Bramblestar is Worse

i make a lot of videos about squirrelflight i adore her i won't deny that she is one of my favorite characters i've got that written right on my channel i've made tons of short videos where she's featured i made a video about what color she was and to save you the effort of going back to 2016 the answer was red squirrelflight is red dark ginger means red and alderheart is red too and squirrelflight just generally ends up being the cat i draw the most squirrelflight however has never been a fully popular character while characters like hollyleaf only had a few sparse haters like me a massive ashfur fan in the year 2009 and characters like dovewing are probably hated by more people than who like them squirrelflight has a pretty even split when talking about warrior cats do you ever hear somebody say scrollflight and brambleclaw are equally bad to each other i do constantly there's this idea that their relationship either does or doesn't work because both of them are aggressive or toxic towards each other this is a compromise brambleclaw's actions are loud and undeniable to be okay with the way he treats scrollflight you need to find some reason to justify it by using vague terminology like they're both pushing each other's buttons or they're both bad for each other you can push aside any idea that one of them may be way way worse to the other now alongside this something people frequently do is insinuate that scrollflight being an innocent party is an invention of the fandom or strictly regulated to whatever aspect of the community they dislike such as the warrior cats wiki tumblr or twitter i would like to propose that when you actually look at the books themselves this couldn't be any more wrong in fact scroll flight being just as bad as brambleclaw's much greater an invention of the fandom than her being an innocent party scrollflight is often blamed for instigating brambleclaw's actions towards her either because she's too independent annoying or because she hid the secret of her children's parentage from him i'll get to that last one later but we should consider that a chunk of brambleclaw's terrible behavior towards scrollflight actually happens specifically within the new prophecy before that event even takes place i'll discard the other points as well for now scroll flight being annoying is a matter of opinion but being annoying is never an excuse to treat someone badly likewise girlflight acting against brambleclaw's wishes as leader in books like ramblestar's storm and scrollflight's hope shouldn't be taken in a different lighter context than fireheart's actions behind blue stars back in the original series i should clarify that in bramble starstorm she isn't acting against his wishes she's just kind of being loud especially in squirrelflight's hope which i will go over in lots of detail later holding scroll flight to a standard where she would have to be submissive in the face of both cruelty to the sisters and incompetence through the other clans is just wrong and something that happens rather abruptly when a conversation changes to the morality of scrollflight is a switch between using our morals as a reader to using the morals of the cats in universe as readers we are supposed to take the political actions of cats like squirrelflight and her father fireheart as examples of necessary rule breaking in order to do what's right in the warrior cats universe even though squirrel flight is acting in the interest of both skyclan's well-being and in the protection of the sister's children she is breaking an important rule that the leader's word is law granted this is a rule that we as a fandom largely understand to be well frustrating in addition to that it has been manipulated by multiple leaders in bad faith in the past especially seriously in the current arc where bramblestar is possessed squirrelflight disobeyed her leader sure but it wasn't wrong of her to do so she was completely correct to do what she did especially by her own morality if or not she breaks a rule in the process is not worth more than the lives of others you cannot say that squirrelflight and brambleclaw are equally bad when scrollflight is disobeying out of purely good conscience and moral obligation this is also seeing things on a level of black and white considering all wrongs to be equally wrong to say oh ramblestar is wrong but scrollflight also disobeyed him to do the right thing just doesn't feel right to me but i'm getting ahead of myself i'll get to squirrelflight's hope later let's start at the beginning and by the beginning i mean the beginning of their relationship because bramble star and squirrelflight have always had a bad relationship it didn't start good and get worse it didn't have any sort of inconsistency even it follows a pattern i believe completely that bramblestar is abusive and scrollflight is a victim i should clarify that neither brambleclaw is abusive nor they both were bad for each other is the intention of the author what is the intention of the author heck if i know in flight's hope rambleclaw is clearly indefinitely supposed to be in the wrong but in every other instance of their relationship it's strange like clearly brambleclaw is incorrect in multiple occasions but on these occasions he's the protagonist and the intention is probably to sympathize with him and if they realized how awful this entire situation is i'd imagine they'd never be keeping them together or at least they'd be writing it differently let's begin with a bit of a tongue twister at the very start of starlight scrollpaw becomes squirrelflight around this time she becomes close with brambleclaw without either of them formally using the word mate but her sister leafpool is already acknowledging them as such immediately something comes up scrollflight doesn't trust frost hawk frost is brambleclaw's brother squirrelflight believes that hawk frost is overly ambitious and trying to get rid of a cat named misty foot who is currently the deputy of river clan this is correct she also knows from her sister leaf pool's experience with him that he's bad news brambleclaw disregards both of these pretty valid problems and jumps to the conclusion that scrollflight hates hawkfrost based on his parentage an idea that scrollflight immediately denies by saying if that's what you think then you don't know me at all he ignores the fact that she's denied it and believes the made-up narrative in his head instead of the actual reasons presented by his almost mate having inherited evil from tigerstar is something that brambleclaw worries about all book and he's projecting this insecurity on squirrelflight who doesn't so much as imply it he continues being angry that he's on bad terms with her for a while and then he starts training in hell and meeting his dead evil father there you know the guy he's upset with scrollflight for associating his family with something she isn't even doing squirrelflight tries to patch it up but he's so insecure about having a dream where he meets tigerstar that he pushes her away again scrollflight then confronts him about hawkfrost who ramblecon now knows is ambitious and is met with tigerstar and when he again criticizes her for distrusting and being rude to hawkfrost she breaks up with