How Bramblestar was Painted by Warriors by Mistheart

Mistheart discusses Bramblestar’s portrayal in Warriors.

Hello, Mistheart here. In this article, I will be explaining how Bramblestar was painted by Warriors. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion; if you have a different opinion, I completely respect that. Now, let’s get onto the actual article, shall we?

Bramblestar, along with Squirrelflight and Leafpool, were the main protagonists of the last three books in The New Prophecy, and shortly after beginning his leadership, Bramblestar received a point of view in his super edition, Bramblestar’s Storm. He is currently the leader of ThunderClan and Squirrelflight’s mate. Many people hate Bramblestar, dubbing him an abusive mate, a toxic leader, and a horrible character in general. However… when you reread each book carefully… and think about the writing style of each paragraph…

Was Bramblestar painted by Warriors?

If you didn’t know what painting a character means, here’s what it is: unfairly judging or categorizing as being the same as another person or thing, usually in a negative manner. In other words, being painted means to be made out to be someone/something else in a negative manner.

Let’s start with Cats of the Clans. In Brambleclaw’s section, the book immediately launches into his story with these words: the son of Tigerstar. This feels quite off, given how the books have always been trying to prove that Brambleclaw isn’t just the son of a shadow, and it simply ruins the plot, even unintentionally. Immediately starting his story with these four words seems to be an excuse for the major negative factors of his reputation in the following paragraphs.

In the next few paragraphs in Cats of the Clans, the authors are keenly focused on how the shadowy parts of his personality form a contrast to his courage and spirit. Again, this feels messed up, as every single character in Warriors has at least one flaw and to single Brambleclaw out for the gaps in his personality and for his heritage is super messed up.

Another major factor that should be noted is the list of Brambleclaw’s mistakes in life, which is even more messed up than the authors’ description of his contrasting natures. They say that he trusted Tigerstar and schemed with Hawkfrost and committed other actions that definitely weren’t the best.

This is not incorrect. However, the book completely misses a massive factor working behind each of Brambleclaw’s actions — Hawkfrost. It was Hawkfrost who pretended to sympathize with and manipulated Brambleclaw away from his loyalties to Firestar, and it was Hawkfrost who manipulated Brambleclaw into trusting Tigerstar.

Another massive thing that the book completely misses is how Brambleclaw didn’t have a choice in terms of his Dark Forest training. It was Tigerstar who first brought Brambleclaw into the Dark Forest. Like Ivypool stated, the living cats do not have a choice whether to go into the Dark Forest or not. It’s the choice of the Dark Forest, not the living. Yet, the book makes it as though everything was in the paws of Brambleclaw.

Not only is the list not the most accurate, it is also slightly incompatible. For example, “scheming with Hawkfrost.” When I’m reading this, I’m literally just rolling on the floor laughing. Seriously? Scheming with Hawkfrost? To scheme means to make secret and underhanded plans to achieve a common goal. Brambleclaw never schemed with Hawkfrost until the last few chapters of the arc, and even then, he never agreed. In fact, he completely opposed the plan, and was the one to suggest rethinking it.

The most massive thing that the book completely misses is literally the pinnacle of the arc: Hawkfrost’s death under Brambleclaw’s paws (or I should say, above Brambleclaw’s paws). The entire Brambleclaw’s section is so keen on trying to prove that Brambleclaw is half-evil and half-good that they literally miss the drama of the arc, and how Brambleclaw played a massive role in ending a dark future due to his intense loyalty to Firestar and ThunderClan.

Overall, Cats of the Clans definitely isn’t the most compatible book of the Field Guides. It’s extremely keen on an attempt to give Brambleclaw a reputation of possibly having an insecure evil to his nature that it’s willing to single him out for his flaws due to his heritage, create a list of his mistakes, focus on the contrast in his personality rather than his character development that nearly destroyed the contrast, and even skip the pinnacle of the arc, where Brambleclaw killed Hawkfrost — and it’s not that the series hasn’t reached that scene yet, as this book was released after The Sight in the next arc.

