Fan ArticlesDoc takes a look at Hollyleaf’s actions.
Hey, I’m Doc. Nice to meet ya! Today I’m discussin’: is Hollyleaf a bad cat?
Let’s take a quick look at Hollyleaf’s life, facts first, opinions later. Leafpool was Hollyleaf’s mother, Squirrelflight being brought to raise her. A fire started in camp and Ashfur cornered the Three and Squirrelflight, telling her that he’d kill her and her kits if she didn’t love her. Then Squirrelflight told Ashfur that the Three weren’t her kits. Hollyleaf tried to kill Leafpool, and then killed Ashfur. At the Gathering, Hollyleaf told the whole story, save for the part where she killed Ashfur. Then she fled into the tunnels, where she stayed for a long, long time. Finally, she died from Hawkfrost’s death blow, aimed at Ivypool.
First and foremost, the fire scene was incredibly traumatic, I know. However, if Leafpool’s secret got out, Leafpool, the newborn kits, and Crowfeather would likely be exiled, with much doubt cast upon Squirrelflight as well. Therefore, Squirrelflight was protecting herself, her sister, her sister’s kids, and her sister’s husband.
Heartbroken, Hollyleaf was thinking very seriously about killing Leafpool. Thoughts and behaviors even geared towards murder is very bad, serious, and illegal. (Unless you’re joking, and I have a feeling Hollyleaf wasn’t.) This is extremely wrong and cruel, and Leafpool tried as best as she could as a mother. In fact, Leafpool saved Squirrelflight, Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze, and herself, too, as previously mentioned.
Hollyleaf finds Ashfur alone by a river and kills him and disposes of his body in it. Later, Hollyleaf shows no signs of regret or even thinks about what she’s done. Murder, I’m sure you know, is an extremely wrong and inexcusable action. Hollyleaf does nothing about it.
Then, at the Gathering, Hollyleaf unravels the story, putting Leafpool, Squirrelflight, herself, and Jayfeather and Lionblaze into extreme danger. I’m talking extreme. Obviously, she doesn’t mention the part where she killed Ashfur, causing turmoil and panic in the Clan, and raising up old ruckuses.
Conveniently, right when the Clan is having a hard time, and loss and fear spreads around every cat, Hollyleaf runs into the tunnels. This is a cowardly, selfish, and I dare say cruel action. Way to go, Hollyleaf. And she gets stuck in the tunnels, having fun with her new friend, resting, and exploring while the Clans are in utter panic.
Then when she comes back, she tells the Clan about how she killed Ashfur. Of course, Firestar openly forgives her and welcomes her back into the Clan. If I were Firestar, I wouldn’t welcome a known killer into my community.
Finally, Hollyleaf dies from taking a death blow. This action, however heroic, doesn’t make up for the fact that she’s killed a cat, abandoned her Clan twice, tried to kill her own mother, was cruel to Squirrelflight, and was reckless and selfish. A rather sad ending to a villainous cat.
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I think this is a very well thought out, good article, but I have to politely disagree. let’s start with the fire. ashfur tries to kill them just to hurt the cat that they think is their mother. he shows no mercy and is pretty cruel to the three. no wonder hollyleaf hates him. know squirrelflight. she is pretty blunt, and just throws it out there: …”they’re not even my kits”…. and she tries to act like she doesn’t care what ashfur will do next. (even though she did this to protect them, hollyleaf doesn’t quite understand this yet.) so at this point, hollyleaf is traumatized, she hates ashfur for wanting to hurt her, squirrelflight, and her brothers, and she feels hurt by squirrelflight for never telling them and acting like she never cared about them. (even though she did, a lot.)
Ok. next. a while later, we find ashfur dead. barely anyone notices, but there are marks of murder on him. Later, we find out that it is hollyleaf who killed him. Hollyleaf hates him. this is obviously because he tried to murder her and her brothers simply to make someone sad. he had no really good reason, and was just planning to throw away the their lives. Hollyleaf now feels justified in her actions, but I don’t think she was really thinking when she killed him. she thought she was protecting her family so ashfur couldn’t tell everyone their secret. even if you say she had no regret, I don’t believe this is true.