him she says hawkfrost is more important than she is and walks off rambleclaw believes that no scrollflight is the most important thing to him at this point in their relationship he has already proven that he cannot listen to her or take her concerns seriously additionally he has blatantly chosen to keep his tigerstar dream from her through his actions brambleclaw has basically proven to both the reader and squirrelflight that she isn't important to him if he cannot trust scrollflight and she cannot trust him there is no good reason for them to be together this is when a third character in the new prophecy's squirrelflight romance arc comes into the picture a former complete background character named dashfur before this point ashfur was not a person scrollflight has begun hanging out with ashfur along with thornclon spiderleg some sort of stubborn cat clique within thunderclan ashford seems to like squirrelflight the authors don't humor us with ashford very much during this book his eyes twinkle a little bit while looking at her but we never really get to see how she feels about him then at the climax of starlight mudclaw admits that he worked with hawkfrost to plot a coup brambleclaw chooses not to believe this squirrelflight doesn't then when twilight starts brambleclaw and squirrelflight are still broken up brambleclaw is being hostile towards her and both of them fight she again insists this isn't about parentage and instead about her being convinced frost is evil at this point as readers we know she's right and we know there's more than enough evidence for both her and brambleclaw to understand this after they fight she thinks well of ashfur who is in her opinion gentler towards her than brambleclaw from this point on brambleclaw starts being patronizing towards both squirrelflight and ashfur making them agitated he takes every opportunity he can to put down scrollflight or be passive-aggressive she responds with actual aggression and fights with him he goes out of his way to insult both of them whenever he can and jumps on opportunities to punish scroll flight of course this also makes squirrelflight angry she runs away after a scolding session over her playing mossball with ashfur and runs into a fox the three of them fight off the fox and ramble claw scolds her again and again when it comes to the new prophecy specifically i've had people complain that because scrollflight reacts aggressively to brambleclaw's behavior that they're equally terrible this sort of thing unsettles me because it implies that if brambleclaw is acting unfairly towards her she should just let him do it of course she's reacting he's repeatedly punishing her for a misunderstanding that she has tried multiple times at this point to clear up alternatively he's punishing her because she's hanging out with another guy which doesn't give me red flags at all scrollflight also accidentally crosses into shadowclan which makes brambleclaw startup all over again only for ashford to defend her from him she tells brambleclaw that she trusts ashfur not him and he insults her again implying she's uh somebody who wants a mate who helps her what or maybe he's trying to say she wants an easy life is he calling her some sort of emotional gold digger i'm super confused by this insult specifically honestly and it only really goes to show that brambleclaw's a massive jerk squirrelflight you just want a cat who's supportive and not a cat like me who was never supportive or understanding i thought you were better than this but i guess i was wrong brambleclaw becomes increasingly controlling as the book goes on going out of his way to order squirrelflight around he even becomes more aggressive towards ashfur who has since gotten an apprentice on top of being friends with squirrelflight when brambleclaw needs one to become deputy and it's not like it's all flowers and sunshine with ashfur either who reveals he is prejudice against kittypets and protecting and babying scrollflight more than she'd like but he's being kind to her when badgers attack camp ashford is overprotective and tries to fight scroll flight's battles for her she's more worried about brambleclaw than ashford during the fight um rather nonsensically she at some point during this fight realizes she still has feelings for brambleclaw brambleclaw who has been treating her poorly and punishing her all book her opinion on hawkfrost is disregarded around chapter 19. hawkfrost isn't even mentioned after chapter 20. the fact that up until this point brambleclaw has been treating her poorly in almost every interaction is also completely disregarded by the narrative oh and did i mention that brambleclaw has been visiting tigerstar in his dreams all book but just keep that in mind it's not that relevant before i move on to sunset i want to quickly address something that causes a lot of confusion we're ashfur and scrollflight actually together i'm giving that a hesitant yes they were courting as warrior cats doesn't really have any sort of word for an in-between state between mates and not mates i feel like this is the best term to describe it they weren't mates but they were sort of on the road to becoming mates ashford and scroll flight were more physically affectionate and emotionally dependent on each other than a normal pair of warriors would be she leans on him he grooms her and they're very touchy for two warriors who would just be friends she's not dense either she's thinking of ash for romantically there's also no implication that she's leading him on or tricking him or using her to make bramble claw jealous which are all things i hear frequently for a period of time scroll flight is legitimately interested and considering ashfur she thinks of him romantically she compares him to a sparkling lake and is reassured by his kindness she just ultimately in a decision that i cannot empathize with gets with a person who has been treating her like well crow food for the last book and a half yes there were issues with ashfur he was minorly controlling in his own way and wanted to fight her battles for her he was treating her like she needed him to take care of her which she really wasn't fond of also kittypet xenophobia she didn't need to stand for but she didn't have a bad relationship with ashfur when she unquestionably did with brambleclaw additionally when she chooses to become bramblestar's mate instead ashfur is mentioned explicitly as someone who needs to be told because warrior cats really doesn't have much notion of it there's no overlap between her relationship between the two toms she stops courting brambleclaw begins courting ashfur and then stops courting ashford to get together with brambleclaw again this is unfair to ashfur clearly but that's her decision and sup she wasn't cheating on anybody in the next book sunset squirrelflight and brambleclaw actually get back together danger of the badgers has made them realize how important they are to each other squirrelflight breaks up with ashford off-screen and while this change of heart feels honestly like a bad decision at this point it's her choice leafpool also has a vision of their relationship starclan literally shipping these two cats which isn't terribly relevant as skwelf has already made up her mind about this