Analyzing Graystripe by Acornblaze

Acornblaze takes a look at Graystripe’s life.

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a great day! Now let’s get into the article. Graystripe is one of the best characters in the series, he was developed and was the first cat with a forbidden romance! But to truly analyze this character we need to start at his beginnings.

Childhood
Okay, so I have looked at the wiki, and it says his mother is Willowpelt. It doesn’t give a father for him. Now, this is technically not canon, because it never says this in the books, but I’ll roll with it. If his mother is Willowpelt, then who is his father? I would guess it would be Whitestorm, because he is shown to be her mate in later books. So this would mean Graykit’s siblings are Darkstripe (from an older litter of Willowpelt’s), Rainwisker, Sootfur, and Sorreltail (From a more recent litter). Graykit must have been the only one in his litter, because all of his siblings are older or younger than him. Maybe this was why he wanted to be friends with Firestar? He didn’t have any littermates to play with after all.

Apprenticeship
Graypaw was apprenticed to Lionheart, and I love their friendship. Graypaw was so sad when his meteor died, and they seemed to really appreciate each other. But before that he befriended Firepaw, and was also probably friends with the slightly older Ravenpaw. It was amazing to see how close the friends got, and how they truly had a great friendship.

As A Warrior
Then when he became a warrior he mentored Brackenpelt, even though he neglected them for Silverstream and Firepaw did most of the training. I like Gray x Silver, but more on that later. He was also chosen to go and bring back WindClan, and eventually had kits with Silverstream, Stormkit (Fur), and Featherkit (Tail). He seemed so sad to lose his mate after she died kitting and even went to live with his kits in RiverClan. If I remember correctly RiverClan demanded both kits, but I never remember them wondering if they could only take one, and leave the other with Graystripe. This would be different than the Twigkit and Violetkit situation, because they would have kin in their clans and wouldn’t just be taken away from each other because of a prophecy and then neglected. Then in the great battle he is made deputy. And During Firestar’s Quest he helps Cinderpelt lead the clan, although I don’t know too much about this because I haven’t read Graystripe’s Vow yet. Anyway, then he gets separated from the clan when he saves the captured cats and has to find his way back to ThunderClan with the help of Millie (Also more on this later). Then he became an elder and there was the whole Ashfur posesion thing, but I don’t want this article to be super long so I’ll just skip to his death. Graystripe goes to the Dark Forest to stop Ashfur, and then he is killed by the gray tom. He is currently in StarClan, with everyone he loves.

Ships
Gray x Silver
I love this ship, it was the first cross clan relationship we got to see and I loved the first scene they met, it makes me laugh every time. This ship is great, and although Silverstream is stubborn and rebellious, she still does what is right and helps Firestar find out the truth about Bluestar’s kits. I think that this is overall a good ship, and I love their kits.

Gray x Mille
I like it, I think it was great to see them bonding and helping each other out in the graphic novel when they were going back to ThunderClan. Graystripe seems to really love her, and the only downside to this ship is that Mille is a terrible mother. She is a great mate, but just wasn’t cut out to be a mother. Also, Graystripe was never even mentioned caring for his litter with her, it just seems odd he woulden;t even visit Briarlight or anything.

So all in all, I like Graystripe, he is a solid 7/10 for me, and his humor can be beat by no other (Except maybe Jayfeather). His ships were great and he was a well developed character with flaws, which every good character needs in my opinion. Sorry this is such a long article, I hope you enjoyed it, Acornblaze out!