. Then he received a sign from StarClan, and cats from rival Clans approached him, asking him to join them in the forest. Crowpaw was unfamiliar with these cats. He made the decision to accompany them. Then, he met Feathertail. She was a nice, gentle, and caring cat. She showed kindness to him, when others were against him. Crowpaw was taken out of his shell by Feathertail, who taught him to fish and stood by his side. But while fighting Sharptooth, Feathertail sacrificed her life to save Crowpaw. Crowpaw is devastated, and falls into depression. When he comes to his warrior cat ceremony, he requests the “feather” suffix to honor Feathertail.

People say that CrowXFeather is the best because Crowpaw’s grief was bigger than when Leafpool died. I don’t understand that logic. What do you mean? If my hamster died and I never saw death, I would cry more than my other hamster since I know what death is. Oh, maybe love isn’t important and the bigger the grief is the better. That is literally what these people are saying. This logic is so unreasonable. Even if it is true, it is still not a valid point because of two reasons; one, he was immature and didn’t know death and two, he couldn’t express true feelings to Leafpool. First, he is immature. He was an apprentice, and the only cat in the quest that didn’t have a friend. Feathertail was his first friend, and because he never lost a close one before he was devastated. Besides, he saw death. Seeing a death and learning that a person is dead is totally different. Crowfeather was an apprentice, and he was like 10-12 moons? I have no idea, but he wasn’t that old. This must have traumatized him into depression, not totally because he loved Feathertail more.

Yes, I know there is a quote about how Crowpaw is not scared about joining Feathertail because he loves her but seriously he was too overreacting about it. He later said in the book that he didn’t mean everything he said, sometimes he tried to hide his feelings. This is an easy excuse because you can’t hate a dead Starclan cat. Nobody said anything bad about CrowXFeather, mainly because they didn’t want to be hated by their ancestors. But what about CrowXLeaf? This brings to my second point, Crowfeather couldn’t freely express grief to Leafpool’s death. Since Leafpool isn’t dead yet, anyone can disrespect her for a good reason. (For being disloyal, lying about kits, etc) Breezepelt did that, and so did many cats. If Crowfeather shows grief to her, boom he will be forced to resign as deputy and everyone in his clan will hate him. Cats care much about loyalty, and they think even showing a slight grief to a dead rival clan is an example of disloyalty.

Also, there is a very huge difference between age. Feathertail was born in Forest of Secrets and Crowfeather was born after the events of the Darkest Hour. When they fall in love, Feathertail was a warrior and Crowfeather was an apprentice. It isn’t a big deal to warriors, but is weird, you know. However, Leafpool and Crowfeather have similar ages. Crowfeather is slightly older than Leafpool, though.

This is not the only reason the FeatherXCrow ship isn’t better than the LeafXCrow ship. For starters, one of the authors CONFIRMED that the relationship won’t work out. That person was Vicky Holmes, one of the main authors in the series (The one who is most famous in writing Warriors apart from Kate Cary). She said that if Feathertail did live, her relationship with Crowfeather wouldn’t have worked out. She was too old for him, and he wouldn’t have gotten the chance to develop his own personality. She also said within that same chat that Crowfeather’s love for Feathertail was more of a high school crush. If Feathertail had survived her fall, she would have returned to RiverClan and let Crowfeather go back to WindClan, as she was very loyal to the warrior code and would have eventually let her head rule her heart. (Credit to the Warrior Wiki because I can’t type everything that Vicky said.)

I totally agree with this statement. I am not a huge fan of Feathertail and I think she is kind of like Mary Suish. She is perfect with some flaws, and I must agree she isn’t a complete Mary Sue. Feathertail was a clone of Silverstream, I must say. Graystripe liked Feathertail more than Stormfur because she looks like SIlverstream, which is exactly the reason I don’t like Graystripe. Apart from my bias and opinions, I must admit that she is a good character. I still admire her bravery and courage to take leadership in the quest (And my opinion is NOT going to change about Feathertail, everyone). She is very loyal, so I think she would go back to her clan. Crowfeather was very young, and I could see them breaking off, with them departing with tears in their eyes. (I am getting too emotional) Although Vicky said that it was a high school crush, I think it was first love but I can’t say it was a full mateship unlike LeafXCrow was.

