Why I’m Glad Bristlefrost Died by Ivypaw

Ivypaw shares why they think Bristlefrost’s death was crucial to the series.

Hello! It’s Ivypaw/shadow aka Swift! Today I’ll be talking about why I’m glad that Bristlefrost died.

Bristlefrost is a pretty popular character, and a lot of people were very sad when she died–me included. It emotionally impacts us, reading the death of a beloved character, and sometimes we can’t process what happened. That happened to me with Willowshine’s death.

But there are a lot of character, plot, and general benefits involving her death, so today I’ll go over them.

When you read Bristlefrost’s death, I’m pretty sure you were like: what just happened? It shocked you. You expected to turn the page and read that she actually didn’t die… but you find out she actually does. Then you frantically read the book, wanting to know more of what happened and does she come back to life, only to find out it’s the end of the book.

Then you’re frantically waiting for the next book especially after you find out that Frostpaw looks like Bristlefrost. So this guarantees that the readers will stay with the series and not abandon it, which is beneficial to the publisher because they get more money.

Onto my next point.

One reason Jayfeather is so popular is because of his uniqueness. You don’t often see a main character that’s grouchy and grumpy. It’s a change.

Bristlefrost’s death was also a change. Never before has a protagonist died in the series that they got a POV (excluding novellas/super editions, and Ravenpaw was old anyways). It’s different from the usual pattern, which makes it interesting.

Also, when you watch the old Disney movies where it’s all “girl meets prince, something bad happens, prince saves the day, happy ending and everyone is happy yay” it’s always a happy ending. I’m not saying happy endings are bad, it’s just very annoying because real life doesn’t work that way. There’s going to be hardships. Bristlefrost’s death shows that bad things will happen, and that life isn’t a fairytale, which is one of the reasons I liked it.

The authors also have a tendency to completely destroy a cat’s character later in the books (like Yellowfang). While Rootspring kind of destroyed Bristlefrost’s character, she was pretty good overall, and she will forever stay that way. Of course, that also means no improvements, but like I said before, the authors usually have a tendency to destroy a character later on rather than improve it.

Bristlefrost’s death also benefits the authors because no one will get very mad at them. If Bristlefrost had lived and had chosen her Clan over Rootspring, hardcore BristlexRoot shippers would have been devastated, vice versa. The authors did that too with Spottedleaf, killing her off permanently just for the sake of not having to make Firestar choose between Spottedleaf and Sandstorm.

Obviously, people will be upset over her death, but many people ship-bash (which I want to say is very rude and unfair), and they might do that to the authors and writing team too, because as we know, the Internet is a wild and wacky world.

Overall, while Bristlefrost’s death was very sad, there were many reasons as to why it happened. I definitely understand if you disagree with my article, and I will respect your opinion.

This concludes my article. I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you have any comments, comment below! Thanks for reading!