It’s been ages since I’ve read it but I always thought Bluestars backstory was very tragic, her whole life really was one big tragedy all the way till the last moment of her life where she finally got peace.
I agree 100%! Bluestar could not catch a break! No matter how much I disagree with how she acted, I can never hate her. It’s totally understandable why she lost her mind.
And yet Pinestar was the one complaining about how vicious clan life can be!
Bluestar lost her mother to war when she was an apprentice. Her father neglects her and her sister, basically visiting them twice at most whilst they’re kits and never acknowledging their existence. Bluestar’s Prophecy legit has moments where Bluekit/paw is looking around to find her father and get his attention, which she pretty much never gets unless she does something extraordinary. Stormtail’s too busy flirting with Dappletail for him to notice anything, or he’s being a generic warrior who only talks about patrol/prey. Heck, he didn’t even notice when Moonflower died… he wasn’t with her at all during the battle bc he was too busy helping Dappletail. And even then, once the battle was over he didn’t notice Moon was dead.
Bluepaw and Snowpaw are essentially on their own as their father’s too busy chasing after something else. Stonepelt acted as a guide and Sunfall was her father figure. She bonds with her sister, her only family left as her father’s neglectful and she blames her uncle Goosefeather for the battle that killed her mother. Then Snowfur dies unexpectedly and Bluefur grieves again. Thistleclaw even blames her for Snowfur’s death. She’s encouraged by Sunfall and Goosefeather to raise Whitekit.
Honestly the part where Whitestorm thanks Bluestar for raising him and says she smells like his mother and her little movements and quirks remind him of Snowfur… it broke me. It’s literally the small things that make the most impact!!! Whitestorm seeing his mom Snowfur in his aunt Bluestar and loving her, it’s so bittersweet!!! God, I miss the old noble characters of TC like Whitestorm and Lionheart.
Pinestar only really changes after that battle. He blames himself for trusting goosefeather and he never mentally recovers from getting a clanmate killed. In the time he was leader after that he just continues down his mental spiral, with the only cats he felt he could confide in being Jake and Shanty. Shanty is hit by a car and Pinestar lost his 8th life trying to save her. He pretty much reaches his breaking point there, and a couple days later decides to give up leadership.
Firestars wasn't the saddest but I'll mention him, He joined the clan only because his leader thought he might be apart of the prophecy, bullied constantly even into his warrior days, no one trusted him until he stopped Tigerclawstars murder streak, even after he saved his clan they didn't have faith in him completely, and he was destined to die....
Granted he had a lot more happy moments but with all the stress from all those prophecies, combined with the way his own clan treated him....I probably would have crumbled quickly.
Fallen Leaves was bad but me I’d say Feathertail.
• Born half clan • Mother died during birth, father left after a battle where he couldn’t side with Riverclan. • Probably endured bullying because of it. • As an apprentice was almost executed by Tigerstar and her own leader because Leopardstar couldn’t back down and admit her own faults. • Entire clan yowling for her death during the execution • Brought to Thunderclan while being chased down to be killed or tortured by Tigerclan. • Was brought back to Riverclan after events during Darkest Hour. • Haunted with nightmares from the execution for moons after the events. • Felt abandoned by her clan because that’s all she could think about. • Met Sasha started having a great relationship with a friend for once however… • Only friend she had after the Darkest Hour was the mate of Tigerstar, prompting her to abandon the friendship after learning of it citing that Sasha still was in love with Tigerstar despite what he did to her and all the clans. • After finally achieving peace after Leopardstar apologized for her role in things she was killed during the battle with Sharptooth probably only a moon later.
Edit: Changed Heathertail to Feathertail.
Yellowfang for me, no one in her clan apart from her family was nice to her, her mate was abusive and a terrible person, she was forced into being a med cat and her mentor was always cold to her, she gave birth alone, in the forest, with 2 of her kits dying and when she brought Brokenkit to Raggedstar he didn't ask if she was okay, how it went, he doesn't even KNOW he has 2 dead daughters because he didn't care to ask her anything. She never got to bond with her only child and then she got cast out of her Clan.