Yes, I know that Kate has said that in StarClan, she believes that Crowfeather would most likely pick Feathertail over Leafpool, stating that “first love always wins. I don’t think so, because of two reasons; one, Feathertail is VERY loyal and two, Crowfeather can move on to someone else. First, she is very loyal. The author confirmed she was indeed very loyal to her clan, and that is one of the reasons why Crowfeather and Feathertail can’t be together even if Feathertail survived in the cliff incident. She was chosen by Oakheart to go to the sun-drown place to find a new home. She accepted her destiny when she realized that she was the silver pelted warrior. You cannot deny that she was loyal to RiverClan, as she was the chosen cat of the Clan. Besides, there was no choice. Since you went on a quest, it means that you will be well respected in the clans. But if you start hanging out with some random Windclan warrior, your reputation will go down. Also, Hawkfrost will be ready to destroy you since he wants to be a deputy. We saw him doing the same thing to Stormfur, Feathertail’s brother. I think that if she was alive, Hawkfrost would be ready to try to exile her.

Being exiled is not like you are taking a vacation to another clan. There is nowhere to go, except for Thunderclan. However, due to the situation that Graystripe is not there and Stormfur staying in the tribe, I think Feathertail will go back to the tribe. Of course, Crowfeather might come along but no-no since his clan doesn’t let him.(I just forgot that his name might not be Crowfeather since Feathertail is not dead) This moves on to the second point, Crowfeather can move someone else. In the quest, Crowfeather was in love with Feathertail. But he was young, and immature. He didn’t know that there were tons of she-cats like Feathertail since she was the first kind of beautiful cat he met. IF Crowfeather saw another cat like her, he would have fallen for her too. Since Feathertail is now trying to be loyal to her clan, there isn’t that much time (or I should say, “encounters”) for them to meet. That means their relationship will be less developed, which AntiLeafXCrow shippers are always arguing about. So basically, it will be a whole “Leafpool” situation again. (Did I make it much like fanfic? Sorry, everyone)

(Phew, a lot of words. Don’t worry, we are not done yet. It is just the beginning of the article.)

Let’s move on to Leafpool.

When Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw, Mistyfoot, Crowfeather, and Tawnypelt leave to explore the new territory, Leafpaw wishes she would go with them and imagines herself beside Crowfeather. When Leafpool is hanging on the cliff, Crowfeather saves her and confesses his feelings for her, and Leafpool gladly accepts. They meet a few times, but then Crowfeather tells Leafpool that he wants him and Leafpool to run away from the clans. Though Leafpool and Crowfeather, she doesn’t want to leave her home. But when Cinderpelt tries to stop Leafpool from going, she runs away, and when Spottedleaf tells her a (very ironic) message, ‘Follow your heart’, Leafpool thinks Spottedleaf means to go away with Crowfeather, and goes away. When Midnight tells Leafpool and Crowfeather the badgers are going to attack the Clans, they return and continue their normal life.

Most FeatherXCrow shippers say that LeafXCrow was so random. However, LeafXCrow wasn’t rushed. To clarify, the relationship did not come anywhere, it was just that they admitted their affections for each other when Leafpool was hanging on the cliff. When Crowfeather and Leafpool were traveling to find their new territory, Crowfeather had some affections for her and tried to avoid it. However, due to her coming to his camp to treat their sick cats, Crowfeather’s feelings grew attached to her. Leafpool first pitted Crowfeather of losing Feathertail while slowly having a crush on him. It didn’t happen suddenly, it was just that we couldn’t see the confrontation until Twilight. People say it did not last long. It lasted for two and a half books; Starlight, Twilight, Half in Sunset. Besides, Feathertail’s relationship with Crowfeather only lasted for two books. I mean, that is less than LeafXCrow. So, why? Why do you argue that LeafXCrow lasted short when FeatherXCrow lasted way more shorter than LeafXCrow?

