Character Consistency: Let’s Talk About Dovewing by Spiritpaw

Spiritpaw takes a look at Dovewing’s characterization throughout the arcs.

Hello! It is I, Spiro, back with another article! The title is self-explanatory – I will be talking about Dovewing’s personality and consistency.
SPOILERS!!!! MINOR SPOILERS FOR TIGERHEART’S SHADOW, OOTS, AND TBC AHEAD!!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

So, let’s start from her first appearance, in which we get our first impression of her – her first PoV chapter in OotS. As a kit, Dovewing is very likable and straight-forward – she has her hearing powers which she doesn’t know only she has, so she thinks it’s normal – something that makes a lot of sense. It’s the only kind of hearing she knows, and she’s still a kit at this time, making it perfectly normal that she assumes everyone has her hearing capability.
From the get-go (well, for me at least), we see that Dovekit is intelligent, cares for her Clanmates even at her young age, and is spunky. Some of her less-good traits that make her personality layered are that she’s naive, stubborn, and just a tad bit whiny – all of which are normal for a kit.
So, in the beginning we have a personality-rich, layered cat with lots of good potential – this persists through her early apprenticeship, but it kind of starts to deteriorate over her mid and late apprenticeship – why?
So, like I said, her more negative traits are very normal for a kit – heck, it might even be weird if a kit didn’t have some of the said traits, like being naive.
So when does her good personality start to deteriorate, and why do I say this? Because a warrior or an older apprentice shouldn’t be naive or whiny, for the most part. In some cases, people can’t help whining, but an apprentice should be able to control their emotions to some extent, and for the most part, Dovepaw seems to do this ok – the control emotions part is more in her warrior years.
Also, Dovewing’s consistency deteriorates when she meets Tigerheart – her mind becomes sort of muddled with her crush over him, which is normal for an apprentice – the thing is, when she’s a warrior, this doesn’t go away. It misguides her judgment, clouds her mind, and takes away some aspects of her intelligence – how?
Her love for Tigerheart makes her nearsighted, not willing to take in certain others’ feelings or point of view – mostly her sister’s feelings about her.

Let’s take a moment to discuss Dovewing’s relationship with Ivypool, shall we?

