In Defense of Leopardstar by Northfeather

Northfeather defends Leopardstar.

Leopardstar, a proud golden spotted tabby she-cat, leader of RiverClan. Leopardstar is one of the most hated characters in the Warrior Fandom… but she really doesn’t deserve to be hated…
Warriors Fans seem to be real suckers for sad family death in cats (Understandable!! Me too!). So that’s why I find it odd that fans despise her. From birth, she lost her mother and siblings; Brightsky and three unnamed newborns. From the moment she opened her eyes, she lost four close family members.
She was then adopted by Shimmerpelt, who loved her as her own. However, Shimmerpelt’s kits; Skykit and Blackkit were very close and always stood up for each other, but never for Leopardkit. Skykit in particular; as she bullied Leopardkit and almost drowned her, saying that she killed her own mother. Leopardkit didn’t kill her mother though, it wasn’t her fault her mother died. No one blames Feathertail for Silverstream’s bloody end.
Leopardkit is then left out, being younger than her denmates, but convinces Hailstar to make her an apprentice early. She becomes best friends with Sunpaw, but Leopardpaw is scared of water because of what Skypaw (Skykit) did to her when she was a kit.
Five moons old, and Leopardpaw has already lost 4 family members, almost drowned by her adopted sister, and feeling the blame of her mother’s untimely death.
Skipping forward, ThunderClan kills her mentor, her apprentice and adopted son, and best friend. This gives backing to her sometimes “overreacting” fierceness to ThunderClan.
All this time Leopardstar has been under-pressure; as her father told her she has a great destiny. Leopardstar takes this to mean she must focus only on her clan. This means she doesn’t become mates with Frogleap, even though they once loved each other.
Now, as she is appointed Leader everyone she is close to is dead except for her father, Mudfur who is pushing her down, believing she shouldn’t be deputy or leader.
Another thing you might hold against Leopardstar is her seemingly hatred of Half-Clan cats, but this is not true. This is the main form of controversy surrounding her, and this is particularly influenced by Stonefur’s brutal death.
She doesn’t hate half-clan cats. She knows about Silverstream’s relationship, but doesn’t tell anyone. She makes Mistyfoot her deputy, knowing she is half-clan. She doesn’t demote Stonefur after learning he is Half-Clan. She accepts Feathertail and Stormfur into the Clan.
She made a few mistakes, but no cat is perfect. I’m not trying to say that Leopardstar is a perfect, never wrong-doing cat, but simply saying she isn’t as bad as most people think. Adding on to this, people don’t like non-flawed characters, which makes sense but not with fans and Leopardstar’s case.
Another thing people dislike her for is exiling Graystripe. It was Crookedstar who invited Graystripe, not Leopardstar. Crookedstar and Leopardstar are two different cats. Crookedstar may have let him join because he thought he owed something to his late daughter’s lover.
Leopardstar exiles Graystripe after he doesn’t attack Fireheart, and warns him about Leopardstar’s attack. Graystripe betrayed his clan leader openly, and because of Graystripe, Sunning Rocks was not won by RiverClan. Leopardstar had the full right to exile him.
Back to the main event of her mistakes- joining TigerClan. She joined TigerClan as a young leader, and was tricked by Tigerstar. We know she didn’t know the full extent of Tigerstar’s cruelty from reading Leopardstar’s Honor. Let’s get one thing clear- SHE DOESN’T LOVE TIGERSTAR.
We get Leopardstar’s point of view on Stonefur’s death. She doesn’t not care about her deputy- she just can’t do anything without risking her Clan getting killed. She does make a plan to attack TigerClan, but the plan never succeeds as Tigerstar is murdered by Scourge in the same gathering.
In conclusion, Leopardstar is not all that bad.