Cats that Infuriate Me – A Starless Clan Edition by Spiritpaw

Spiritpaw lists their problems with some of the characters in A Starless Clan.

Hello! It is I, Spiro, back with another article! Today I will be ranting about several cats who have thus far made me VERY angry at them in A Starless Clan as far as Shadow. Obviously, SPOILER ALERT FOR ALL OF THE ASC BOOKS UP TO SHADOW!!!!!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

First off, let’s start with… Lightleap!
She is arrogant, stupid, and self-centered – she is arrogant because she has no regard for Sunbeam or Blazefire – in River, we see that both Sunbeam and Blazefire get injured for stuff Lightleap has done just to prove herself – Sunbeam’s leg gets injured when Lightleap is trying to hunt in the trees or something, and Sunbeam gets all the blame for it, and then Blazefire gets trapped and also gets injured because of something that was probably so stupid and made me so angry that I blocked it from my mind.
This also ties in with Lightleap’s stupidity, as well as this scene from Shadow:

Together [Sunbeam] and Lightleap crossed the stretch of Thunderpath stuff and plunged into RiverClan territory. Before they had padded on for more than a few fox-lengths, Lightleap halted and announced, “I’m hungry.”
“Then maybe we should cross back over the border,” Sunbeam meowed. “Are we allowed to hunt on RiverClan territory?”
Lightleap rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so mouse-brained! RiverClan is ShadowClan, at least for now. Besides, you and I are on our way over there to help them. Surely we shouldn’t be expected to starve to death while we do that!”

A Starless Clan: Shadow, page 94

The nerve!!!!! Not only is Lightleap assuming that RiverClan is handy-dandy-ripe-as-candy with the idea of them being ShadowClan for a little bit, which we repeatedly see they are not happy with, she is also assuming that Sunbeam is also hungry just because Lightleap is hungry herself. I think I might be just a little nit-picky about that last bit, but it still bugs me!!
And then she calls Sunbeam a mouse-brain for trying to be sensible!!
AND ANOTHER THING!!!! Lightleap just had to wait, oh, I don’t know, FIFTEEN SECONDS AFTER CROSSING THE THUNDERPATH BEFORE SHE SAID SHE WAS HUNGRY?!?!?!?!?!?!?! SERIOUSLY?!?!
Ahem.
Sorry. I really am being nit-picky about this, but Lightleap just drives me CRAZY.

Next, we have none other than… Berryheart, which, if you don’t at least dislike her, I think there might be something wrong with your head. Sorry!
Now, I get that Berryheart went through some very traumatic stuff with Darktail, as we see in the prologue of Shadow, and we also continually hear about it over and over again, but… leaving your Clan for love is not the same as manipulating young cats to leave their Clan so that you can take over the whole entire lake!!!
Berryheart is kind of losing it and I kinda hate her guts. Usually I try to avoid the word “hate”, but in this case there are hardly any other better words I can use to describe how much I loathe this character :
She’s just so stupid!!! I hate her!! AGHAghjfhgdfaytdgjfauyfdhFsgdk;ugljc!!!!
There are no words to describe exactly why I don’t like her, but I think pretty much everyone will understand… hopefully 😛

And in third, we have… Splashtail!
Most people suspect him of being behind the RiverClan murders, but I don’t. Personally, I think it was Mothwing, but I already wrote one article about that and have another one in the works, so we’re not talking about that today!
I dislike him because he has poor Frostpaw wrapped around his… claw? I don’t know.
It became clear to me that he was just trying to get close to Frostpaw for status because she was a medicine cat apprentice, but in Shadow when she realizes that her visions were fake and Icewing told the Clan about it, Splashtail seemed sad and disappointed, like in this scene when Tigerstar is making her a warrior apprentice:

[Frostpaw] turned her head to see Splashtail.
“Are you sure about this?” he whispered. “You weren’t a medicine cat for very long. Maybe you just need longer to learn what a real vision feels like?”
Frostpaw was taken aback by Splashtail’s question – or rather because it was Splashtail who had asked it. Even though she had sometimes wondered if the brown tabby tom might be more than just a friend, she had always pushed aside the hope that they might be mates, because she was destined to be a medicine cat.
But I’m not a medicine cat now, she told herself. I’ll be a warrior just like him. And if he’s not happy about it, does that mean he doesn’t feel the same?

A Starless Clan: Shadow, page 85

Sure, after that he goes on the comfort Frostpaw, but then later, while Harelight is training her, this happens:

[Frostpaw] was padding away to give herself space to run up, when she noticed Duskfur and Splashtail standing in the shadow of an elder bush.
[…] “I can see that you hesitate to strike as hard as you could,” Splashtail added; his voice was infuriatingly kind. “Your instinct is to heal, not to harm.”

A Starless Clan: Shadow, page 90

How does he know what Frostpaw’s instincts are? The book says that it was only a few days after her apprentice ceremony, what would you expect from a brand-new warrior apprentice?
I think he’s going to keep slowly and subtly pressuring her to be a medicine cat again, and hopefully Frostpaw realizes it and distances herself from Splashtail.

Welp, that’s all I have for you, I will probably do a part 2 sometime in the near future when the rest of the books come out. Spiro out!

5/21/23