No, Feathertail is NOT a Mary-Sue! by Brackenpaw

Brackenpaw argues that Feathertail is not a Mary Sue.

Hey-o, Brackenpaw here! Today I will be examining Feathertail and proving to you that she is NOT a Mary-Sue. Most of the Warriors fandom believes she is, but I will prove them wrong! Also, I am not trying to make people not like Feathertail. I am simply proving that she is not perfect, but still a really good cat, so I’m sorry if I come across as shaming her.

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING!!!!! HUGE SPOILERS FOR A SHADOW IN RIVERCLAN. MINOR SPOILERS FOR TNP!!!!

Let’s start with a few arguments I’ve heard stating that Feathertail is a Mary-Sue. Btw, if you don’t know what a Mary-Sue is, it’s a flawless perfect female character (a Gary-Stu is the male version of this).
People say that she is the definition of perfect: She’s beautiful, kind, caring, intelligent, gentle, and brave. And yes, these are all good traits that Feathertail has, but they aren’t bad. Just because someone has a lot of ideal qualities, this doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a Mary-Sue. It just means she’s a good cat!
That’s all of the arguments I’ve heard about this, except that it’s repeated over and over again by the arguer in different styles and word-play.
Now, let’s explore her flaws. Those who have not read a Shadow in RiverClan yet, I strongly advise you to exit out of this article. Or you can stay! Either one’s fine.
The book opens at Featherpaw and Stormpaw’s warrior ceremonies. Leopardstar has asked Featherpaw if she will protect and defend her Clan and all that stuff, and we see a lot of stuff go through her mind – and most of it is doubt of her Clanmates and distrust of her Clan leader. Um, FLAW!!! She distrusts her whole Clan, doubting that they care about her and hating them for it; same thing with Leopardstar. Hate is a flaw!
Moving on, later in the book, we can see that Feathertail has no friends and is feeling jealous that her brother, Stormfur, has so many and is popular. JEALOUSY = FLAW! She even admits that she’s jealous and calls herself a bad sister, and that jealousy only starts to fade a little when Sasha comes to RiverClan with her kits and she makes one of the first friends she ever has. The only three other friends that she has that we knew of until later in the books are her father, Graystripe, Stormfur, her brother, and Ferncloud, a ThunderClan she-cat. Oh, plus Stonefur and Mistyfoot! But half of these cats are her family, or from ThunderClan.
Anyways, like I said, she also feels a strong sense of jealousy toward Stormfur because he’s made so many friends, while she doesn’t have those. Another flaw is that she doesn’t do anything about it and continues to just sulk, ANOTHER FLAW!! But she gets over this one relatively quickly, so this doesn’t matter as much.

Further on, when Sasha tells Feathertail about her being Tigerstar 1’s mate, Feathertail starts to treat Hawk differently, which is another flaw. Judging someone by their looks and heritage? This one’s not so bad, though, since her suspicions were right and Hawk did ultimately become a villain who would be important later and had a key role in the series when he killed Hollyleaf (Rest in peace, my dear Hollyleaf! *sniffles*).

So, moving on to TNP, there’s one scene in Midnight that shows Feathertail angry and untrusting toward Purdy. Let me set the stage for you:
Purdy shows the six journeying cats (Brambleclaw, Squirrelpaw, Tawnypelt, Crowpaw, Feathertail, and Stormfur) the Thunderpath that they have to cross to get to the place, and Feathertail suddenly becomes spitting with rage. She basically calls Purdy a foolish jerk and refuses to cross, until Crowpaw calms her down. And yes, THIS DOES COUNT AS A FLAW!!!

So there you have it, folks! I hope I proved to you that Feathertail is NOT a Mary-Sue, and while she is a good personcat, she does have her flaws. These are NOT BY ANY MEANS to make you hate her, it’s just to prove that she has a ton of layers and personalities, which makes her a better overall character. Most cats in the Warriors universe barely have any flaws, layers, or rich personalities, but Feathertail is one of the lucky few who do!
Signing off for now, Bracky out!