Why Goosefeather is a Terrible Cat by Snapflight

Snapflight shares their thoughts on Goosefeather.

[Note: It’s honestly annoying when people justify Goosefeather’s actions because of ‘what will happen in the future’. It doesn’t make it OK to chase young kits, ignore a queen in need, or any of the rest of the bad things he did.]

The cursed ThunderClan medicine cat was always going to earn the sympathy of many readers. Born with the ability to see futures, and apprenticed to the medicine cat Cloudberry at only four moons, it may seem like a gift to most people. To others, it’s not. However, Goosefeather’s power has led him to make many mistakes, though it’s not only that that makes him an awful cat. It’s more than his curse, in fact, the reason some don’t like him is because of his decisions in life.

Goosefeather was born as Goosekit to Daisytoe and Rooktail. When he was a kit, it was definite he had something different about him. It was seen by Cloudberry and Doestar when Goosekit was about four moons old. An apprentice, Swiftpaw, was missing, but Goosekit was able to tell where she was, due to the help of a StarClan cat, Beetail. This led to Goosekit becoming Cloudberry’s apprentice when he was much younger than six moons, to the jealousy of Fallowsong’s kits.

It was a while later after he received his medicine cat name, Goosefeather did the first thing that made me dislike him. Stormtail, whom the young medicine cat had always despised, was running from a badger, when he happened to run into Goosefeather. The medicine cat was too slow, and was almost killed by the badger until Stormtail turned up with warriors, driving the vicious creature away. Goosefeather believed that Stormtail had attempted to murder him, but it was not true at all. Stormtail had literally told him to run. Besides, if the warrior had tried to kill him, it’s illogical that he would come back with help. Instead, he’d leave Goosefeather to die under the badger’s claws. This accusation, not backed up with any proof, is ridiculous. Both Goosefeather’s own sister, Moonpaw, denied it, and so did Stormtail. Moonpaw even told him furiously that it’s Goosefeather’s fault that he didn’t know how to defend himself. Which I agree with. Stormtail warned him, he just reacted with the pace of a snail.

Fast forward a while, to when Bluekit and Snowkit became apprentices. Goosefeather received an omen, interpreting as that ThunderClan needed to attack WindClan and destroy their herbs. This is bad, and especially since Goosefeather is a medicine cat, he should understand how much other Clans need herbs. WindClan and ThunderClan weren’t on hostile terms, so there was no need to do this. It shouldn’t even be done. Worse, Pinestar listened and actually attacked WindClan, resulting in injuries from either side, and the death of Goosefeather’s sister, Moonflower, who was also Bluepaw’s and Snowpaw’s mother. When she died, the first thing he did was to defend himself, even though it’s clear StarClan would never want ThunderClan to attack WindClan unprovoked and that he interpreted it wrongly. He showed no guilt even though she’s his sister.

Goosefeather was, too, constantly lazing off. One notable example is Spottedpaw’s leg injury. She’d fallen from a tree, and was wounded severely, and while Featherwhisker was caring for the apprentice, Goosefeather merely looked up at them when they passed his nest, then lay back down to doze. Another is Leopardfoot’s kitting. The queen’s kits were a whole half moon early, yet he refused to aid her, simply because of what Tigerkit, one of Leopardfoot’s children, would become when he grew up. He didn’t care about Leopardfoot and her other kits. After the kits were born, he didn’t do anything about Tigerkit. All he did was suggest that Pinestar, the father, should kill his own son. He should have talked to Leopardfoot, Tigerpaw’s mentor, or Sunstar, the new leader of ThunderClan after Pinestar left to become a kittypet.

We’re onto the next thing. Stormkit and Oakkit had snuck out of camp, going on a ‘border patrol’ and saw Goosefeather. The young kits challenged the medicine cat. They were misbehaving, but that doesn’t give Goosefeather the right to chase defenseless kits. He literally growled at them, scaring the young cats, and causing Stormkit to fall off a stone, permanently wounding his jaw. The kits weren’t even a danger to him. Even when they were clearly running from them, he continued to chase. He’s a grown cat, he should know better than to pursue them over slippery stepping stones. One kit almost slipped into the river; he still doesn’t stop. Really, Goosefeather? A full-grown cat like you, chasing two little kits? That’s pathetic.

Another terrible deed of Goosefeather’s is that he kept pressuring Bluefur, a nursing queen, to give up her kits. He had no regard for the she-cat’s kits’ lives; he only wanted Bluefur to become the deputy instead of Thistleclaw. However, Thistleclaw happened to be training in the Dark Forest every night, and Goosefeather knew about that. He could have easily solved the problem himself by telling Sunstar what Thistleclaw did. But he decided not to.

Goosefeather’s lack of regard for other cats and remorse for his own actions have carried him to first place on this list. I believe that though he is not evil, he doesn’t deserve to go to StarClan, and that he should not get any pity.