A Big Misconception About Clear Sky by Anonymous

An anonymous BlogClanner takes a moment to clear up a misconception about Clear Sky.

Clear Sky. Skystar. First leader of SkyClan… and perhaps the most controversial cat in Warriors.
It’s easy to hate Clear Sky. He did a lot of unbelievably terrible stuff, and it doesn’t help that his redemption arc was basically thrown down the drain in favor of plot devices. I personally enjoy Clear Sky’s character because of what he adds to the story, but I agree that he was an awful cat who did a lot of bad things.
So where’s this misconception I’m talking about? In almost every article, comment, statement, etc. that I have seen, this has been used as one of the reasons to hate Clear Sky, and it really isn’t accurate at all. I think a lot of it is from misremembering or misinformation, but I also think we have a tendency to exaggerate this in our minds. The misconception is:
Clear Sky stole Bright Stream/Storm/Star Flower from Gray Wing/Thunder
This is wrong for all three cases, and I’m going to explain why.
(Just to clarify, I am not defending these ships or saying that you should ship them. I, for one, don’t even like all of these. Acknowledging that Clear Sky did not “steal” she-cats is not the same as shipping him with them).
Bright Stream
At the beginning of The Sun Trail, it is stated that Bright Stream is Clear Sky’s mate, and that she is expecting his kits. Yes, Gray Wing had a secret crush on Bright Stream, but crushing on somebody who is already married does not mean that her spouse “stole” her from him. In fact, it can be inferred that the reason Gray Wing kept his crush a secret – he doesn’t seem like the type of cat who’d ask someone to cheat on their mate. Bright Stream probably doesn’t even know about Gray Wing’s feelings, because otherwise the interactions between him, her, and Clear Sky would have been much more awkward.
Overall, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to say that Clear Sky stole Bright Stream.
Storm
I think it’s a little more understandable that people interpret Clear Sky as “stealing” Storm, but it’s still untrue. Yes, Gray Wing had a very big crush on Storm, but she clearly only thought of him platonically. And besides, she *chose* Clear Sky – nobody forced her to. Am I saying he was a good mate? No, but I’m saying that Storm was not forced to become his mate. Just because she loved Clear Sky more doesn’t mean he stole her. Storm is not an object to be won. The only way that would really be (for lack of a better word) stealing, is if Gray Wing did something to win Storm over, but Clear Sky took the credit for it (what comes to mind is a Garmadon/Sensei Wu situation, for anyone who has watched Ninjago).
My point is, he did not steal Storm. Storm chose to be with him. Regardless of whether Gray Wing would have been a better match, that’s what happened and it’s just very unfair to pin all the blame on Clear Sky.
Star Flower
Finally, Star Flower. I would like to point out that like Storm, Star Flower chose Clear Sky. But there’s an extension to this – when Clear Sky took Star Flower as his mate, Thunder was no longer interested in her. In fact, Thunder resented her for her betrayal. People act like he ruined a serious relationship between Star Flower and Thunder, when in reality Thunder did not so much as trust her at all. Saying that Clear Sky stole Star Flower is like saying Breezepelt stole Heathertail from Lionblaze, even though Lionblaze no longer liked her and in fact held some resentment for her. Just because Star Flower had broken up with Thunder in the past doesn’t mean Clear Sky was “stealing” her from him.
Now, I’m not really the hugest fan of Star Flower or the fact that Clear Sky took his son’s ex as a mate, but it just doesn’t make sense to accuse him of stealing a she-cat who 1) chose him and 2) wasn’t even with anyone at that time.
So the biggest takeaway here is that Clear Sky is not going around convincing she-cats to break up with their mates. It is incredibly false to say he stole any of his mates from another tom – other cats just happened to have current or former crushes on them.
Clear Sky is already bad enough, and we don’t need to exaggerate to prove that.