Why I hate Jagged Peak by Mountainstorm

Mountainstorm explains why they don’t like Jagged Peak – do you agree?

Ello, kits, apprentices, warriors, elders, medicine cats!
I recently read Dawn of the Clans, and I got a lot of new opinions, such as Grey Wing is so awesome, Turtle Tail is really cool, Rainswept Flower is so kind, Grey x Slate, Clear x Star, and Wind x Gorse are all great ships, Clear Sky’s redemption is really good, (Except it all disappears in Moth Flight’s Vision 😑) and, I really hate Jagged Peak. But let’s back up a bit before diving right into the middle. I’ll list the reasons he’s good, interview a few BlogClanners about their opinion on him, and then I’ll have my say about why I hate him so much. Let’s start! 🙂

All in all, Jagged Peak is a really confident and strong cat who does not let himself get put down by others. He’s certainly a survivor, pulling through even the toughest times in his life which is something I do admire him for. He becomes a valued fighter, despite getting his leg injured, which is really inspirational, and he has plenty of sass for the cats he doesn’t like! Not to mention he was pretty cute when he fell off the tree and got injured; he was really thankful when Dappled Pelt arrived to help him, and his kindness and gratefulness towards her at the time was really sweet and heart-warming. I felt so bad for him when Clear Sky kicked him out of his camp.
Yeeeaaah my good thoughts about him end right about here. But him not giving up and being a survivor is a pretty big reason I do like him. Sometimes.

Next up we have some BlogClanners here to state their opinions on this fellow!

“I like him, and I feel bad for him. I also adore his friendship with Rainswept Flower- I’m glad he has such a nice friend because he deserves to get all the support he needs and she offers him that.”
-Pinestripe

“Jagged Peak is a brave cat as exemplified by the journey he took in The Sun Trail. He had no qualms about walking through harsh mountain peaks that could have cut his paw pads, he didn’t once complain about being tired, and though he needed Grey Wing’s help he eventually caught up to the others. Getting an injured leg temporarily ruined him, but in the end he gained his confidence. Yes, yes I know it took Holly’s help, but it still takes a HUGE amount of mental fortitude to recover from mindsets of self-doubt. Jagged Peak is DEFINITELY a cat who gets what he wants period. He wanted to join Clear Sky and the others, and he did, though he had to be rescued here and there. He also got a family and mate, though it took an injured leg and self-doubt to find them loll. Jagged Peak is also out-spoken. There’s this one scene in A Forest Divided where the cats are arguing about which part of the territory to go too or something along those lines, and Jagged Peak is all ‘no nah-uh, let’s decided this here are now, we’re casting stones’ and he was pretty stubborn about it 😛
Ultimately, Jagged Peak isn’t my FAVORITE characters, but he is definitely a survivor and I like him 😀”
-Margaydrift

“ehhhhh kind of in the middle”
-Moonblaze

Same as Pinestripe, I did feel bad a lot for Jagged Peak when he was driven from Clear Sky’s group because of his injury, or the time he was depressed and unmotivated. Or when he was in the mountains, cold and scared and lost. His relationship with Rainswept Flower is really sweet, too!
Margaydrift stated the exact reasons I like Jagged Peak. 🙂
And Moonblaze’s opinion is pretty close to mine, though I’m leaning much more toward hate, and now I am going to explain why.

My hate for Jagged Peak started at the first few pages of The Sun Trail, the first book in the Dawn of the Clans arc. Jagged Peak had a sister, Fluttering Bird, who was weak due to lack of prey and warmth, not as strong as her brother. Jagged Peak was playing with her, and, being much stronger, knocked her paws out from under her. Flutter Bird let out a wail, and hit her head on a rock. She didn’t get up, but lay still, whimpering in pain. And what did Jagged Peak do? He taunted her, exclaiming what a silly kit she was. When she was obviously hurt.

At that moment, Jagged Peak swiped his sister’s paws out from under her. Fluttering Bird let out a wail as she fell over, hitting her head on a rock. Instead of getting up again, she lay still, whimpering.
“You’re such a silly kit!” Jagged Peak exclaimed.
-The Sun Trail, page 12

Second reason for me disliking him was how he left his mother, Quiet Rain. Later on in the books, Jagged Peak apologizes to Grey Wing, saying he always felt guilty that their mother Quiet Rain sent Grey Wing after him, when Grey Wing wanted to stay in the cave.
Quiet Rain depressed over the death of Fluttering Bird, sad, and mournful, so what did Jagged Peak do? He left her alone with her grief, without thinking one bit about anyone but himself. Even though he apologized to Grey Wing, he never did say sorry to his mother, not to mention his apology to Grey Wing sounded more like he was shifting blame on Quiet Rain instead of himself, saying “I always did feel guilty Quiet Rain sent you after me”. Like he was sorry about how his mother decided instead of admitting his own mistake.

