[a design of Thistleclaw stalking across the ground]
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Analyzing so called villians and ranking them from mild to deadly by Polarlight

Fan Articles
June 6, 2023
22 comments
3 min read

Polarlight takes a look at some of the antagonists from the series and ranks them.

[a design of Thistleclaw stalking across the ground]
Art by Warrior-Junkie
[a design of Thistleclaw stalking across the ground]

Whats up fellow felines! Today we are looking at villians and their level of danger.

In 10th, we got: Thistleclaw
This is an unpopular opinion amognst warrior fans. We see most of Thistleclaw during Bluestars Prophecy. And in her opinion, he’s a daft furball who’s dangerous and bloodthirsty, only because he liked to fight. In a previous article, I pointed out that Thistleclaws greif and ambition aswell as the loss of his mate, Snowfur, shaped him out.
Bluestar sees bad in him for literally only one reason, he mated with her sister, Snowfur. And after she died, he just wanted to fight fight fight. BUT, he’s only doing this from loyalty to his clan. As a kit, he’s always complaining that, oh I wanna be an apprentice, why can’t I be an apprentice I’m already bigger than Bluepaw! He’s doing this out of loyalty to Thunderclan. He is also very protective of his sisters, Sweetpaw and Rosetail. When Sweetpaw dies from mouse poisoning, he offers to bury her body himself. Soo I give this warrior a level 4 danger.

9: Hollyleaf
Hollyleaf is gentle, strict about the warrior code, and very protective. But her unability to see past the warrior code, is what made her so dangerous. BECAUSE of the warrior code her existence should never have happened, and when Ashfur wanted to reveal their secret, she killed him because this would drive everybody to mistrusting her isblings, herself, and her clan. And literally every time Lionblaze and Jayfeather always wanna do something thats ‘Against the code’ Hollyleaf always tries to talk them out of it! This bit fed me up. Because Bluestar pointed out to Firestar when he was I’m pretty sure Fireheart at the time, she told him that his ability to see past the warrior code, and bravery to go against it is what would make him a better warrior in the end. (Smth along those lines). SO YA she can be dangerous, but overall, she’s not a villian. After all she never did anything wrong. (Except for discarding Ashfur)
So overall, I’ll give her a 5.2

8: Mapleshade
ALRIGHT now on to the big bad warriors. Mapleshade literally was like THE BEST WARRIOR EVER, till she met Appledusk. Of course then things went bazooka. When she told him she was excpecting kits, WHAT DOES HE DO, he goes off and mates with a different cat (One from his clan)

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22 comments

  • (1) Interesting article, and I’m sorry it got cut off.
    I disagree with your thoughts on Thistleclaw and Mapleshade, however. Thistleclaw wasn’t just seen as bad because he mated with Snowfur, he also attacked a child. For “trespassing,” when said child had plausible deniability in that he was young enough that he might not have known that the forest was ThunderClan territory. Thistleclaw COULD have just told the kit “hey, you’re in the wrong place, can you head back now?” but instead, he had his apprentice beat him to the brink of death. The only reason they didn’t kill the kit is because Bluefur stopped them. Additionally, there was the whole Spotteleaf’s Heart debacle, but I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole, so I’m moving on. (hehe… I tend to ramble, can you tell?)

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  • (2) Mapleshade’s Vengeance is meant to be read with the hindsight of knowing that Mapleshade is a villain. She’s an unreliable narrator. Mapleshade twists her perception of the world into a reality where she is int he right, where she is blameless and it is everybody else’s fault. Step back from Mapleshade’s point of view and look at it objectively. We don’t know what she was like as an apprentice or young warrior, there is no canon events that cover that time. Mapleshade broke the code in mating with Appledusk, and could have turned away at any time. StarClan sent Ravenwing a sign, and despite what Mapleshade thinks, he didn’t jump to conclusions, he confronted her and got the answer himself before going to the Clan. She tried to cross a flooded river, even though there were other crossing points. Or, she could have waiting out the storm at Fourtrees. After her kits died and RiverClan didn’t want her (which to be honest, is fair, considering how in everybody else’s eyes, she betrayed her Clan. if she wasn’t loyal to her last Clan, how can she be loyal to her new one?), Mapleshade began hallucinating her children, who told her to kill others to “avenge them.” We all know the rest. This is…. psychotic. Mapleshade claims that she does it all for love, but really she only cares about herself, and will twist reality to justify her actions. So yeah… I think Mapleshade is a villain. An interesting villain, but still. Great article, though! I wish I could have seen the rest (and sorry about the rant)

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  • I’m sad cuz it got cut off but great article!

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  • Shadeleap (she/her) | Shades, Shade, Shadey | Shade lit up by Leaping Flames | Mentor to the amazing Sandbreeze! <33 | Running for SW! says:

    Great article!! Sorry it got cut off 🙁

    Reply

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