Okay, you might say that Feathertail was with Crowfeather for the whole time while Crowfeather and Leafpool were separated in the books. But, Blogclanners, did anyone come to the island to tell Feathertail and Crowfeather to stop their relationship? No, even though the journey cats knew about their relationship except for Stormfur nobody really forced them to stop. They were out of the clan’s boundaries and they could do whatever they wanted to do. But what about Leafpool? Erin Hunters put the relationship to the test by making it hard to meet each other. That is exactly why I think the FeatherXCrow relationship was too perfect for my taste. Cats got goo-goo eyes and they became fast forward friends. They thought about being mates rather than Feathertail sacrifice for her love. Wow, this seems like a stereotypical PERFECT relationship and not even realistic. People say that this leads to a good moral which isn’t true.

Relationships that are perfect in books are too blunt and tell a stereotype to the audience about how a relationship goes. This is a bad influence to the audience because it gives a false message about how relationships always go. I think that this relationship was made randomly by Erin Hunter because they are journeying together. But what about LeafXCrow? They slowly progressed their relationship starting from Dawn and ultimately Crowfeather confessed his love to Leafpool in Twilight. Even though their relationship was placed in a worse case scenario like any other forbidden relationships, their relationship was one of the most cutest and popular ships in warriors. If LeafXCrow was placed in the same scenario as FeatherXCrow, I am going to bet good money that this relationship will be more popular.

Leafpool did not steal Feathertail from Crowfeather. I agree that Feathertail helped him get out of his shell, and she was a good friend to him. Because Feathertail cared about Crowfeather, she wanted him to get out of grief. Then do you mean that he should grieve for the rest of his life? No. In addition, Crowfeather was the one who liked Leafpool first and Feathertail encouraged him to confess his affections. Leafpool did many things for Crowfeather. She helped him to get out of the grief and later advised him on his family problems. Crowfeather admitted she was the only one to understand him about his hardships. Even though it didn’t work out, they truly understood and loved each other. Crowfeather was the one who started the relationship, not Leafpool. Why does everyone blame Leafpool for starting the relationship? For people who think like this, please read Starlight in New Prophecy. Although I respect these opinions, this is a FACT not an ASSUMPTION.

It wasn’t Leafpool’s fault that Crowfeather moved into another cat. When he arrived at the lake, he was stunned to see a cat just like Feathertail. Leafpool was a beautiful brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes, and she is indeed one of the most beautiful cats in the Warrior Universe. (This can be my opinion, but according to the top ten she was the fourth most beautiful cat that fandom thought) Kind, gentle, and LOYAL to her clan. A perfect type to Crowfeather, just like Feathertail was. But there was a difference; not only she was another clan cat she was a medicine cat. They say Leafpool was Feathertail 2.0. It isn’t true because at first, she didn’t even look like Feathertail. She wasn’t a silver tabby, and just because their personality is the same doesn’t mean she is 2.0. When a cat took a mate after their mate died, everyone put it as ___2.0. People have their own type, and they prefer people that are their type to be their girlfriend/boyfriend. It is nothing bad, and it is very normal.

I don’t know how this logic came up, but they say Leafpool doesn’t deserve Crowfeather? Why? All FeatherxCrow and LeafXCrow shoppers alike, do you WANT Crowfeather to suffer from grief forever from his past love intrest’s death? NO! Crowfeather has been suffering after hard work he did to finish the quest. Leafpool, on the other hand, was training hard to be a medicine cat apprentice. Why can’t they get a slightest bit of affection? Just because the fandom says no? Stop saying that a cat doesn’t deserve another cat in a ship because that is rude and it is not a valid point anyway. Yes, Leafpool kind of made Crowfeather and her kit’s life twisted a bit but seriously, all forbidden romances are like that and they need to trust each other. What matters is that they love in the present, even though they might be separated .

(I decided to skip Nightcloud because my hands are too sore to write. Sorry!)

So yah, this is my brief (Nightsky: What, like 5 pages?) rant about LeafXCrow. If you have any suggestions for me to defend a ship, please comment below. I will be willing to take in a suggestion, but please be aware it takes time for me to write because I am studying for the SAT and I am moving into 7th grade soon. I don’t really care about ships that much, but my opinion will never change in LeafXCrow. Have a great day Blogclanners!

Fawny Out!