Jagged Peak looked at his paws. “I always felt guilty that Quiet Rain sent you to find me when I ran away.”
-Path of Stars, page 217

This might just be me, misinterpreting things, but no matter how much I look at this apology, I can’t seem to find anything in it that makes it a good one.

Third reason, coming up! We’re jumping a bit ahead now, to The Blazing Star, where I can find some big reasons to hate this cat.
Sparrow Fur, still no more than a kit, decides she wants to visit her blood father, Tom, who kidnapped her and abused Turtle Tail not so long ago. And Jagged Peak let’s her go see her, alone. He sends a tiny kit into the unknown alone to see an abusive father!
Grey Wing confronts his younger brother, and Jagged Peak only laughs, saying he can’t protect every cat like he clearly wants to. At first, Jagged Peak didn’t even see what the problem was!

“What’s wrong?” Jagged Peak asked as he limped up.
“Sparrow Fur- my kit- went off to find Tom the kittypet and Owl Eyes said you gave her permission!”
Jagged Peak’s eyes widened with surprise. “Yes, I did. Is there a problem?”
-The Blazing Star, page 99

And then we have this part:

Grey Wing shook his head. “But what if…what if…”
“What if what?” Jagged Peak asked, amusement glimmering in his blue eyes. “You can’t protect any cat forever, Grey Wing, no matter how hard you try to.”
-The Blazing Star, ages 99 and 100

To me, this is kinda mean, like Jagged Peak was putting down Grey Wing, brushing aside his emotions as if they didn’t matter. As if his love didn’t matter. As if all he had done for the cats there didn’t matter because it was all a waste anyways.

Fourth reason is again in The Blazing Star, and connected to the third reason above.
Clear Sky just arrives at Grey Wing’s camp, bringing the news that while Sparrow Fur had visited Tom, One Eye had attacked her and gravely wounded her. Grey Wing is extremely anguished, and he turns to Jagged Peak, wanting to see his reaction. Jagged Peak has some pain in his eyes, but nowhere near as much as Grey Wing, despite that he was the one to send Sparrow Fur into danger. Even Clear Sky feels dreadful.

“I feel dreadful.” Clear Sky’s voice was breaking as he darted glaces between Grey Wing and Jagged Peak. “This is all my fault.”
-The Blazing Star, page 106

And Jagged Peak? He’s just standing around and listening to his older brother lay blame on himself and bring himself down without uttering a single mew. When Grey Wing turns on him, he defends himself passionately and confidently, even though his points are extremely weak and not logical at all. He defends himself, when he isn’t right, while the brother who’s supposed to be mean and cruel is about to cry.

Jagged Peak limped forward. “I am sorry, Grey Wing. I should have checked with you. But Sparrow Fur was so insistent,” he mewed defensively.

Grey Wing is ashamed of what he says next, but he’s in too much pain and anger and anguish to keep it bottled up inside. He says he doesn’t deserve to have kits of his own. Holly immediately jumps to his defense, (I hate Holly too 😛 ) threatening Grey Wing who did nothing but good to her. Grey Wing mockingly tells Jagged Peak that hopefully she’s not depending on you when she has her kits.
And what does Jagged Peak do? He attacks his brother. He injures his jaw greatly, then shoves him to the ground, wrestling to keep him there, and is about to do much more, but Clear Sky breaks them up.

Then Grey Wing felt a paw in his side, thrusting him away, and heard Clear Sky’s voice. “Stop it, both of you! Do you think fighting helps?”
-The Blazing Star, page 107

Jagged Peak never even apologizes.

Fifth reason. When Grey Wing breathes in too much smoke during the forest fire, he gets asthma, making it extremely difficult for him to breathe and eventually causing him to die.
Jagged Peak begins belittling Grey Wing for his breathing issues, and insults him, even though he faced similar discriminations when his leg was injured.

Jagged Peak dipped his head. “Of course not. But we all know the fire damaged your breathing. You’re not the cat you used to be.”

That is just so incredibly rude!! It’s basically like telling an apprentice that they aren’t as young as they used to be, or telling Brightheart she isn’t the fighter she used to be just because she lost her eye.

Sixth reason. Now we’re way ahead to Moth Flight’s Vision, when the Clans have been formed and Grey Wing is long gone. Moth Flight had been camping out in ShadowClan for more than a moon, depressed over the death of her love and mate, Micah. She learns she is expecting his kits, and heads home to WindClan. Some cats welcome her warmly, but not Jagged Peak.