but definitely weird as heck and after that the rest of the book is sunset a book about nothing but tepid deputy drama and one fun scene at the end good night sunset before i move on to leaf pool's wish i want to ask a question was bramble clash treatment of scrollflight justified we as readers know that scrollflight holds no prejudice towards hawkfrost for his parentage scrollflight also attempted to make it clear what her reasoning was brambleclaw was projecting and taking out his insecurities on her but brambleclun never needed to admit he was wrong and the whole thing was forgotten about and allowed to pass by but it's the way he acts while they're estranged that bothers me the most not only does he push her away but he proceeds to punish her for finding companionship in other people he acts like he wants control over her by going out of his way to boss her around and finding any excuse to punish her while she's doing nothing to purposefully upset him and had up until that point already tried to appease him and make up but because the characters choose to forget about this the books choose to forget about this and i should make a point here that scrollflight is never avoiding brambleclaw until he starts treating her poorly she even tries to apologize and forget it much earlier than he lets it go this is how brambleclaw treats scrollflight in the absence of their power imbalance he is less successful at controlling her than he is in the later arcs but he still gets his way in the end he is not responsible for what he has done and he does not need to admit that he was wrong anyways leafpool's wish picks up with squirrelflight and brambleclaw all made up they're mates now and they've been mates for about a moon four weeks this is the point where leafpool tells her sister that she is pregnant one single month into their relationship squirrelflight is annoyed with brambleclaw who hasn't been treating her like an equal can't it wait rambleclaw wants me to fetch soaked moss for the nursery even though it's an apprentice task he hasn't stopped giving the orders since firestar made him deputy who does brambleclaw think he is treating me like i'm still wet behind my ears tom's are so much trouble you don't know how lucky you are a leaf pool not having to worry about things like that well well i know there was crowfeather and sure she could just be being immature and complaining here as brambleclaw's deputy now but regardless of if she's overreacting three things can be gleaned here the first is that there's a very clear power imbalance between the two now that he's deputy this isn't a horrible thing but it's something to keep in mind second it's been a single month and scroll flight is already having troubles in their relationship and third scroll flight feels patronized which has been a reoccurring problem in their relationship from the start and they get over this fight they're seen together fine a day or two later but this all brings up a very important thing in my mind there is only a short period of time in brambleclaw's entire life where he hasn't been in a direct position of power over squirrel flight he was already a warrior when she was born on the journey she was an apprentice and he was a warrior only a few months after making it to the lake territories brambleclaw is made deputy and continues to be in a higher position of power for what seems to be the duration of their lives but anyways anyways leaf bulls wish leaf pool wants squirrel flight to take her kits and i don't really need to go into too much detail here but she doesn't want to she specifically mentions not wanting to lie to brambleclaw when she refuses the second time she refuses she says it again she can't light a brambleclaw for the rest of his life she leaves with leafpool when she wants to go have her kids and they're gone for nearly a whole moon when they come back because something something feather tails ghost and squirrelflight being told that she's barren and will never have children of her own scrollflight has decided to adopt them in secret so she tells bramblestar that they're his brambleclaw accepts this just instantly and for the duration of j kidd holly kit and lion kids kit hood and apprenticeship everything seems fine between them soon after they're made warriors though and i really feel like i don't even need to explain this assuming you've all read warrior cats before the secret is made public by hollyleaf on the spot brambleclaw breaks up with squirrelflight why i had to she's my sister and you couldn't trust me you couldn't trust me don't you think i would have helped you if you'd told me the truth but it's too late now ramble claw ramble claw claims he would have helped her if she had told the truth but we have no way of knowing if that's true or not it was unfair of skrullflight to hide it from him and this is playing pretend that she would have had a choice at all when starkland god themselves who no other warrior cat has ever properly disobeyed on purpose ever made her take the kids okay no warrior but pinestar but can we trust brambleclaw brambleclaw who never told scrollflight he was training in the dark forest brambleclaw who held a grudge over scrollflight having a suspicion for months brambleclaw who starkland themselves seemingly wanted to keep this a secret from brambleclaw who she had only been together with after a huge fight for a month rambleclaw has every right to terminate their relationship no question there but i feel like that should have been the end of it but moving on to omen of the stars nearly every time squirrel flight is mentioned it's either because jay or lion is commenting on how she's not their mother or it's because brambleclaw is singling her out somehow along with a few scenes where a squirrel flight is looking at brambleclaw like a kicked puppy he treats her with an inordinate amount of disdain compared to other warriors and punishes her by ignoring her avoiding her and acting passive-aggressive while he isn't being as openly cruel as he was when she was seeing ashfur into the new prophecy he clearly isn't acting properly in lion blaze's perspective an early fourth apprentice six months after the reveal we get this passage since the truth came out brambleclone's squirrelflight had barely spoken to each other and although brambleclaw never punished scrollflight by giving her the hardest tasks or the most dangerous patrols he made sure that their paths never crossed as they carried out their duties then in the next book we get this scene where scrollflight tries to instruct her adopted son but bramblestar immediately contradicts her stop stirring up trouble sometimes aggression is necessary starclan gave his claws for a reason the orange she cat's eyes flashed with shock as though his words had raked her muzzle lion blaze winced visibly book after that we get a scene where brambleclaw glares at her for being on the same patrol as him and she submissively backs off and in sign of the moon we get this ramble claw do you have any messages for the tribe i could say hi to stormfur and brook for you jay feather heard something else beneath her words something she dared not ask for out loud she wants brambleclaw to wish her luck or to tell her to be careful anything that will show