Why are some killers allowed into StarClan? by Dominodust

Dominodust wonders what StarClan’s reasoning is.

[Spoiler warning for The Prophecies Begin, The New Prophecy, Dawn of the Clans, A Vision of Shadows, Winds of Change and Mapleshade’s Vengeance]

Hello! My name is Dominodust, and this is the first article I’m writing here!

In this article, I wanted to figure out the answer to a question that has been on my mind for a bit: Why are some killers allowed into StarClan?
As the series went on and we started to see more of StarClan and the dark forest, which cats were allowed into which afterlife started to become more confusing. Cats like Skystar and Quick Water were allowed into StarClan even though other killers like Tigerstar and Hawkfrost were put into the dark forest. After looking at a lot of the killers who were let into either afterlife, I think I’ve come up with an explanation.
First, I’ll bring up some examples of killers in StarClan. Skystar has killed multiple cats, some being at his own claws or by his orders, Quick Water, who has killed two cats, Hawkheart, who has killed one cat, and Mudclaw, who attempted to murder one cat.
For the dark forest, we have Tigerstar, who killed multiple cats whether it be directly or indirectly, Mapleshade, who killed three cats, and Hawkfrost, who took one leader’s life and attempted to murder another cat.
At first glance, it seems like bad writing that led to similar killers ending up in different afterlives, but taking a look at the characters themselves suggests a different form of judgment from StarClan.
Taking a look at Skystar, while he had no problem killing opposing cats as he believed he had to protect his territory, this mindset was seen only in the first three books of Dawn of the Clans. After those books, he started to change. He realized what he was doing and was horrified. He started to regret all the damage he had done and was willing to change his ways for the better. The cats who died at his paws after this change were by accident.
Next, we have Quick Water. Part of her clan’s territory was being destroyed by twolegs and, worried that they would lose too much territory to the twolegs, believed she could help her clan SkyClan by weakening ShadowClan so the opposing clan’s territory could be stolen. She took two of Shadowstar’s lives, leading to Shadowstar’s death, and led dogs to kill Sun Shadow. She died with Shadowstar, admitting guilt and regret, with the ShadowClan leader forgiving Quick Water in her final moments.
Now we have Hawkheart. Hawkheart was a warrior before he became a medicine cat. During a raid on WindClan, the ThunderClan warrior Moonflower attempted to destroy WindClan’s medicine supply. She was attacked by Hawkheart, trying to prevent Moonflower from destroying all his herbs, which led to Moonflower’s death.
Finally, we have Mudclaw. While he never killed anyone, he had attempted to kill Onewhisker. At Tallstar’s deathbed, Tallstar had appointed Onewhisker the new deputy in place of Mudclaw. Mudclaw learned of this from Onewhisker and two ThunderClan cats after Tallstar died. He believed he was the rightful leader who could protect WindClan, so before Onewhisker could receive his nine lives and with a bit of pushing from Hawkfrost, Mudclaw led a coup with the help of Hawkfrost, WindClan and ShadowClan warriors. When Thunderclan came to Onewhisker’s aid, Mudclaw retreated and was betrayed by Hawkfrost before he was killed by a falling tree. When he went to StarClan and talked with Tallstar, he was shown to be remorseful, regretting what he had done, and later gave Onewhisker a life.
Now with StarClan out of the way, let’s focus on some of the dark forest cats.
First, we’ll start with Tigerstar. He was ambitious and wanted power over his clan, and was willing to do whatever it took to achieve this. He murdered Redtail to become deputy and later attempted to kill Bluestar for leadership. He went on to murder Runningwind, Graypool and Swiftpaw indirectly, Brindleface, Gorsepaw, and gave orders for Stonefur’s death.
Next up is Hawkfrost. Just like his father Tigerstar, he was ambitious and wanted to become leader. He conspired with Mudclaw for potential power, and later took a leader’s life and attempted to kill another cat soon after which led to his death.
Finally, Mapleshade. After her exile and the death of her kits, she wanted to get revenge against the cats she felt were at fault. She killed Ravenwing and later Appledusk while she attempted to kill Reedshine, and led Frecklewish into the snake that took her life. She showed no care for the cats she killed and felt they had deserved to die.
With all of this out of the way, let’s return to the original question: Why are some killers allowed into StarClan? And here’s my answer: Because they regretted it.
Unlike the dark forest cats, the StarClan cats mentioned above showed regret for what they had done. They believed they had been doing the right thing but later came to realize and admit they were wrong. They felt remorse for their actions and wanted to change or at the least apologize and make amends.
This is something the dark forest cats didn’t do. They never felt remorse for what they had done. They always believed themselves to be in the right even if told otherwise. They believed the cats they had killed had deserved to die for one reason or another.
However, there is one cat I mentioned above that does not seem to fit into StarClan: Hawkheart. From what we’ve seen of Hawkheart, he felt no remorse for killing Moonflower. Of course, we saw so little of him after Moonflower’s death that it’s entirely possible he did feel remorseful, but I think there is another explanation.
During the raid on WindClan, not only were the cats battling, but they were destroying WindClan’s camp. Moonflower was destroying valuable herbs WindClan needed for survival, and Hawkheart attacked her to protect those herbs. Perhaps StarClan saw what happened and decided Hawkheart hadn’t killed Moonflower out of some sort of evilness but instead out of honor and love for his clan. This could also explain why other cats who killed during battles were allowed into StarClan.
This possibly shows the judgment of StarClan and how they decide which cats are allowed into their afterlife. If they feel a cat has killed for a legitimate reason or feels remorse for what they have done, they are more willing to allow the cat into StarClan.
Of course, there are some exceptions for this, such as with Juniperclaw. Juniperclaw poisoned SkyClan as he believed it would help ShadowClan and settle the drama. He later was exiled and realized he was wrong, feeling guilt for what he had done. In the end, he gave his life to save Shadowkit to make up for what he had done. Despite this, he was still sent to the dark forest. Perhaps StarClan considered poisoning all of SkyClan, putting elders and kits in danger, was too severe for redemption. Or perhaps I’m wrong about StarClan’s judgment and how it works.
Well, that’s about it. I don’t have anything else to add, so I hope you enjoyed reading through this! See ya’!