Jagged Peak glanced at Moth Flight’s belly. “Are you carrying his kits?”
“Micah’s?” Moth Flight narrowed her eyes. “Yes. And I’m proud of it.”
“He was a SkyClan cat,” Jagged Peak grunted.
-Moth Flight’s Vision, page 311

I really can’t believe him here. Jagged Peak came from the mountains, and his mate, Holly, was a rogue, and he hates on Moth Flight for carrying a SkyClan’s cats kits, a SkyClan cat who was the light of Moth Flight’s life, and just died leaving her devastated. Jagged Peak had -10 empathy. Didn’t he know what it was like to love when he had a mate? Couldn’t he put himself in Moth Flight’s paws and try to feel what it would be like to lose Holly? Moth Flight, their first medicine cat, a talented one at that just returns to her Clan from mourning her lost mate, and Jagged Peak welcomes her by pulling her down.

As a bonus, I thought I might do a small paragraph on why I hate Holly.
Holly, instead of encouraging Jagged Peak to be a better cat, does the exact opposite, and vice versa. For example:

Grey Wing frowned. Love hadn’t made Jagged Peak confident; it had made him arrogant!

And then we have this.

She caught Grey Wing’s eye. “I’ve never seen a cat so changed.”
Grey Wing nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”
Holly jerked her head around. “It’s amazing what a little love can do.”
Was that reproach in her mew?

She’s hinting at Grey Wing that he didn’t love Jagged Peak enough which is why only she could give him the love for him to have confidence. Imagine how that must have made Grey Wing feel! He loves his brother then this she-cat comes along and gives Jagged Peak confidence. Then she comes up and rubs it in Grey Wing’s face that he didn’t love his brother enough.
And when Grey Wing and Jagged Peak are fighting about Sparrow Fur, Holly, who doesn’t know much about the fight, shoves in and yells at Grey Wing, even though she has no right to, even though Grey Wing is pretty right about what Jagged Peak did to Sparrow Fur. Clear Sky is about to solve the problem anyways, and everything would be fine, but noooo, Holly has to say something because she just has to! She only makes the nearly solved problem worse, and gives Jagged Peak the idea that he didn’t do anything wrong and he has no need to apologize or admit anything because it was all Grey Wing’s fault! I’d call that bad influence on each other. Not to mention it makes Grey Wing ashamed of himself! Grey Wing was already ashamed of what he said, he didn’t need more piled up on him.

“Do whatever you have to, but resolve this,” she hissed. “Stop fighting among yourselves. And don’t you dare take your own pain out on Jagged Peak!” With those harsh words, she spun on her paws and stalked away.

Clear Sky said the exact same thing about not fighting a few seconds ago, but Holly feels the need to be the hero. And then there’s the whole putting-Grey Wing-down part, and the big influence on Jagged Peak that only inflates his already huge ego even more.
Yes, Grey Wing said things he shouldn’t have. But that gives no right for Holly to make matters worse.
Going back to the sixth reason for hating Jagged Peak, here’s another time he hurt Grey Wing, but I wanted to include it here because Holly is greatly involved.

Storm Pelt tipped his head. “Why can’t Grey Wing hunt with you? He’s a great hunter.”
“Grey Wing’s not as fast as he used to be,” Jagged Peak answered.
Holly nodded. “He’ll be safer if he stays with you.”

That is probably one of the most insulting and hurtful things you can say to a person in this situation. It’s just so hypocritical!
Even in Moth Flight’s Vision, Holly plays along with Jagged Peak, thinking Moth Flight’s kits will “poison” the precious WindClan bloodline, and adding that a mourning cat should stay with her Clan. No wonder Moth Flight didn’t want to go home and mourn Micah there when cats like that were around her!

That concludes my reasons for hating Jagged Peak. (And Holly.) While he’s a strong survivor, he has no empathy, no kindness, and…well..I wouldn’t call him the sharpest tack in the box, either.
He’s rude and self-centered, tramping down on other cat’s feelings and hearts, and all that is enough for me to greatly dislike him. So let’s officially place him on my “least favorite characters list”. (And add Holly too)

Redtail
Hawkfrost
Snookthorn
Bramblestar
Darkstripe
Blackstar
Holly
Jagged Peak
Brokenstar

Thank you so much for reading! What are your thoughts on Jagged Peak? Do you hate him too? Who are your least favorite characters?
See you at the next gathering!~
-🏔️🐾