he still cares about her but all brambleclaw said was sure tell them they're missed in thunderclown jayfeather could almost taste skrullflight's disappointment then after the forgotten warrior which by the way is the only omen of the star's book where we don't have a token scene where brambleclaw openly expresses his disdain for squirrelflight we have this lovely bit where brambleclaw immediately accuses her of lying halfway through the last hope who's the third cat dovewing we are destined to save the clans from the dark forest why didn't you tell me was it because i'm not your true father did you know is that why you lied about them being your kids no the scene goes on squirrelflight tries to apologize but brambleclaw shouts that he wasn't their father squirrelflight insists that he was lionblaze makes sad noises he takes it back but not what he said to squilf pool defends squirrel flight we never get brambleclaw's response to this because the chapter ends but later on when the dark forest is attacking everybody's preparing for battle and this happens will you fight beside me always later at the very end after firestar is dead and bramblestar's leader he chooses squirrel played as his deputy even though earlier in the day he was accusing her of further lying if before the super edition bramble star storm there was a proper resolution to be had between them if they had gone over their feelings towards the lie or made up for the way bramblestar's been treating her for the last six books it's not on page but this is the point where brambleclaw now bramblestar stops punishing squill for her cover-up it again takes a crisis some huge danger that threatens the clans to make brambleclone squirrelflight reconnect but why would bramble want to why does bramble want to be in a leader-deputy relationship with someone he's been blatantly avoiding for the past year especially if all it took to fix that connection was being briefly scolded by leaf pool and lion blaze and yeah we don't actually get resolution on the kit secret thing until bramble star storm comes out two years later but that still doesn't explain this does a huge dangerous crisis make him re-evaluate his actions or did it just make him realize that squirrel flight was something he wanted to keep after a year of treating her passive aggressively on purpose this is a problematic idea assuming bramblestar in his heart of hearts still wanted to be with her or at least forgive her he has been angry passive-aggressive and neglectful for a full year it's not the same as his punishing behavior when she's courting ashfur but it's still super manipulative and damaging takes a lot of effort to keep up the cold shoulder that long when the other person is submissive and offering no pushback at all you're exerting extra force to be cold and neglectful in your day-to-day duties he's being cruel to her because she hurt him sure on a surface level that's what it is but his behaviors are abusive scrollflight did something wrong it wasn't abuse it was pressured on her by outside forces brambleclaw did things specifically to punish scrollflight on two separate occasions he has actively punished scrollflight and let's not forget that brambleclaw is in a position of power over squirrelflight he has the ability to control her not only in their relationship through this manipulation but also in the kitty workplace hierarchy and this is the point where you might think to yourself clearly the authors didn't intend it that way and we don't know this like i said earlier it's super hard to tell what their intention here was or even if they were aware of it but what was written down are behaviors that are used to abuse and control people in real life and it might seem like it's nothing like oh the cold shoulder isn't so bad you'd imagine glaring at someone who wants to make up with you but he's not just her mate he's her boss and it's been going on for a year not to mention the cold shoulder alone is a control tactic it's not something that's simply used to avoid someone it makes the other party anxious and desperate and we can see that in scrollflight's uncharacteristically appeasing submissive behavior this is grow flight we're talking about in her natural state of mind she's headstrong and active and independent ramblestar has made her into a scared fawn by comparison and i know you're probably waiting for scrollflight's hope at this point but i've got a little bit more to go over before i dip my feet into that pool ramble star storm takes place six months after the great battle ramble star and squirrel flight are still not romantically involved this is a vaguely peaceful book between them but a lot of it has context that i'm going to be calling back to later the plot begins with bramblestar trying to pressure his clanmates to have kittens because he's worried about not having enough of them or something and then it leads into a story about excessive flooding in the clan territories towards the beginning he thinks of scrollflight as the best possible deputy additionally he uses phrases like i'd be lost without her as my deputy to further imply she is capable and intelligent at her job we have passages like this one where scrollflight tries to convince him not to overexert himself his admission here implies further that he chose her because she has her own ideas and will challenge him alongside the fact that she's simply good at the job it's my personal opinion that ramblestar and scrollflight function best like this no relationship and it feels like it's proven by their interactions not only within this book but also an early new prophecy before they're together there are still moments of weirdness for example squirrelflight deciding to talk to littlecloud about nothing receives an intervention as if she doesn't know the rules things take a weird turn after the introduction of a kittypet named jessie a she cat who is seemingly extremely skilled and extremely intelligent she's framed as always being correct and incredibly attractive her characterization bothers me unreasonably i'll disregard my personal feelings ramble star brings two kitty pets in a blanket into camp scroll flight snaps they're currently dealing with a flood and they're having trouble taking care of themselves this is a pretty long passage but it's really one of only a couple within the books where scrollflight treats bramble star unreasonably so i think it's important to include i'm well aware of why this scene is in the books they want to showcase squirrel flight's level of supportiveness and contrast with jessie's jesse being an all-knowing super cat it's pretty easy that you went all that way and put your clan mates in danger for that it's disgusting no it might not be so bad we can stretch it over a bush to dry it who do you think you are you should be grateful to bramble star he risked his life to get that i know how brave ramblestar is i'm going to sort out patrols ramblestar you need to rest and eat wow is she always like that yeah pretty much and while i disagree with bramblestar's assessment there this book is from his perspective and if he sees scrollflight as someone who's constantly yelling and overreacting i guess it kind of makes sense in the context of how he treats her later scroll