I politely disagree. Hollyleaf was not a bad cat and she was like super regretting killing Ashfur and she wanted to go back to the Clans, but couldn’t as she got severly injured by the tunnel collapsing. Ashfur did deserve to die, as he threatened to kill her and totally traumatised her. Also I just hate Ashfur a lot. This is just my opinion though. And when she killed Ashfur, she was defending herself and her brothers and Leafpool and Squirrelflight, defending the secret like you would defend yourself and others in a battle.
Despite how wrong her actions were, that’s partially what I love about her. She’s morally gray and provides conflicting emotions for the reader. I think of her as a morally gray hero meaning she leans more towards the good side of the gray scale as she regrets her actions. And plus, Ashfur kind of (totally) deserved it (but Leafpool absolutely didn’t). That’s just my opinion though.
Great article! I would probably say Hollyleaf was very morally grey (Augh usually I spell it ‘gray’ that was weird) character, not necessarily villainous, though, and in my opinion, it gives her more chances for character development and makes her a much more interesting character.
Great Article!!
I politely disagree. I believe the reason Hollyleaf does a lot of her actions because she is a very straightforward cat and can’t really understand or confront her emotions. It least that’s how I interpret it. So at the time when she does all her wrong actions, a lot of emotions have been built up and Holly doesn’t really know what to do. Why she has all these built up emotions is mainly because Hollyleaf valued the warrior code highly. That’s part of the reason why she was affected so strongly by the news of Leafpool being their mother. Because, well, it was against the warrior code. Of course I haven’t read Hollyleaf’s story right so I may be interpreting it wrong. Of course, no matter, you described Holly as villainous and that is something I will never agree with. Holly was a good cat and mostly had good intentions. You mention she “felt no regret for killing Ashfur”, but I disagree with this because it was explained in Omen of The Stars that Holly did feel regret for killing Ash. Anyway, this is mere quarter of my thoughts on Holly as a character so thanks for reading. [ I apologize for grammar or spelling mistakes as I wrote this late at night. ]
I’m going to jump on the train of polite disagreements!
First, you say that they all would be exiled if Leafpool’s secret got out. With Firestar as a leader? I don’t think so. Besides, Firestar didn’t exile Graystripe when he had a half-clan relationship, although Leafpool did break a second code as well. But would Firestar be so cruel as to exile his daughter and her innocent kittens who did nothing?
Next, you say being angry at Leafpool is wrong. The cat who ruined your entire life? The cat who abandoned you for her job? Sure, she thought about killing Leafpool, but did she actually do it? No. And you call it “extremely wrong and cruel?” Leafpool ruined her entire life and deserved what she got. She broke two codes, abandoned her kittens for her career, and you call that trying to protect them?
About killing Ashfur, it seems this topic has already been covered, but I’ll touch on it. She hated Ashfur for good reason, she was traumatized, and he would have done worse if he lived. And she didn’t even break the code, as he was outside the warrior code and it was kinda self-defense. Also, you say she didn’t have any regret. Yes, she did! Read Hollyleaf’s story.
About the gathering, Ravenshade wrote a wonderful article as to why she did that. https://blogclan.katecary.co.uk/2019/10/09/why-i-think-hollyleaf-spoke-out-at-the-gathering-by-xxravenshadexx/
And she didn’t flee into the tunnels to hide, she did it for self-exile for what she did. And the Clans weren’t utterly panicked in the slightest. While in the tunnels, she saved 4 cats from getting lost, rescued some apprentices from a fox, and gave the Clan herbs when they needed it most. When she came back, she saved ThunderClan from destruction by WindClan. She also finally had her life back to where she wanted it to be, but she destroyed it all for a cat she hardly knew.