Why Ashfur isn’t as bad as you all claim he is by Moonrunner18173

Moonrunner18173 defends Ashfur – what do you think about him?

We all know Ashfur, and, if you don’t take the time to carefully inspect him, you’d probably make this assumption: Ashfur is a bad and crazy maniac. Though some of this is true, most of it isn’t!
People in the Warriors fandom hate him. . . and to be honest, I used too to. But I took the time to carefully inspect him, and look at the world through his lenses, and, boy, I’m glad I did! When I did I was surprised because I realized I’d begun to feel sympathetic for him!
Now, for Ashfur, I will help you to understand why he isn’t as bad as you all thought he was.
First, though, in order to inspect him I’ll go ahead and jog our memories. . . by looking at his life! Warning, spoilers if you haven’t read up to Power of three.
His mother was Brindleface, who is a pale gray tabby she-cat with darker flecks and green eyes. His father was Whitestorm, a big snowy white tom with yellow eyes. His sister was Ferncloud, a gray she-cat with green eyes and darker gray flecks. In the Darkest hour, whenever the dogs invaded the forest, Tigerstar killed Brindleface to give the dogs a taste of cat blood. Back then Ashfur was Ashpaw, so was Ferncloud. Ashfur (paw back then,) was mentored by Dustpelt. Now, let’s explain something. You might think Ashfur developed some of his badness from Dustpelt, who bullied Firestar (back then, Firepaw) whenever he first arrived at the ThunderClan camp! But, this is untrue, as later Dustpelt, (back then paw,) gets used to the kittypet. Anyways, let’s progress with Ashfur’s history. Ashfur, (back then paw,) and Ferncloud, (back then paw,) helped defeat the dogs in honor of Brindleface. Back then, Ashfur wasn’t bad, or evil. . . he was just your average apprentice! Anyways, he travelled with the other Clans on the Great Journey, and settled into ThunderClan’s new home- a stone hollow. He earned his warrior name later; Ashfur. He got an apprentice, Brichfall, (back then paw.) He started to develop a love for Squirrelflight, but unfortunately Brambleclaw was also liking Squirrelflight! Real quick, let me explain something. Ashfur’s love for Squirrelflight is unhealthy. Let me explain, there are two different types of loving someone. Wanting them to be yours, or being happy that the person you loved, found someone that would make them happy, even if that wasn’t you. You get it, right? Anyways, Ashfur’s love was wanting Squirrelflight to be his. Okay, let’s continue. As their relationship grew, Ashfur got more confident. But then Squirrelflight told him that, well. . . Brambleclaw was her mate! Ashfur became cold to Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, and that anger only grew. He then tried to kill Firestar, with the fox trap! But his plan didn’t work. Then, Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw had kits, and Ashfur couldn’t take it anymore. Firestar assigned him Lionblaze, (back then paw,) as his apprentice. When they were having a battle-training session Ashfur got angry, and took that training session a bit to far. . . . Anyways, like I said he was angry and it was only getting worse. When a fire started, he seized that chance and, well tried to kill Squirrelflight’s kits.
Okay, so let’s stop there. Now that we’ve took a look at his life let me start to defend Ashfur!
Okay, so this obvious, but I’ll say it in case you don’t know. . . Ashfur has been hurt by Squirrelflight! When she chose Brambleclaw over him, when she had kits, and lots of other things. Because of this, he felt resentful, and wanted to hurt Squirrelflight the way she hurt him. And in his mind that was the only solution, he was blinded by anger.
Why didn’t he just become Squirrelflight’s friend? Well, Ashfur wanted to be more than just a friend he wanted to be her one and only mate. But, it didn’t work out, causing him to form a grudge against her, and, well, becoming really lonely. I know what it feels like to be lonely.
We see Ashfur as a villain, when in truth he’s just the cat in Warriors who’s suffered the most. Over and over again. Okay, yes, he’s made some pretty bad decisions that I can’t justify, but what did you expect him to do? No cat is perfect, they all have their ups and downs; Ashfur is no different. Cats can change and redeem themselves, and I expect a redemption arc for Ashfur.