flight is rude again after bramble stars decided to take a romantic stroll with jesse the kittypet these scenes are trying to showcase that she's jealous scrollflight gets over it just about instantly but gets angry again when bramblestar suddenly remembers that he literally witnessed windclan cats invading earlier not to be a squirrelflight apologist or anything but this is vaguely reasonable ramblestar's the leader of the clan and just for getting for a good 10 minutes after you got back from frolicking meaninglessly with the kittypet it's just kind of dense squirrelflight displays mild annoyance at jessie's inclusion in serious clan matters for a while but she warms up to her after a bit later we get yet another reaffirmation that scrollflight is just fantastic at her job i'd be lost without squirrelflight to keep every cat in line she has a knack for making them all feel useful and important even purdy and when bramblestar gets hurt fighting a battle for shadowclan he anticipates her scolding him but she reassures him instead soon after she catches him teaching jesse a crouch and acts jealously bringing up some badger story great star clan is squirrel flight jealous because i'm training jessie now that's ridiculous this is like completely unrelated it's a total side note but they really do rate squirrel flight as if she's short like sure she was looking down at jessie earlier and needs to look up to look at ramble star but this sentence really gives you the mental image of an itty bitty kitty towards the end of bramble star storm squirrel flight finds out that bramblestar was fighting for tawnypelt's sake and we get resolution on the kids plotline why would you risk your own clan to help tawny pelton shadowclan because i'd do anything to help my sister as would you as he spoke ramblestar finally understood why scrollflight had lied to him about the kits he had already forgiven her because he knew that she had been trying to do the best for every cat but only now did he appreciate the impulse that made her build so much upon something that wasn't true that's why you did what you did isn't it you took leave pool's kits because you loved her scroll flight nodded her eyes so full of feeling that he guessed she couldn't find words to answer i have nothing but respect for your courage he told her looking down into the clearing again he saw lion blaze sprawled out contentedly beside his mate and jay feather happily bossing briar light around we raised three fine cats he mute remembering holly leaf's braves death inside blah blah blah holly leaf is dead he and squirrel flight sat in silence gazing down at their kits and their other clan mates cheerful in the sunlight below i'll support you bramblestar if you want to take thunderclan into battle on shadowclan's behalf i will be with you at this point scrollflight is fully forgiven for the secret she kept the narrative always wanted us to think skrullflight had done the right thing so this is a conclusion we were always leading to when it comes to squirrel flight's secret which honestly just kind of rubs salt in his treatment of her during moment of the stars take notice that even though brambleclaw is kind of breaking clan rules to do what is right squirrelflight supports him because she understands why he's making that decision we'll find out soon that this is a courtesy that only goes in one direction what it took for him to empathize was his own connection with his siblings which is something that he probably should have already understood especially after the whole hawk ross situation but at the time during the new prophecy while that was going on bramble club belittled skrullflight's connection to leafpool so uh who's to say further on squirrelflight tells brampleclaw that she's willing to accept jesse he thinks about his adopted kits with scroll flight and feels guilt over previously regretting them jessie chooses to leave after this realizing bramblestar still has lingering feelings for scrollflight and knowing that if she stays being perfect and special and awesome and also a human level genius she would definitely win his affections and that would be rude of her because bramblestar has adult sons with squirrelflight honestly some of what she says here could be taken out of context as some sort of anti-divorce argument you would have been a great warrior oh i know i would i'll never forget you nor i you bramblestar pressed himself closer against jesse's side breathing in her scent for one last time i wish things could have been different he thought it's hard to believe i'll never see her again looking over jesse's head he saw the lake turn scarlet by the setting sun he remembered his vision of yellowfang the blood rising to meet her paws and realized that blood ran deeper than anything else jesse is right whatever i have felt for her whatever might have been squirrelflight and i share a bond that cannot be broken i feel like this is sort of a flimsy justification for staying with someone but at least it acknowledges holly j and lion as their real children which is um it's nice but now bramplestar and squirrelflight are back together and what do you know she's pregnant yeah the whole barren thing from earlier it was a lie to make her take the children as if this is some sort of greek tragedy god has lied to her the peace in their relationship continues through her childbirth and through the series of vision of shadows a series largely about or heavily involving in one way or another their son anxiety scroll flake loan squirrel flight's presence specifically in this arc is more of the deputy than the mother she spends time casually with bramblestar they share mice if anything is happening between them we are completely unaware of it something i want to mention about scrollflight's behavior and a vision of shadow specifically is that she's kind of toned down and this might just be because we're further removed from her not hearing about her as often but she's not quite as obviously independent as she was in previous arcs it's implied that throughout this arc she's just doing her job and seemingly doing it well maybe she's just getting older either way that brings us to scrollflight's hope remember bramblestar's storm where bramble is thinking about how great it is scroll flight contests him and that's why he made her deputy about how she's the best person for the job how she's capable and the best possible person for the position just you know yeah keep that in mind i should mention before i start this bit in particular that while discussing scroll flight's hope there will probably be some overlap with the video you might have seen by brightguardian akira on this topic if you look if you feel like some of this commentary seems like deja vu that might be why i'll link her video in the description so that you can see that as well scroll flight's hope opens with a conflict three moons after the last series ended the leaders and deputies are meeting to re-evaluate their borders after skyclan moved in as they walk to the meeting squirrelflight is taking in the moment the reminiscing about the month they spent together back in the new prophecy he mentions that it was nice before they had kids she says she would like to have them again keep in mind