Onestar – My reasons for defending him by PinkLynx

PinkLynx defends Onestar.

Someone on Reddit said they would like to see my defence for Onestar so here is the full thing. Also if the link does work and the art is put one, it is drawn by me.

Note: I have read Winds of Change but it tweaks Mudclaw’s personality slightly from the main books so I’m going off them primarily.

First of all: Onestar is one of my favourite characters in the series so my opinion on him being a good character will never change and I shall always defend him if I see the need to.

Becoming Leader – He had practically no say in the matter, he attempted to refuse Tallstar but ultimately Tallstar died before Onewhisker properly could.

People seem to forget that Mudclaw had practically already decided he was the leader when Tallstar was weak and was very harsh with his attitude and actions (Winds of Change makes it so Tallstar asked him to but it was a drastic change from how he was in the books). Tallstar realised he didn’t want a leader like that to continue WindClan’s legacy and was very much in the right to replace him.

I acknowledge that Mudclaw’s actions and delusions were mostly forced into him by Hawkfrost but that still gave him no right to go against the Warrior Code that fast. Only after Hawkfrost lies about what he did to make Mudclaw the great mastermind behind it does Mudclaw realise that he created a mountain out of a mole-hill, although he realised too late.

Another note is that (even though I haven’t seen many people like this) some people for some reason decide that Mudclaw is bitter as hell in StarClan and still should’ve been leader when he literally apologised to Onewhisker for his actions and gives him one of his Nine Lives. I don’t like Mudclaw that much but it’s sad that people try to miss-characterise him just to make Onestar look worse.

Turning his back on Firestar – I think people blow this out of proportion too much.

Onewhisker leaned on Firestar too much before he became Onestar, Hawkfrost literally describes him as “puppet-leader” for Firestar (though he was using it to mess with Mudclaw I still think he had a point).

He had his reasons to want his Clan to be independent, he had a right to be independent. Members of his Clan and members of other Clans, ones he’s probably never heard of, tried to murder him because of a decision that wasn’t his own.

It’s also shown that he did care for ThunderClan, if he didn’t why would he have brought WindClan to help with the badgers? He was also actually very polite at the beginning as well.

He may have been more distant and cold but he still cared for them.

Leaving Smoke and Darktail – Okay, I’ll admit he was kinda bad for just breaking up with Smoke but I’ve never seen people actually complain about that and I don’t see a need to defend him for doing that so I’ll just leave that.

Darktail is another story however. I think that Onewhisker had a good reason to not want to bring baby Darkkit into the Clan: He’d broken up with Smoke at that point and properly gotten with Whitetail. If he brought a kit back to the Clan it would show he’d broken the Code. WindClan also says they’re the closest to StarClan because they sleep under the stars, so it wouldn’t be good to break the Code then.

When Smoke tried to join the Clan with Darkkit the Clans weren’t safe. They were leaving to go on the Great Journey and had no safe or permanent place to call home as of yet. Onewhisker also has a skewed view of the strength and survivability of Kittypets due to Brushpaw’s death and Tansypaw (/Melody) deciding that Clan life wasn’t for her afterwards.

Onestar went back to the original forest to check on them because he felt guilty about how he just left. He grieves for Smoke when he finds out she died and at her grave he apologises for abandoning her as well.

How Darktail turned out – For some reason people like to decide that Onestar caused Darktail to turn out like he did but I can’t see how they’d ever come to that conclusion.

After Onewhisker denied them to join WindClan, Smoke decided that she’d raise Darkkit to hate him and the Clans. She fed an impressionable kit that quite clearly depended on her, lies fueled by her own hate. Onewhisker said to her he’d come back to check on them after WindClan was safe and apologised to her and Darkkit profusely when he pushed her (to stop her from waking WindClan) and accidently made her hurt Darkkit, he tried to care for them but Smoke ultimately pushed him out afterwards.

It’s also implied that Darktail was literally just a jerk. Smoke found a new house for the two of them to live in which is what she wanted as the only reason she attempted to join WindClan is so Animal Control wouldn’t separate them after their current owner died.

Darktail proceeded to kill another kittypet (I can’t remeber if Dudley also belonged to those owners or if he was a different person’s cat so please feel free to point me out on that) and attack his owners child, resulting in Smoke forcing them to leave.

If Darktail wasn’t so violent they wouldn’t of had to live on the streets and Smoke would’ve had no reason to be on the road and therefore would never have died.

Whitetail being his apprentice – I am one of many in that Fandom that couldn’t care less about Mentor x Former apprentice ships/relationships. If they’re both Warriors I don’t see a reason to hate on it.

The comment he made about remembering her being his apprentice is kinda weird, I will admit, but it’s literally one line that could easily be taken out or imagined to never exist.

Not helping other Clans in AVoS – He practically had a target on his head. He was protecting himself and his Clan. At the end of the day his Clans safety is more important.

If anyone has any other points for why they don’t like him feel free to mention them and I’ll say if I can defend him or not/explain why.