[a side profile design of Ashfur running towards the right]

Ashfur: how he became how he is by Leafpaw

Leafpaw recounts the events that influenced Ashfur.

[a side profile design of Ashfur running towards the right]
Art by skyperch
[a side profile design of Ashfur running towards the right]

Hi, I’m Leafpaw, and this is my first article. I will be talking about Ashfur, and this article will have spoilers for: TPB, TNP, POT, and TBC. Hope you enjoy!

So starting in The Prophecy Begins, Ashkit is born along with Fernkit, Tulipkit, and Elderkit to Brindleface and Whitestorm. He grows up with Cloudtail, and Tulipkit and Elderkit die before apprenticeship. Skip a bit of time, and Ashpaw is apprenticed to Dustpelt, who pays lots of attention to his sister Fernpaw. At this point of time, Ashpaw has witnessed his mentor being lovestrucked of his sister. Ashpaw probably thinks love is easy and simple, and Dustpelt being his mentor, probably asked to train them both together so he could spend more time with Fernpaw. Ashpaw witnesses the apprentices’ meeting where Brightpaw and Swiftpaw go fight the dogs. Fernpaw reports it to Dustpelt while Ashpaw and Thornpaw say nothing. They probably thought nothing could possibly go wrong. Yeah right. Next, Ashpaw and Fernpaw’s mother Brindleface gets killed by Tigerstar so the dogs could taste some cat blood. I think this is what caused Ashpaw to hate Tigerstar, which resulted in his hate for Bramblestar. Ashpaw and Fernpaw help lure the dogs to their deaths, and then in the battle against BloodClan, he, with Bramblepaw, Tawnypaw, Featherpaw, and Stormpaw, kills Bone. Ashpaw and the other apprentices were attacking Bone because he had attacked Bramblepaw. I believe young Ashpaw was friends with Bramblepaw until they became warriors.

Okay, in The New Prophecy, Ashpaw is now a warrior, with the name Ashfur. He was appointed mentor of Brichpaw. He isn’t mentioned that much until Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight argue about Hawkfrost. Squirrelflight starts hanging out with Ashfur, and Ashfur likes her. This is probably what started a dangerous relationship between the two. None of them could possibly imagine what would happen next. Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw forgive each other, and Leafpool then gets the vision about Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight being together. Squirrelflight (gently) dumps Ashfur, and he throws a hissy fit. He also brings up the fact that Brambleclaw’s dad is Tigerstar, and he remembers “how treacherous Tigerstar was”. Ashfur, you don’t judge a cat by their parents! Like your father was Whitestorm and you are not even half as noble. Anyway, Ashfur still held on to his grudge against Tigerstar for murdering his mother, and hated Brambleclaw just for it. Dude, this is Warriors. Cats die all the time! He was very mad after Brambleclaw got appointed deputy. He helped Hawkfrost lure Firestar into a fox trap. This cat is crazy just because his girlfriend ditched him.

Now in Power of Three, Ashfur is now a senior warrior. Squirrelflight now has “kits” and Ashfur mentors Lionpaw. Graystripe returns, and when Brambleclaw continues being deputy, Ashfur supports him? He continues being nice to Brambleclaw throughout the first few books. In one of the books, Lionpaw and Ashfur fight in battle training. The two cats fight with unsheathed claws, and there is a bit of blood. Ashfur unleashes his fury which he had been trying to hide. Ashfur was a respected warrior, and he did not want anyone to see his darker side. It was still there, only cleverly covered. Lionblaze becomes a warrior along with his littermates. I don’t remember anything else to do with Ashfur until the fire. The ThunderClan camp gets caught on fire, and they evacuate. Squirrelflight along with Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf gets trapped by some flaming logs. Squirrelflight escapes and tries to save the three, and Ashfur is there. Squrrielflight tells him to help push the branch into the fire to save Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze, but he blocks it. He says he never forgave her for dumping him. He reveals he had helped Hawkfrost trap Firestar. He says he wanted to hurt Squirrelflight by taking away someone she loved so much. He said he was going to kill Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze to hurt Squirrelflight. This shows Ashfur’s obsession over Squirrelflight. He never loved her, because he didn’t put her needs before his. She said that they were not her kits. Ashfur threatened to reveal the secret at the next gathering, and he asked for permission to go. Hollyleaf killed him before the gathering, but then revealed the fact that they were not Squirrelflight’s kits herself. Leafpool finds out and keeps it a secret.

Ashfur is dead for the next two arcs, but it is said he is in StarClan. Yellowfang says he is there because what he did was “out of love.” Really? Not love, just hate and obsession. Using reasoning from The Broken Code, I can say that Ashfur’s anger, obsession, and “love” grew stronger. His hate for Bramblestar bloomed into a raging storm. This is what led to him taking over Bramblestar’s body. This cat’s soul got twisted by jealousy, hate, anger, obsession, and revenge during his time in StarClan.

Okay, now onto The Broken Code. This new, more hateful, more obsessed, and more vengeful Ashfur made a hole into the Dark Forest and convinced StarClan to send him into the living world. Once there, he blocked off the passages from StarClan to the DF, and he also blocked off the StarClan Moonpool. He gave Shadowpaw visions about Codebreakers, and told him how to treat Bramblestar’s “sickness”. Ashfur inflicted the sickness on poor Bramblestar, and Shadowpaw “cured” him. Ashfur did all that just because he got dumped. From all so far, I can safely say Ashfur has no trace of love for Squirrelflight (okay, maybe a little bit) and all he did was tied to his childhood where he was a perfect cat that everyone loved. I think he thought he deserved Squirrelflight because he was respected at a little age while Bramblestar was frowned upon during his childhood. I also think it is because he felt so much pain in his childhood, he never wanted to feel it again. So when Squirrelflight dumped him, he wanted to fill the hole in his heart that Squirrelflight left. Which resulted in his love becoming obsession over winning Squirrelflight back, and then madness. So much stuff happens in The Broken Code. Ashfur takes over Bramblestar’s body, he has something about codebreakers. I think this is because mostly all people Squirrelflight cared about were codebreakers. Also, it was codebreakers (Leafpool and Crowfeather) that caused his break up with Squirrelflight. Anyway, *takes a deep breath* Ashfur starts exiling cats, exiles Squirrelflight, regret decision, goes back to look for her, find out she is “dead,” almost kills Shadowsight, reveals to him he is a spirit, big battle, Ashfur is captured, finds out he is Ashfur, and he escapes to the Dark Forest and catnaps Squirrelflight. He thinks Squirrelflight will love him in the Place of No Stars. I mean for real, do you actually think that? Anyway, Ashfur builds an army of spirit cats. Squirrelflight escapes with Bramblestar, and the Clans get together to go into the Dark Forest for a battle. Graystripe tells Ashfur Squirrelflight’s message, and the dark warrior still thinks Squirrelflight likes him. *Silence* Bristlefrost pushes him into the water, and falls in with him. I cried at this part, Bristlefrost is my favorite character. RIP Bristlefrost. Finally, Ashfur was gone and Squirrelflight was free from him.

Ashfur was spoiled and taught wrong from the start. I’m (kind of) blaming this on Dustpelt, but Ashfur was the one who took the influence to a different level. Ashfur is my least favorite character, living a good life but still somehow leading it down a dark path, to having StarClan pity him, to literally body possessing and mind controlling just because Squirrelflight dumped him all those moons ago. That’s it for my article, see you next time! I hope you have a great day/night.

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