she's not asking here she's just presenting the idea simply mentions that she would like kits she gets an answer that doesn't really imply one way or another that he agrees she changes the subject tries to get him to frolic with her or something because let's pretend we're young and sneaking out of camp just makes me think that they're going to go hopping through flower fields at night like it's bambi he rejects this too he's too busy and this is too serious and that's fine but scroll flight's feeling dejected now and there's an implication that they haven't had fun together for a while scrollflight longs for his attention and she's trying to tell him that he seems to notice but he's trying to dismiss it because he's preoccupied with clan matters the meeting starts it's a discussion what do we do with the borders we've moved for skyclan but now everybody else is thrown off and have territories they cannot use along with having lost the ones that they do in the shuffle the other leaders want to fix this ramblestar doesn't he doesn't want land to be taken from him or from skyclan girlflight presents her own solution there's territory above thunderclan and shadowclan towards the moonpool they could have a boot-shaped territory with a narrow strip down to the lake they all discuss this idea but after the discussion bramblestar is pissed and scrollflight literally doesn't understand why from her perspective all she's done is present an alternative concept he starts yelling at her immediately she tries to defend her idea and makes the mistake of claiming there will be more kids to feed a new leaf he's lashing his tail he's been growling he responds more kits is that all you think about now keep in mind squirrelflight hadn't even asked she simply mentioned them when this sort of thing happens in an argument it's because the other person is deflecting he's going after this point which in context clearly isn't about squilf herself actually having kittens at all and is a good point within the conversation to not only take a low blow at scroll flight but also to change the topic this is something that is personal to her and he's brought it up again after she's already dropped it of course she responds don't you think about it don't you think about kids bramblestar i have kids alderheart and sparkpelt they're grown up now i know they're old enough to look after themselves why are you so desperate to be responsible for new lives isn't being deputy enough it should be but it's not i'm getting older with each season one day i won't be able to have any more kids i just want another litter before it's too late i know and of course i want kids just not as much as you do before i go on to what scrollflight says next which is an entire thing on its own i want to take apart this bit first of all after he says more kits he runs he runs away while she chases him and tries to continue the conversation he's accusatory why are you so desperate to be responsible for new lives isn't being deputy enough she answers him honestly she's getting older she feels like she's running out of time and his actions while talking make it clear that he doesn't want to be talking about this but here's the part that really holds people up squirrelflight asks don't you love me anymore and in context this goes by quickly the conversation moves on immediately from this point and it's not heavily lingered on just like bramblestar's questions earlier i've seen this contextualized a couple times on twitter and tumblr blogs as being a guilt trip i want to argue that it's simply a legitimate question squirrelflight has been feeling unloved scrollflight has been feeling neglected the conversation before has made it clear that he hasn't had time for her alone in a long time and on top of this he has just used the phrase just not as much as you do to refer to something she wants out of their relationship this isn't squirrel flight trying to get her way or trying to force him to have kits and that's easily proven a little further on what scrollflight wants out of the question is to learn if she's still loved and simply that meanwhile ramblestar had been throwing out accusations earlier in the conversation to bring it back around to why are you so desperate to be responsible for new lives and isn't being deputy enough these questions are presented because bramblestar finds what scrollflight wants to be unreasonable not because he's coming from a place of actual concern sure it's easy to point at don't you love me anymore and say that's a guilt trip that's manipulation if you somehow haven't been reading the rest of this conversation but if you consider it that way how could you ever consider the way bramblestar is acting to be in good faith even if we're to paint squirrelflight saying don't you love me anymore as some sort of clear wrong that doesn't erase the fact that she's not the person with any power in this situation her husband is the leader she holds no power over him she's currently being scolded for having something she wants out of the relationship a topic she didn't even bring up this time they were talking about the meeting and he brought it back around to how trivial her feelings about kittens were to deflect and use the topic to make her seem like she was being unreasonable the conversation from here turns to age bramblestar says he's getting older squirrelflight yells that this isn't true because he's got more lives she fears the gap in their longevity the book implies here that with multiple lives he will be living much longer squirrelflight worries about being replaced when she dies which is a very understandable fear cats like greystripe who lost their mates early came to love others eventually bramblestar then apologizes for bringing up the kits and admits he did it out of anger because he felt like she wasn't on his side at the meeting scrollflight insists that she was trying to find a solution and if you look at the conversation again that's all it seems to be while bramble is passionate about not moving territory scroflite seems to believe she's presenting an idea that will please him as well she has no way of knowing that she was doing anything wrong and it seemed to be an open discussion up until that point not an us versus them situation bramblestar insists that her presenting a different opinion than him on the discussion was displaying weakness and that she should have presented it to him first which is okay maybe but that certainly wasn't the tone of the conversation it didn't even seem like she was arguing with anyone just presenting a hopeful idea nothing about what she did made thunderclan look or feel divided squirrelflight starts to argue on this point but she stops she asks if the reason bramblestar dismissed the idea of kittens was because he was mad at her ramblestar gazed at her his eyes round i'm sorry if i made it sound that way i do want to have kittens with you really her heart lifted yes if that's what you want squirrel flight stared at him there was resignation in his eyes grief twisted her belly as he stared back at her blankly she turned away i want you to want it too she could tell that he was saying that to appease her and throughout the rest of the book she never presents the idea of having more