It’s unnecessarily giving Brambleclaw a reputation of not fulfilling his responsibility, despite many of his mistakes not being his responsibility, such as walking in the Dark Forest, in which he had a choice — yet, Brambleclaw fulfilled his responsibility in both prophecies in the second arc, and the book completely misses the latter prophecy, giving him a reputation of not fulfilling his good responsibilities and fulfilling his bad responsibilities, despite none of these two actions occurring in any of the books in the entire series apart from Squirrelflight’s Hope and River.

However, there is another factor that bugs me is in the same book, in Ashfur’s section. Ashfur’s section is extremely keen on trying to prove that Ashfur had a beautiful personality and was completely innocent apart from his love, which isn’t incorrect but is rather extremely incompatible and far-off. To praise one relationship with many flaws in a love triangle simply because the other relationship had a single mistake (as of The New Prophecy, in which this book was released not long afterwards) is a huge stretch, especially when deeming the former relationship completely innocent.

Now… onto Squirrelflight’s Hope, the second book in which I strongly believe that Bramblestar was painted. Throughout this book, it’s difficult to say that Bramblestar isn’t a toxic mate, which I won’t deny… but, even so, is he being a bad leader, and while he may be a toxic mate, is he truly an abusive mate?

Let’s take a short time to compare the relations between Leafstar and Sharpclaw, and Bramblestar and Squirrelflight. Here’s a comment I posted in Akira’s video briefly discussing why she didn’t like Leafstar in SkyClan’s Destiny

You stated that Sharpclaw didn’t succeed well in fulfilling his responsibilities due to the fact that he undermined Leafstar’s leadership, went behind her back to commit actions that she didn’t approve of, etc. etc. You also stated that Leafstar was the leader, and had the authority over her deputy, and that you were waiting for her to do something about Sharpclaw.

However, the same can be said for BrambleSquirrel — except it went in the 180 of your hopes for Leafstar and Sharpclaw. During SqH, while Squirrelflight’s actions were morally correct, she picked the Sisters’ safety and crushed her hopes on even persuading the Clans. Instead, she went behind her leader’s back and undermined his leadership. However, in this scenario, as Bramblestar had the authority over his deputy as the Clan leader, he did something about Squirrelflight’s actions. He was forceful and may have been toxic in the process considering that the two are mates; however, the scenario is not much different from the situation in SkC’s Destiny, apart from three major factors and two minor factors: a) the gender roles, b) the fact that the two were mates, c) the fact that Squirrelflight was morally and practically correct, d) the result, in which Bramblestar took action, whilst Leafstar only deliberated with Sharpclaw, and e) the fact that Squirrelflight’s Hope took place in the point of view of Squirrelflight, while SkyClan’s Destiny took place in the point of view of Leafstar.

I’m in no way implying that males are superior (I myself am female, and support gender rights and lgbtqia+ rights) nor am I even hinting that Bramblestar was completely right or innocent. No matter his motivation or deep emotions, Bramblestar was far too forceful in his words and resulted in a toxic leadership throughout the situation. However, to say that Leafstar’s lack of action was wrong while shaming Bramblestar for taking action may not be the best. (End of Comment)

Now, I won’t deny that Bramblestar was a toxic leader and had too much force in both his words and actions. However, to say that Squirrelflight showed too much confidence in the way she went behind Bramblestar’s back isn’t wrong, as the same confidence in her own morality also led to her being held temporary hostage by the Sisters, which angered a clearly-stressed Bramblestar that reasonably wasn’t much better after discovering that nearly half of his Clan didn’t trust his decisions.

Again, I am in no way saying that Bramblestar is perfect — I strongly believe that he was a toxic leader throughout the book (although, the entire book was out of character — could you imagine a landshark Tigerheart, a toxic Harestar, or a Mistystar who would try to murder an innocent queen in cold blood?). However, to say that he’s an abusive mate simply because he’s being rather forceful with his decisions isn’t the best, especially as many wish for Leafstar to do the same in SkyClan’s Destiny, and especially as leaders are supposed to be forceful — even Leafstar showed a pack of force when persuading Tree to find an efficient role within SkyClan in A Vision of Shadows. ~ Cloudy