Defending Frecklewish and Ravenwing by Mallowpaw

Mallowpaw defends Frecklewish and Ravenwing’s actions.

Ravenwing and Frecklewish. Those are the names of the two cats Mapleshade murdered after she was exiled from her Clan. They are both highly controversial characters in the fandom, and many think that they deserved to be murdered by Mapleshade for their actions. In this article I will defend both of them and give reasons for their actions, and explain why they didn’t deserve to be murdered.

Context: Both of these characters’ appearances (at least the ones relevant to this article) were in the book Mapleshade’s Vengeance, which was from the point of view of Mapleshade. In this book, Mapleshade has kits with a tom Appledusk illegally, because he is from RiverClan and she is from ThunderClan, and claims that they are the kits of a cat killed by Appledusk in battle, Birchface, exciting Frecklewish, who was Birchface’s sister. However, Ravenwing receives an omen from StarClan which he interpreted as meaning that Mapleshade’s three kits were from RiverClan and not ThunderClan. He reported this to ThunderClan’s leader, Oakstar, who proceeded to exile Mapleshade and her three kits. Mapleshade brings them to a storming river to try to go to RiverClan, assuming that Appledusk would convince RiverClan to let them in. However, all three of Mapleshade’s kits drown. Mapleshade sees Frecklewish near the river, seemingly watching them drown. RiverClan rejects Mapleshade, and Mapleshade sees that Appledusk has found a new mate, Reedshine. She leaves the Clans but decides to get revenge after she hallucinates her three kits telling her to do so. She goes on a murder spree and kills Ravenwing and Frecklewish. She then decides to murder Reedshine, but fails, killing Appledusk instead. Mapleshade is then killed by a RiverClan apprentice.

With this out of the way, first I’ll explain why Frecklewish didn’t deserve to be murdered.

In the book, Frecklewish is the brother of Birchface, who was killed by Appledusk. When Mapleshade lies and says that Birchface is the father of her kits, Frecklewish is delighted, and helps care for Mapleshade’s kits. When Ravenwing and Oakstar reveal the truth of Mapleshade’s crime, Frecklewish is furious, and supports Mapleshade being exiled. Later, Frecklewish sees Mapleshade try to cross the raging river, and sees the three kits being swept away. Frecklewish then sees a RiverClan patrol coming, and leaves the scene. Mapleshade is furious at her for this, and pushes Frecklewish into a bunch of snakes later.

Mapleshade hated Frecklewish because, in Mapleshade’s eyes, Frecklewish had let the kits drown. Many fans agree with her. But was Frecklewish really doing anything worth criticism here? The warrior code says to never leave a kit in danger. But did Frecklewish really have any chance of saving the kits if she had decided to intervene?

Think about this from Frecklewish’s perspective. It was storming, and there was a raging, frothing river right in front of her. There were three kits in the river. Three small, slippery kits. In a storming, raging river. How can you blame Frecklewish for not leaping right into the river to save such small cats? She would have instantly been swept away and killed. Saving kits is important, but trying to save Mapleshade’s kits in this situation would’ve been incredibly foolish.

And it makes sense. Just a few moons prior, Frecklewish’s brother, Birchface, had fallen into a storming river. His apprentice, Flowerpaw, had jumped in and tried to save him. But she had been killed trying to save someone from the raging river. In Frecklewish’s eyes, the situation was replaying right in front of her. Except this time, there were three tiny kits and not a full-grown cat who could’ve helped save himself in the river. Was she going to be a repeat of Flowerpaw, killed trying to foolishly save someone who couldn’t be saved? Or was she going to learn from past mistakes and not make the same fatal error Flowerpaw had made?

And to add to Frecklewish’s completely sensible and intelligent choice, there was a RiverClan patrol at the scene, about to come in and try to rescue the kits. They were skilled at this sort of thing. Frecklewish likely didn’t even know how to swim. Why just be another cat to be saved, when much more experienced cats were about to help?

To conclude, Frecklewish’s choice not to try to save Mapleshade’s kits was a sensible and reasonable one. I don’t think she did anything wrong at that moment.

I think Ravenwing was innocent too.

Ravenwing was the cat who received the omen from StarClan that he interpreted as meaning that Larchkit, Patchkit, and Petalkit were half-RiverClan. He reported it to Oakstar, who then exiled Mapleshade and her kits. Mapleshade then waited at the Moonstone for him, where she murdered him and left him for scavengers.

I don’t see anything wrong in what Ravenwing did. He received an omen from StarClan; why would they share it with him if they didn’t want him to tell anyone? Warning their leader of any news from StarClan is one of the main jobs of a medicine cat. And Ravenwing had only very recently become ThunderClan’s sole medicine cat. He was probably trying to prove himself to Oakstar. Also, why would Ravenwing help Mapleshade lie to her Clan? She was already acting quite delusional when Ravenwing talked to her; she assumed that in time the Clan would just be fine with her crime. Ravenwing probably didn’t want to fuel her delusions. Also, Ravenwing didn’t know that Oakstar would do anything to Mapleshade. He likely just wanted Oakstar to know the truth about Mapleshade’s kits’ parentage. It was Oakstar that chose to exile Mapleshade, not Ravenwing. Ravenwing just wanted Oakstar to know the truth of the affair.

I don’t see anything wrong in Ravenwing’s decision. He received an omen, told Oakstar about the omen (his job), and Oakstar decided to exile Mapleshade. That’s on Oakstar, not Ravenwing.

Overall, I think that Frecklewish and Ravenwing had perfectly logical and just reasons for their actions. Mapleshade murdering them showed that she was an evil cat who deserved the Dark Forest, and Frecklewish and Ravenwing deserved StarClan.