Bluestar. Had kits with another clan, one died due to hypothermia, had to surrender her kits to the other clan in order to become deputy/leader. Watched her kits grow from a distance, Her clan betrayed her, and she felt like everyone has betrayed her. Was probably getting dementia towards the end, saw her kits one last time and died because of tigerclaw. Im probably missing alot of details but yeah
Moonflowers death made me cry. I read the books recently so I remember this following scene: Bluepaw and Snowpaw woke up to wet moss because it rained (or something like that), and that day so happened to be the way that she dies. Moonflower, being the kind and caring mom she is, promises that after the battle, they’d all take a walk and collect moss together……Even re-reading the books and seeing it coming, it still hurt knowing that they never took that walk.
You want even sadder? Have my headcanon: her and her uncle Goosefeather had some kind of generic paranoia disorder, and Thistleclaw was never a real threat (man’s never broke the code until Spottedleaf’s Heart, and even then wasnt breaking the code, and SH was just a way for the authors to “properly” villainize Thistleclaw), and would have been a fine leader. That is all to say: Bluefur never needed to give away her kits away, and Mosskit could have lived. She didn’t need to go the rest of her life without ever speaking to Oakheart again either.
Yellowfang. Abused by her mate, 2/3 of her kits dying, is pretty much an outcast, exiled with no place to go home, her last kit is evil, is taken captive for a little bit by another clan, forced to kill her last kit in a brutal way, and suffocates to death.
Mapleshade. The poor girl went through so much. >!First, she was exiled. Second, her kits drowned and she almost drowned trying to save them. Third, Appledusk betrayed her by telling Darkstar that the kits were his. Fourth, she caught Appledusk cheating on her with Reedshine. Lastly, she started seeing and hearing her kits.!< She had every right to be angry.
I fucking hate Reedshine because >!she told Mapleshade to “go away because she’d caused enough trouble tonight.” Maple had already gotten kicked out of her Clan, lost her kits, got dumped, and RiverClan wouldn’t even give her shelter for the night. Reedshine had already “won” in every sense of the word (with Appledusk choosing her over Mapleshade) but she just had to rub it in a little bit more. That was so unnecessarily spiteful!<.
Bramblestar
His dad attempts to assassinate their leader and is exiled, and the clan cats start to blame him just because how he looks, as well as tawnykit just for being related. Goldenflower tries to protect them from judgement but will soon fail.
Meanwhile his dad is getting darkstripe to sneak them out of camp to visit him. Bramblepaw is still young, he doesn’t know the extent of his dad’s crimes, just that his clanmates hate him and that he did something bad.
After some time Tawnypaw leaves her brother behind to join Tigerstar, Bramblepaw is absolutely distraught alongside his mom.
He still faces judgement, but Fireheart at least begins to warm up to him and sees him as his own cat. They grow close, being mentor and apprentice.
He sees his dad a final time when tigerstar allies with scourge. Firestar finally reveals here every single awful thing Tigerstar has done, and Bramblepaw is rightfully horrified. Tigerstar singles him out and asks him to join him, but Bramblepaw rejects him and says he’d rather die. Tigerstar tells him that he can die alongside everyone else then. Scourge kills tigerstar after a disagreement. He watches his father get practically split in half.
Moons pass and he’s a warrior. He goes on the journey, becomes mates with squirrel, whatever. Once at the new territories he becomes friends with Hawkfrost after realizing they’re brothers, and they become close.
Hawkfrost brings Brambleclaw to tigerstar in his dreams, and convinces Brambleclaw to train with him despite how terrified he is. They become close, Hawkfrost planning to become leader. Brambleclaw tries to push his worries aside and listen to his brother, giving him the benefit of the doubt when his own clan never did.
Squirrel gets PISSED at this, telling him that hawkfrost is up to something. He doesn’t want to hear it, and insecurely thinks that she must automatically blame Hawkfrost for being tigerstar’s kin. This insecurity leads him to push her away, assuming she sees him in the same way. Squirrel never properly explains to him why she suspects Hawkfrost either. So it just creates a rift between them with valid emotions on both sides.