children to him again that's it that's the end she knows he doesn't want them despite him literally saying otherwise and doesn't push it further it haunts her she speaks about it with leaf pool but every time it's brought up past this point bramble stars doing it if skrillflight's end goal was simply kittens or she felt like she was entitled to kittens that would have been enough for her squirrelflight is saddened and goes and sleeps in the warriors den thinking about how she is replaceable and unimportant the warrior cat's equivalent of going to sleep on the couch she spends the next day thinking about how terrible she had been to bramblestar how she had overreacted she goes over the argument from the day before over again in her mind she feels guilty for wanting children she thinks about how bramblestar implied she wasn't being a good deputy and although she says that she has the right to her own opinion she is only blaming herself and you might be thinking hey that's kind of weird ramblestar just spent the night putting her down why is she thinking of herself like this and blaming herself so fully for the argument about children that's easy scroll flight is in an abusive relationship we've already seen the cycle of abuse at work here and if you've never heard of it here's a quick rundown i'm going to explain this very simply so if you want a more detailed overview of this i will put links in the description as i'm sure learning about abuse from a warrior cat's youtuber is not ideal and you might be thinking here this is a cat book you can't apply this sort of rhetoric to their relationships but there is tons of much more obvious abuse in warrior cats we see children abused by their parents in cases like rain flower and crooked kit we see abusive relationships completely intended with cats like ragged star and yellowfang so here is a simplified version of the cycle of vibios the first is tension the abuser is upset by something usually the victim can tell and feels anxious and tries not to make the situation worse the second is abuse the abuser lashes out either physically or emotionally trying to control or punish the victim and three is honeymoon or a peace phase the abuser shows regret for the abuse and tries to make things right this is followed by a period of normalcy where nothing bad is happening and obviously this is a simplification and obviously not every abusive relationship follows this pattern but with bramblestar and squirrelflight we can run this through a few times squirrelflight and brambleclaw disagree about hawkfrost this makes him upset he lashes out by treating her poorly and finding excuses to scold and talk down to her he makes up with her and treats her well after the badger attack brambleclaw learns that scroflight hid the kitten's parentage from him he punishes her by giving her the silent treatment for an entire year he makes up with her and treats her well after the dark forest attack i would go through this a third time but i'm not quite done with scroll flight's hope but i want to talk about one more thing before i dive back into that why does squirrelflight want kittens this is answered in the book easily enough she wants to feel needed she wants to feel like she's contributing like she's important to someone clearly she doesn't seem important to bramble star she's worried about having no legacy worried about growing old in fact her wanting more children is something that's very heavily outlined in the book it's well backed up but let me bring something else up something that probably wasn't intended by the authors but a coincidence that sure does bother me every time there has been normalcy in their relationship after a big conflict they have had a litter of kittens the duration of their kid's childhood and for a little while after squirrelflight and bramblestar are happy and normal and loving after that each time they have fallen back into a conflict that leads to bramblestar's abuse period it's super easy to read this book as if scrollflight is associating motherhood with normalcy and love in her relationship and that bothers me anyways back to the book squirrelflight decides on her own that she wants to check the above territories to see if there'll be suitable living space for skyclan she meets with leafstar to scout the area she doesn't run this past ramble star squirrelflight is going behind her leader's back because she believes she's doing the right thing for everyone she feels guilty about going behind his back but when caught by her daughter's patrol she tells her not to let bramblestar know they find suitable territory proving squirrelflight's theory right but they also find a group of huge nomadic necromancer she cats who are currently waiting to give birth there unfortunately moonlight and the sisters decide to hold them hostage as squirrelflight is kept she begins to get serious anxiety about her actions she's worried about bramblestar's anger and feeling guilty about both the harm the warriors will do to the sisters and the trouble she must be putting people through to look for her two days later when they come to rescue her she stops them from attacking they fight again on the way home it ends with bramblestar giving her a huge restriction you can rely on me the ground seemed to shift beneath squirrelflight's paws didn't he trust her anymore not when you behaved like a reckless apprentice ramblestar glared at her from now on i want you to run every decision by me no more going off on your own ridiculous missions no more arguing with me at gatherings if a deputy can't support her own leader perhaps she's not fit to be deputy with that bramblestar pulled ahead his shoulders stiff and followed his clanmates on a path wound into the wooded ravine some of the thunderclan warriors shot squirrelflight sympathetic glances it only made her feel more wretched did my own mate just threatened to replace me as deputy she trailed behind bramblestar is again punishing scrollflight and treating her like a child something that he has been doing since the beginning of their relationship squirrelflight has endangered herself and leaves star by going off on their own but she did it truly believing that it was the solution to their problem and that bramblestar wouldn't have allowed it she acted on her instincts behind the back of an unreasonable leader and she was correct to do so at this point in the book it's easy to forget that the alternatives were both terrible either the clans continue on poorly shuffled territories where they cannot hunt and would likely starve on or they would take back their original suitable territories driving out skyclan again bramblestar's insistence that keeping the territories as they are is best for protecting themselves and skyclan is bogus there's literally no question that the other cats wouldn't have been happy with that arrangement regardless of if or not the new territories were devised by tiger star ii he wouldn't hesitate to use force to take them back and he says as much later in the book and with the other clan leaders likely agreeing with him it's a recipe for disaster it honestly feels like reading this book that bramblestar is more concerned with the concept of being the one in the wrong than with actually helping anyone