During their kithood and early-on in the sisters’ apprenticeship, they have a great, strong bond that siblings should have.
Then Dovepaw gets to go on a quest, and Ivypaw feels left out – and then, when Dovepaw gets back, she starts getting all this ‘special treatment’, and even though she can’t tell her sister about it, she could have tried to comfort her. We see that Dovepaw feels a bit guilty about Ivypaw, but she doesn’t do anything, even though she wants to.
What does this have to do with character consistency, or lack thereof?
Like I said before, one of Dovepaw/kit’s better traits was caring for her Clanmates at a young age. This is where her personality undergoes some slight changes.
Of course, nothing stays the same forever, but consistency is not is not the same as ‘staying the same’. Consistency is simply, as Google puts it, “conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness.”
So, going back to what I was saying a few paragraphs ago, Dovepaw and Ivypaw’s relationship takes a turn for the worse, causing Ivypaw to train in the Dark Forest.
After Dovepaw finds out, she advises Ivypaw not to. Ivypaw, being Ivypaw, doesn’t listen and tells her sister to ‘keep her whiskers in her own business’ or something along those lines.
Dovepaw cares deeply about her sister and covers for her when Ivypaw is injured without explanation (like the time Dovepaw ‘found’ a huge thorn in Ivypaw’s nest and blamed her injuries on that).
This is what Dovepaw thought was best to do, and she also thought she was doing the right thing – but even though she advises her sister against it, she doesn’t actually help Ivypaw.
When Dovepaw sees what she’s doing isn’t helping, she gives up and does the second-best option – covering for Ivypaw. This isn’t a solution, I’ll talk about that in a second.
What Dovepaw does is tell Ivypaw what she thinks is best, and gives advice based on what she knows about the situation – which is next to nothing. Dovepaw only knows that the Dark Forest is bad, and that her sister is training there. This can be interpreted two ways: “Oh, she’s a great sister, doing her best to help her sister and Ivypaw is being a jerk!” and “Ivypaw and Dovepaw are both being brats!”
Guess which one is the way I interpret it. Go on. I’ll wait…
*Waits*
*Waits some more*
*Not continuing until you guess*
*Ya done yet?*
*Good.*
The latter of the two is what I interpret this situation as. Why? Let me explain.
How Ivypaw is being a jerk is that she’s not telling Dovepaw what she feels to the fullest, keeping her sister in the dark – all Ivypaw is doing is letting the situation spiral, causing it to get worse.
How Dovepaw is being a jerk is that all she’s doing is assuming based on what she feels about the situation – she doesn’t stop to let Ivypaw vent about it, or even give her the chance to. She doesn’t ask, “What do you feel about the situation?” Even though Ivypaw’s answer would probably have been a rude “Get out of my business!”, Dovepaw could have tried to listen to her sister.
So how is Dovepaw’s covering for Ivypaw not a solution?
You see, Dovepaw could have not given up – she could have been persistent – and instead, she just lets her sister continue with her bad ways of training, however much she makes it clear that she doesn’t approve.
Covering only allows Ivypaw to keep doing what she’s doing – Dovepaw, being Dovepaw, thinks she’s being a good sister. She might’ve even been trying to get back her kithood relationship with Ivypaw by doing this.
But anyway, this wasn’t a solution and just made it possible for Ivypaw to keep training in the Dark Forest for as long as she did.
This can also be interpreted two ways: “Dovepaw was still doing her best and just wanted her sister back!” and “Dovepaw’s ignorance kind of kept Ivypaw in the Dark Forest.” I see it as a mix of the two – Dovepaw wanted her sister back, but her ignorance and lack of letting her sister tell her what was going on kept Ivypaw in the Place of No Stars for a long time.
So what’s the takeaway from this section of article? Dovepaw’s consistency chipped a little when Ivypaw started to train in the Dark Forest – a bit of her own fault, a bit of Ivypaw’s fault.

So after OotS, Dovewing is a good, consistent character – until Tigerheart’s Shadow and afterwards.
Let’s examine that, but before I get into it, I have to warn you that I never finished Tigerheart’s Shadow, so I may get some things wrong – bear with me.

In Dovewing and Tigerheart’s first meeting in Tigerheart’s Shadow, Dovewing tells Tigerheart she’s expecting his kits. She also tells him about some weird dreams she’s been having, and asks him to run away with her.
Tigerheart, as he’s the deputy, says no, and Dovewing freaks out and thinks that Tigerheart doesn’t love her anymore.
This is when Dovewing’s personality falls off a cliff. This is also why I couldn’t finish TS – they portrayed Dovewing horribly.
The ‘loving Clanmates’ disappears because of a repetitive nightmare that was probably nothing – even though she thinks it’s a sign from StarClan. Daisy said all queens have weird dreams – Dovewing disregards this entirely, because like I said, the dream keeps repeating itself and she thinks it’s ‘different’. Her intelligence also disappears – instead of doing the logical thing and confiding in Alderheart or one of the medicine cats – some could argue that “Oh, she was scared at being found out!”
Can’t argue with that… but why tell Daisy about the dreams, then? YES I FOUND A WAY TO COMPLAIN!! Dovewing’s logic is awful in this book and in every book taking place after the events of this one – well, mostly.
And then, after Tigerheart finally makes up his freakin’ mind to go after her and he finds her, she’s mistrustful and hostile – Dovewing’s sense of love for her mate is… kind of weird. And then two seconds later after a dumb “but I love you!” from Tigerheart, she forgives him and loves him again.
Dovewing in this book… is weird. It is a bad portrayal of the character she is 99.999% of the time – the 0.001% of her character in Tigerheart’s Shadow.

Then after that unfortunate little blip, Dovewing is pretty much the same, ignorant, loving-of-(new)Clanmates Dovewing.

Her consistency rating? I’d say a 9.5/10 – only the 9.5 because of Tigerheart’s Shadow and the minor change as an apprentice.

Wow… a little under four pages… wow…
Well.
I guess this is it – Spiro out!

(This article was finished on 10/26/22.)