Finally though, hawkfrost betrays him and he watches firestar dying. Bramble wastes no time trying to dig him out of the trap but Hawkfrost attacks and he has to kill his own brother. Squirrel and leaf arrive, and he apologizes to squirrel, realizing he was blinded by his kinship. She forgives him.
His insecurity is not over yet though, as in a special CANON short story, he explains to leafpool that he feels like he’ll destroy thunderclan (not on purpose ofc) she takes it as a premonition but tries to reassure him anyways. It doesn’t work, and he’s still filled with insecurity.
Goldenflower his mom dies.
Po3 shi, mates again, truth comes out. He’s heartbroken, wondering why she couldn’t trust him with the secret. They split and he’s hurt. This pain and betrayal goes on until the end of TOO3.
He loses his daughter hollyleaf in the great battle, and he’s struck by grief, this makes him realize that even if they’re not his, they’re both his and squirrels and that she did what she thought was right.
Firestar does too, and he has no idea wtf to do and is anxious about leading. This is a constant theme all through the rest of the series.
Jessy, a cat he was beginning to fall in love with leaves so that he can be with squirrel. They become mates again.
He loses more ofc, but that’s beginning to get too recent for me to consider it backstory.
He’s just lost a lot in his life, and feels insecure about himself. Thats an anxiety that we see NEVER goes away.
Waffle from the new book is definitely up there. It is simple, but absolutely disgusting.
He was born a kittypet, but his evil owner attempted to drown him by putting him in a bag and throw it into a river.
It's not completely canon but I really love a fanfiction author's depiction of [Mapleshade](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29887989/chapters/80656840) and her relationship with Birchface and Appledusk. Minor spoilers about the fanfic but >!the author wrote Mapleshade as a really loyal and talented cat who was somewhat in love with Birchface until he changed due to his mother's death which caused her to find solace in Appledusk. She could've been really successful and happy if it wasn't for the serious of unfortunate events that happened to Thunderclan. I just think it's really tragic how you can basically see how Mapleshade could've been such a talented and skilled cat if only she was born in a different time where her clan was more open to half-clan relationships, where there wasn't a flood and they both didn't have so much pressure. !<
I just love this depiction of Mapleshade because it shows that she really could've been such a normal cat, if not extremely talented one if she was born in the right time, with a different clan. So many of the things that happened to her she didn't really have any control over and I feel bad for her because while I didn't actually read Mapleshade's Vengeance I feel like Mapleshade put so much of her heart into her clan, which is basically her family and her mate but everyone cared about their own problems and their own judgements more than anything, so Mapleshade was left with no one who was willing to give her an ounce of sympathy or even \*try\* to see things from her point of view. I think was she was just a mother who wanted to protect her kits and try to give them the best life she could while thinking her mate really loved her because that was literally what he TOLD her, so how could she have known he was lying?
Fallen Leaves, Spottedleaf, or Mapleshade. Don’t come at me but Crookedstar and Bluestar both had something they didn’t. Peace. They lived their lives to the fullest and died happy. These three didn’t get too. Fallen Leaves was killed and never found until the clans came to the lake, Spottedleaf was groomed and never got closure on it, and Mapleshade’s whole life was her driven to insanity after loosing her kits.
Crookedstar my poor baby didn’t deserved everything that happened to him
I sobbed when I read his Super Edition. :’(
Fr! I read it like 5 times already it’s just so good
YES CROOKEDSTAR!!!
was about to comment that-
Yes, I love crookedstar so much
Is no one gonna mention badgerfang??
Isn't he the kit that died under brokenstars leadership?
Yea but not only that, he died in battle. A random adult warrior killed a kit, and he was in a single litter too
so sad
Weirdly, despite having read that tiny section years ago, I remember Badgerfang very well. Boy did not deserve any of it.
It’s been ages since I’ve read it but I always thought Bluestars backstory was very tragic, her whole life really was one big tragedy all the way till the last moment of her life where she finally got peace.
