Why I Hate Ashfur With Every Bone in my Body by Owlheart

Owlheart shares their opinion on Ashfur.

Hey fellow BlogClanners! I’m Owlheart and I’m going to explain why I HATE Ashfur with every bone in my body. I’ve read all 98 books so there’ll be major spoilers for most of the series. Stop here if you don’t want spoilers.

Let’s start with a recap of his life (and afterlife). Born to Brindleface, and possibly Runningwind/Whitestorm, with his sister Fernkit and brothers Elderkit and Tulipkit and later joined by his foster brother Cloudkit after Tulipkit and Elderkit died. When Brindleface was killed by Tigerstar for the dogs, Fernpaw and Ashpaw convinced Fireheart to let them help lure the dogs away. In The Darkest Hour, he helps defeat BloodClan and kills Bone. Ashpaw receives his warrior name, Ashfur.

Right now, you probably think that I might like him for his courage in the Battle of BloodClan and with the dogs. I don’t. He’s an AWFUL cat, but I have to admit, he did do some good things. However, these good things end here.

During The New Prophecy Series, Ashfur takes a liking to Squirrelfilght even though he’s like eighty years older than her. When she breaks up with Brambleclaw they get way closer and he starts to mother Squirrelflight. She eventually tells him kindly that she just thinks of him as a friend, and that’s his undoing.

The Power of Three gives Ashfur the apprentice Lionpaw, Squirrelflight’s son. Ashfur is hostile towards him and is quick to criticize him. Later when there’s that one fire, he blocks the one exit in camp. He tells Squirrelflight that he helped Hawkfrost lure Firestar into the fox trap. Ashfur says that he’s still heartbroken about being dumped, and is willing to kill his ex-apprentice (Lionblaze), the medicine cat (Jayfeather), and a fellow warrior (Hollyleaf) to make Squirrelflight suffer like he did. Squirrelflight then says “Kill them, then. You won’t hurt me that way. If you really want to hurt me, you’ll have to find a better way than that. They are not my kits,”. Ashfur was shocked and let them pass while threatening to reveal that the three kits weren’t really Squirrelflight’s at the next Gathering. The night of the gathering he goes missing and is found dead in a stream. Hollyleaf reveals at the Gathering that they aren’t Squirrelflight’s kits anyway.

For the next two series (Omen of the Stars and A Vision of Shadows), he spends time in StarClan. Ashfur spends most of his time slowly digging out a tunnel that leads to the Dark Forest. When it’s done, Ashfur has successfully blocked StarClan’s connection with the living.

Okay, deep breath Owlheart. Deep breath. Here comes the hard part to write.

In The Broken Code series, he sends Visions to Shadowpaw (the best cat of all time) telling the ‘paw that he needs to exile the “code breakers”. Being the only cat that’s had contact with StarClan for moons, Shadowpaw willingly tells the Clans what he heard. Later when Bramblestar gets that mysterious illness, Ashfur tells Shadowpaw to take Bramblestar to the moor to freeze the sickness out of him. When Bramblestar is dead, Ashfur steals his body and leads the Clan in his place. He does a terrible job and is soon discovered to be an imposter by Rootpaw. Ashfur then spends his time exiling cats and mourning Squirrelflight’s faked death. AND TRYING TO KILL SHADOWSIGHT!!! He later gets into a fight with the rebels and kills Dappletuft and Stemleaf. There’s another battle and he’s taken as a prisoner in ShadowClan.

Shadowsight cares for him and nurses the dark warrior back to health. His identity is revealed at a Gathering by his wanna-be mate Squirrelflight. After he’s back to full health, he continues to make poor Shadowsight feel worthless, evil and miserable. The Clans make the decision to kill him and Bramblestar’s body. Ashfur escapes his prison and corners Squirrelflight at the Moonpool, fights her, and drags her into the Moonpool and takes her to the Dark Forest.

In the Dark Forest, we learn that Ashfur can control dead cats who died during this arc and couldn’t go to StarClan. Willowshine tries to get there but fails and Ashfur kills her and takes her spirit to the Place of No Stars. Snowtuft, a Dark Forest cat, helps Shadowsight and Rootspring while they’re there. Bramblestar gets his body back and most of the living cats in the Dark Forest come home. Rootspring was taken hostage by Darkstripe and was forced to fight Snowtuft. Bristlefrost and Shadowsight help Snowtuft get Rootspring away from Ashfur and his ghost army. Unfortunately, poor Snowtuft was killed by that foxheart, Ashfur. Shadowsight opens an old wound for Ashfur by practically chanting “Squirrelflight doesn’t love you! Squirrelflight doesn’t love you!” Ashfur attacks him, throws him against a tree, and nearly kills him again. Some ghosts escape with the living but get recaptured later.

Some days later, Graystripe, Mistystar, Violetshine, and Crowfeather join them in the Dark Forest to help them defeat Ashfur. Graystripe is seriously wounded by that foxheart and later dies from his wounds. During that battle he nearly kills Shadowsight AGAIN by almost throwing him into some evil dark water that kills anyone who enters it. Bristlefrost gave her life to save him and kill Ashfur. *Wipes tears from keyboard*

As anyone can see, Ashfur is awful for a lot of reasons.
Ashfur tried to kill FOUR cats to make Squirrelflight as sad as he was.
He nearly killed Shadowsight not once, but three times.
HE KILLED THE OLDEST CAT IN THUNDERCLAN!
Ashfur killed not one, not two, not even three, but EIGHT cats!
He tried to destroy the Clans because he was dumped!
Ashfur caused Firestar, the cat destined to save the Clans, to lose a life!
He caused the Clans to lose touch with StarClan.
Ashfur nearly destroyed the Clans, StarClan, and the Dark Forest.
And more that I can’t think of at this moment.

Thanks for reading about this snake hearted cat even though this article is really long!