Let’s talk about Ashfur (until Omen of the stars) by Shiningheart

Shiningheart shares their opinion on Ashfur – what do you think?

Hi everyone! I’m Shiningheart and this is my first article, hope you like it and I would love to read your opinions.
First of all I would like to say that I’m currently reading Darkness within, I haven’t read any book outside the principal arcs and right now I will be focusing on the events that occured until Omen of the stars.
So today I was watching a Bramblestar/claw vs Ashfur MAP that was published in 2017 (that’s why I’m going to ignore the events after Omen of the stars), and when I read the comments I was shocked to discover that I may have had an unpopular opinion all this time and wanted to know what you guys think.
If we place ourselves at the end of Omen of the stars, the last thing we know about Ashfur is that he went to StarClan and “His only fault was to love too much” – Yellowfang (Sign of the moon, p. 94), so we assume that he must have redeemed himself, and although that was cute or whatever (I didn’t think he deserved to be in StarClan but that’s not the point), I was surprised to see so many comments saying that he shouldn’t have died, that he was clearly sorry for what he did and that Squirrelflight should have chosen him because Bramblestar/claw was a bad mate (which it’s not the point either), and I just felt like what? So here is what I think:
Some people argued that if Squirrelflight had chosen him since the begining, so many things could have been avoided later, maybe yes, but that would have just fed his obsesion for Squirrelflight, I feel that he would have been a very jealous and possesive mate and Squirrelflight would have ended up in a very toxic relation.
Other people said that Bramblestar/claw was a really bad mate when he got mad at Squirrelflight for keeping the secret of their adopted kits from him and that she should have left him (again not the point), whether you agree with this or not, it doesn’t lead to Squirrelflight being better off with Ashfur, because to have an alternative universe where Squirrelflight left Bramblestar/claw to be with Ashfur after the secret got out, Hollyleaf couldn’t have killed him and he would have been the one to reveal the secret, do you really think that Squirrelflight would have run to Ashur’s arms after he almost killed the kits she loved as her own and reveal her secret on purpose to harm her just because she was heartbroken?
And in the end, even if he deserved forgiveness he didn’t deserve a second chance, at least not with Squirrelflight, I feel that she would have been in constant danger with him by her side given his record, at that point it was more than clear that what he felt wasn’t love but an obsesion, and no matter how you look at it, a romantic relationship between the two would have ended badly.
I’m not here to judge, I just never imagined that so much people were so forgiving of Ashfur. So what do you think? Or at least what did you think of him at that time? Am I the one with the unpopular opinion or did I just happen to find a video where 90% of the people who commented were team Ashfur?
And in case you are wondering, I’m team Bramblestar/claw, but I wanted to show that even if we take him out of the picture, Ashfur is not the answer (and I don’t think that Squirrelflight ever actually loved him).
Thanks for reading and if you like this, you will be reading from me again!