Mapleshade and my honest opinion by Autumnrose

Autumnrose shares their opinion on Mapleshade.

Hello friends! I am Autumnrose! Today I’ll be talking about (drumroll) MAPLESHADE!!

Disclaimer: I am NOT justifying murder, nor do I think Mapleshade’s actions were right!

I think we can all agree Mapleshade is the most talked about character in BlogClan. Some people love her, some hate her, and some have mixed feeling about her. I for LOVE Mapleshade, but I understand some people do not like her. AND THAT’S OK! But today, I’ll be talking about her life both in the Dark Forest, and out of it. So Let’s go!
According to the WARRIOR CATS ULTIMATE GUIDE, Mapleshade was once a brave, compassionate and loyal warrior, kind to other cats and willing to fight any enemy she encountered. As a result, she was held in high esteem by her Clanmates. Mapleshade was ambitious and enjoyed their admiration. Despite this, when she became pregnant with the kits of Appledusk – a RiverClan warrior – Mapleshade did not appear remorseful, and was overconfident that ThunderClan would accept them even after learning about their half-Clan heritage. Mapleshade also strongly believed that StarClan would be okay with her RiverClan ties, and that they were guiding her. Mapleshade also intended to raise her litter to be equally loyal to both their parents’ Clans. (copy pasted from Mapleshade’s wiki)
So, in short, before she became insane, she was a well respected warrior who was loyal, kind, and compassionate. She believed StarClan was fine with her cross-clan relationship and that her life would be happy and whatnot. Now here’s where things get complicated. 1st of all, Maple never confirmed that Birchface (or whatever his name was) was the father of her kits. And for good reason to! She couldn’t just say: “Oh, no, I’m in a cross-clan relationship with some RiverClan dude.” She only lied to protect her kits!
I get that Ravenwing was young and that he didn’t know Oakstar would take such… ‘bold’ actions, but Oakstar was clearly grieving for his son’s death, now he had to deal with a cross-clan relationship. If I were Ravenwing, I would have kept Mapleshade’s secret until Oakstar was calm and accepted that Birchface was dead. Maybe then he would not have taken such ‘bold’ actions.
I understand Frecklewish could not swim, but she still could have helped!
Reader: “But how!?”
She could have thrown a branch to Mapleshade so she could at least get the kits to safety.
Reader: “But cats can’t throw a branch!”
Look, if cats can form cul- groups, have a sacred code of conduct/ terms and conditions, communicate with the dead, and have a whole spiritual war, then I’m pretty sure they can carry a branch for a queen and her kits. Besides, I have a feeling Frecklewish DIDN’T want to hep Mapleshade or her kits. Hear me out! Frecklewish called her (Mapleshade’s) kits, quote, “You have betrayed us all with your lies and your disloyalty. You don’t deserve to be called a warrior and nor do those . . . those half-Clan creatures.” She curled her lip toward the three kits, who cowered beneath the ferns. It seems clear to me that Frecklewish wanted/enjoyed watching, what she called them, the ‘half-clan creatures’ die. Of course, I could be wrong.
First of all, I want to make something clear. Mapleshade was aiming to kill Reedshine because she was jealous. Applebutt-sorry- Appledusk got in the way of Mapleshade’s killing blow (I haven’t read MV in a while so correct me if I’m wrong) and died. But before that, Appledusk was a cheating jerk. He led both she-cats to believe he was loyal to them, when really, he was loyal to none of them! This leads me to believe that he was, what you would call, a “playboy”. He was cheating on both she-cats and, honestly, Reedshine should’ve just left him when she found out about the whole Mapleshade problem. But whatever.
This is where Mapleshade starts going insane. After she’s kicked out from both ThunderClan and RiverClan, she starts hallucinating. She believed her kits were trapped and that the only way she could free them was by avenging the cats that wronged her. To be honest, I think this is so beautiful and it shows that Mapleshade DID care. (Side-eyes Moonkitti and BGA). It also shows how dark her novella is. Mapleshade believes that her kits are trapped in this sort of limbo in her mind. Like their souls are lost and cannot go to the land of eternal peace. I think that’s very beautiful.
At the end of her novella it states that, quote, ” Instead of dread, Mapleshade felt a surge of triumph. If she was here because of what she had endured, then there would be other cats like her, cats who would understand what she had gone through, who knew what it was to stand up to their enemies and dole out immeasurable pain.”
She knew she belonged here and that she’d see other cats who have either gone through the same experience as her, and that she could relate with the cats in the Dark Forest, more than the cats from StarClan.
When Mapleshade manipulates Crookedkit/paw she makes him promise that he would be a loyal warrior to his clan. To be honest, I think she WAS giving him some advice. I know that she was just tricking him because he’s Appledusk and Reedshine’s kit, but, in my opinion, that was some very good life advice.
I can’t say what I think Mapleshade’s mindset was when she manipulated Tigerclaw/star because I’ve never read Tigerclaw’s Fury.
This article is already long so I’ll spare you the details of when she was a Dark Forest mentor 😛
So what is my opinion on Mapleshade? I absolutely LOVE her character. I feel she is a well thought out character and that her origin story was extremely well-planned. Her personality is just *chef’s kiss* and a total Girlboss. (Not saying that female characters killing others is girlboss material, just saying she was independent and used her wits and strengths.)
The second to last final question is: Does Mapleshade deserve the Dark Forest? Honestly, yes. She murdered mostly innocent cats for her own reasons and was happy about it. So yes, I think Mapleshade deserves the Dark Forest.
Now, the final question that remains is: What do you think about Mapeshade? Do you like her, Yes, No, Maybe? Let me know.
Thanks for reading this article guys! (It had a lot of spelling errors that I had to fix because it was like 5:00pm where I am and I’m very tired! LOL)

So, moral of the story kids is…. Mapleshade is sadistic. ¯_(ツ)_/¯