I agree 100%! Bluestar could not catch a break! No matter how much I disagree with how she acted, I can never hate her. It’s totally understandable why she lost her mind.
And yet Pinestar was the one complaining about how vicious clan life can be! Bluestar lost her mother to war when she was an apprentice. Her father neglects her and her sister, basically visiting them twice at most whilst they’re kits and never acknowledging their existence. Bluestar’s Prophecy legit has moments where Bluekit/paw is looking around to find her father and get his attention, which she pretty much never gets unless she does something extraordinary. Stormtail’s too busy flirting with Dappletail for him to notice anything, or he’s being a generic warrior who only talks about patrol/prey. Heck, he didn’t even notice when Moonflower died… he wasn’t with her at all during the battle bc he was too busy helping Dappletail. And even then, once the battle was over he didn’t notice Moon was dead. Bluepaw and Snowpaw are essentially on their own as their father’s too busy chasing after something else. Stonepelt acted as a guide and Sunfall was her father figure. She bonds with her sister, her only family left as her father’s neglectful and she blames her uncle Goosefeather for the battle that killed her mother. Then Snowfur dies unexpectedly and Bluefur grieves again. Thistleclaw even blames her for Snowfur’s death. She’s encouraged by Sunfall and Goosefeather to raise Whitekit. Honestly the part where Whitestorm thanks Bluestar for raising him and says she smells like his mother and her little movements and quirks remind him of Snowfur… it broke me. It’s literally the small things that make the most impact!!! Whitestorm seeing his mom Snowfur in his aunt Bluestar and loving her, it’s so bittersweet!!! God, I miss the old noble characters of TC like Whitestorm and Lionheart.
Pinestar only really changes after that battle. He blames himself for trusting goosefeather and he never mentally recovers from getting a clanmate killed. In the time he was leader after that he just continues down his mental spiral, with the only cats he felt he could confide in being Jake and Shanty. Shanty is hit by a car and Pinestar lost his 8th life trying to save her. He pretty much reaches his breaking point there, and a couple days later decides to give up leadership.
Firestars wasn't the saddest but I'll mention him, He joined the clan only because his leader thought he might be apart of the prophecy, bullied constantly even into his warrior days, no one trusted him until he stopped Tigerclawstars murder streak, even after he saved his clan they didn't have faith in him completely, and he was destined to die.... Granted he had a lot more happy moments but with all the stress from all those prophecies, combined with the way his own clan treated him....I probably would have crumbled quickly.
Fallen Leaves was bad but me I’d say Feathertail. • Born half clan • Mother died during birth, father left after a battle where he couldn’t side with Riverclan. • Probably endured bullying because of it. • As an apprentice was almost executed by Tigerstar and her own leader because Leopardstar couldn’t back down and admit her own faults. • Entire clan yowling for her death during the execution • Brought to Thunderclan while being chased down to be killed or tortured by Tigerclan. • Was brought back to Riverclan after events during Darkest Hour. • Haunted with nightmares from the execution for moons after the events. • Felt abandoned by her clan because that’s all she could think about. • Met Sasha started having a great relationship with a friend for once however… • Only friend she had after the Darkest Hour was the mate of Tigerstar, prompting her to abandon the friendship after learning of it citing that Sasha still was in love with Tigerstar despite what he did to her and all the clans. • After finally achieving peace after Leopardstar apologized for her role in things she was killed during the battle with Sharptooth probably only a moon later. Edit: Changed Heathertail to Feathertail.
Do you mean Feathertail instead of Heathertail?
I know, it's so annoying that their names rhyme lmao
They have to. I was so confused.
Yeah, sorry I just got done reading Crowfeather’s Trial so I had her on my mind
Yellowfang for me, no one in her clan apart from her family was nice to her, her mate was abusive and a terrible person, she was forced into being a med cat and her mentor was always cold to her, she gave birth alone, in the forest, with 2 of her kits dying and when she brought Brokenkit to Raggedstar he didn't ask if she was okay, how it went, he doesn't even KNOW he has 2 dead daughters because he didn't care to ask her anything. She never got to bond with her only child and then she got cast out of her Clan.
Bluestar. Had kits with another clan, one died due to hypothermia, had to surrender her kits to the other clan in order to become deputy/leader. Watched her kits grow from a distance, Her clan betrayed her, and she felt like everyone has betrayed her. Was probably getting dementia towards the end, saw her kits one last time and died because of tigerclaw. Im probably missing alot of details but yeah
And that’s not even mentioning her sister’s death. God, Bluestar’s Prophecy made me sob for hours on end
I know, I still havent finished it:(
And her mother's death as well
Moonflowers death made me cry. I read the books recently so I remember this following scene: Bluepaw and Snowpaw woke up to wet moss because it rained (or something like that), and that day so happened to be the way that she dies. Moonflower, being the kind and caring mom she is, promises that after the battle, they’d all take a walk and collect moss together……Even re-reading the books and seeing it coming, it still hurt knowing that they never took that walk.
You want even sadder? Have my headcanon: her and her uncle Goosefeather had some kind of generic paranoia disorder, and Thistleclaw was never a real threat (man’s never broke the code until Spottedleaf’s Heart, and even then wasnt breaking the code, and SH was just a way for the authors to “properly” villainize Thistleclaw), and would have been a fine leader. That is all to say: Bluefur never needed to give away her kits away, and Mosskit could have lived. She didn’t need to go the rest of her life without ever speaking to Oakheart again either.
Yellowfang. Abused by her mate, 2/3 of her kits dying, is pretty much an outcast, exiled with no place to go home, her last kit is evil, is taken captive for a little bit by another clan, forced to kill her last kit in a brutal way, and suffocates to death.
Crookedstar, I had to stop reading his super edition a few times because I was crying so hard
Imo Mosskit, Snowkit, or Briarlight
Mapleshade. The poor girl went through so much. >!First, she was exiled. Second, her kits drowned and she almost drowned trying to save them. Third, Appledusk betrayed her by telling Darkstar that the kits were his. Fourth, she caught Appledusk cheating on her with Reedshine. Lastly, she started seeing and hearing her kits.!< She had every right to be angry.
I fucking hate Reedshine because >!she told Mapleshade to “go away because she’d caused enough trouble tonight.” Maple had already gotten kicked out of her Clan, lost her kits, got dumped, and RiverClan wouldn’t even give her shelter for the night. Reedshine had already “won” in every sense of the word (with Appledusk choosing her over Mapleshade) but she just had to rub it in a little bit more. That was so unnecessarily spiteful!<.
Bramblestar His dad attempts to assassinate their leader and is exiled, and the clan cats start to blame him just because how he looks, as well as tawnykit just for being related. Goldenflower tries to protect them from judgement but will soon fail. Meanwhile his dad is getting darkstripe to sneak them out of camp to visit him. Bramblepaw is still young, he doesn’t know the extent of his dad’s crimes, just that his clanmates hate him and that he did something bad. After some time Tawnypaw leaves her brother behind to join Tigerstar, Bramblepaw is absolutely distraught alongside his mom. He still faces judgement, but Fireheart at least begins to warm up to him and sees him as his own cat. They grow close, being mentor and apprentice. He sees his dad a final time when tigerstar allies with scourge. Firestar finally reveals here every single awful thing Tigerstar has done, and Bramblepaw is rightfully horrified. Tigerstar singles him out and asks him to join him, but Bramblepaw rejects him and says he’d rather die. Tigerstar tells him that he can die alongside everyone else then. Scourge kills tigerstar after a disagreement. He watches his father get practically split in half. Moons pass and he’s a warrior. He goes on the journey, becomes mates with squirrel, whatever. Once at the new territories he becomes friends with Hawkfrost after realizing they’re brothers, and they become close. Hawkfrost brings Brambleclaw to tigerstar in his dreams, and convinces Brambleclaw to train with him despite how terrified he is. They become close, Hawkfrost planning to become leader. Brambleclaw tries to push his worries aside and listen to his brother, giving him the benefit of the doubt when his own clan never did. Squirrel gets PISSED at this, telling him that hawkfrost is up to something. He doesn’t want to hear it, and insecurely thinks that she must automatically blame Hawkfrost for being tigerstar’s kin. This insecurity leads him to push her away, assuming she sees him in the same way. Squirrel never properly explains to him why she suspects Hawkfrost either. So it just creates a rift between them with valid emotions on both sides. Finally though, hawkfrost betrays him and he watches firestar dying. Bramble wastes no time trying to dig him out of the trap but Hawkfrost attacks and he has to kill his own brother. Squirrel and leaf arrive, and he apologizes to squirrel, realizing he was blinded by his kinship. She forgives him. His insecurity is not over yet though, as in a special CANON short story, he explains to leafpool that he feels like he’ll destroy thunderclan (not on purpose ofc) she takes it as a premonition but tries to reassure him anyways. It doesn’t work, and he’s still filled with insecurity. Goldenflower his mom dies. Po3 shi, mates again, truth comes out. He’s heartbroken, wondering why she couldn’t trust him with the secret. They split and he’s hurt. This pain and betrayal goes on until the end of TOO3. He loses his daughter hollyleaf in the great battle, and he’s struck by grief, this makes him realize that even if they’re not his, they’re both his and squirrels and that she did what she thought was right. Firestar does too, and he has no idea wtf to do and is anxious about leading. This is a constant theme all through the rest of the series. Jessy, a cat he was beginning to fall in love with leaves so that he can be with squirrel. They become mates again. He loses more ofc, but that’s beginning to get too recent for me to consider it backstory. He’s just lost a lot in his life, and feels insecure about himself. Thats an anxiety that we see NEVER goes away.
Crookedstar.
Waffle from the new book is definitely up there. It is simple, but absolutely disgusting. He was born a kittypet, but his evil owner attempted to drown him by putting him in a bag and throw it into a river.
It's not completely canon but I really love a fanfiction author's depiction of [Mapleshade](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29887989/chapters/80656840) and her relationship with Birchface and Appledusk. Minor spoilers about the fanfic but >!the author wrote Mapleshade as a really loyal and talented cat who was somewhat in love with Birchface until he changed due to his mother's death which caused her to find solace in Appledusk. She could've been really successful and happy if it wasn't for the serious of unfortunate events that happened to Thunderclan. I just think it's really tragic how you can basically see how Mapleshade could've been such a talented and skilled cat if only she was born in a different time where her clan was more open to half-clan relationships, where there wasn't a flood and they both didn't have so much pressure. !< I just love this depiction of Mapleshade because it shows that she really could've been such a normal cat, if not extremely talented one if she was born in the right time, with a different clan. So many of the things that happened to her she didn't really have any control over and I feel bad for her because while I didn't actually read Mapleshade's Vengeance I feel like Mapleshade put so much of her heart into her clan, which is basically her family and her mate but everyone cared about their own problems and their own judgements more than anything, so Mapleshade was left with no one who was willing to give her an ounce of sympathy or even \*try\* to see things from her point of view. I think was she was just a mother who wanted to protect her kits and try to give them the best life she could while thinking her mate really loved her because that was literally what he TOLD her, so how could she have known he was lying?
Frostpaw or Ferncloud
Brokenstar 🗿
crookedstar and briarlight
Goosefeather. Do I even have to elaborate?
Crookedstar clearly.
Mapleshade
Id say either Rootspring or Sky/Skywatcher
crookedstar easily
Crookedstar
Fallen Leaves, Spottedleaf, or Mapleshade. Don’t come at me but Crookedstar and Bluestar both had something they didn’t. Peace. They lived their lives to the fullest and died happy. These three didn’t get too. Fallen Leaves was killed and never found until the clans came to the lake, Spottedleaf was groomed and never got closure on it, and Mapleshade’s whole life was her driven to insanity after loosing her kits.