he tells squirrelflight the deputy that he praised in the past for her independence who he respected and appreciated for being good at her job that from now on she needs to be completely obedient or she's unsuitable for the position he's restricting her he's taking as complete a control over her as he can the chapter ends with the sentence she could sense that bramblestar wasn't going to forgive her anytime soon but if this was just about not wandering off and not arguing at gatherings it would be one thing ramblestar is now making her run every element of her job past him he's making her run the next day's dawn patrol structure by him arbitrarily making a point to insult the way she does it she notices that he's being unreasonable and says is that how it's going to be now are you going to make up mouse brained rules just to prove you're in charge you're my deputy i need to know that you can follow orders or you'll replace me i know i get the message i need to know i can trust you of course you can trust me i love you and i love my clan i would never do anything to hurt you or them this little trust exercise that bramblestar is performing is an excuse he's angry he's taking out that anger and he's done this to her multiple times before it's followed by this thought ramble star is supposed to be her mate why couldn't he talk to her instead of making her feel small good question scroll flight sparkpelt stops by to announce that she's pregnant ramblestar takes a break from controlling and scolding scrollflight to make her aware that he can tell that she's not entirely happy with the announcement as a cat who wanted to have more kits she snaps back with and i know you don't and takes off immediately feeling guilty about being rude to the man who's been treating her like foxton she expresses her guilt to leave pool she feels like she doesn't deserve to want something she feels like she'll never be happy again i don't know how to express properly how horrible and familiar these ideas are squirrelflight thinks like an abuse victim she acts like an abuse victim just as much as bramblestar acts like an abuser just reading leafpool and scrollflight talking about it i feel myself desperately wishing the cats in this book could understand or recognize these behaviors like listen to the snippet of conversation bramblestar says he's wondering whether he should replace me as deputy and he's making up rules to test me he doesn't trust my judgment anymore he just needs to calm down he was really worried when you went missing he thought you might be dead everything i do seems wrong at the moment he tried to be kind to me just now when sparkfelt told us her news and he snarled at him there's an understanding here from leafpool that bramblestar is acting unreasonable there's a taste of the fact that he's acting this way because he isn't calm but she justifies it she treats his punishing threatening behavior as normal but i guess why wouldn't she he's the clan leader leaffool can't do anything about this nobody can ramble star is in such a position that scrollflight can never truly escape this without leaving her entire life behind but leafpool comforts her and that's probably the best she can do either way girlflight and bramblestar keep up appearances so that the clan doesn't know that they're on bad terms they sleep in separate little i love lucy nests in the following chapter skrillflight's patrol finds one of the sisters wounded after a fight squirrelflight knows that she will die without medical help and chooses to bring her back to camp everyone around her knows bramblestar isn't going to be happy about this they anticipate his anger scrollflight as before knows she's doing the right thing and brings sunrise back to camp anyways and of course he isn't happy about it he contests scrollflight every step of the way and feels no empathy for sunrise he refused sunrise medical attention on the idea that tigerstar would be upset by it the same tiger star by the way that he was already distrusting and on bad terms with at the beginning of the book not to mention bramblestar and thunderclan as a whole has a track record up until this point of taking in cats who need help his sudden refusal in this situation has everything to do with his reignited anger towards scrollflight now that she's disobeyed his authority again scrollflight herself notices that this is out of character thinking when did bramblestar become so heartless did he really believe that clan unity was worth paying for in another cat's blood ramblestar sends jayfeather and alderheart to the moonpool to get starclan's approval to treat sunrise meanwhile the shecat's wound is becoming infected in camp when the two medicine cats come back with an unclear answer bramblestar yells at them and reinterprets the message to suit his needs when scrollflight insists on helping the cat anyways we get a true guilt trip remember the earlier one squirrelflight's don't you love me anymore line it's emotional it comes after bramblestar has just brought up something personal to her to discount her opinions it's a response directly to him trying to trivialize her opinions and emotions this next bit is different scrollflight is insisting it's morally correct to save a dying cat's life ramblestar is saying we should let this person die so that tension doesn't escalate between them and shadowclan leafpull insists on treating her bramblestar stops her physically intimidating her to prevent her from leaving squirrelflight pushes herself in between her mate and her sister legitimately believing that he is willing to fight her and bramblestar says this we can't keep doing this if you keep undermining my authority you could destroy the whole clan i have to do what i think is right even if it costs you your clan thunderclan is stronger than that at least i hope it is if our future depends on letting a cat die then it's not the clan i thought it was why are you doing this to me you're my deputy you're my mate you're supposed to support me being a good deputy doesn't mean blindly following orders it means standing up for what i believe and this time i believe i'm right ramble star has been misusing his authority to punish scroll flight unfairly the scene where he tries to micromanage patrols is proof of that when she continues to push for what she believes in he takes to a different tactic squirrelflight wasn't trying to make ramblestar guilty or get his sympathy by asking if he loved her but this is blatantly him trying that angle it's his last attempt at control it doesn't work this time and he gives in but he gives her a threat afterwards starclan wanted unity among the clans he snarled thanks to you there's not even unity in thunderclan anymore he's failed to dominate her and he wants her to feel as bad as possible this is a proper guilt trip ramblestar is trying to make her feel bad about something she's done i am trying so hard not to go over every little thing that happens in this book but it's it's hard bramble star and squirrel flight seem to make up a little in chapter 12. squirrelflight anticipates him being angry but he's had a sudden change in temperament and apologizes the happiness this causes sqwealth doesn't last very long though as bramblestar very quickly implies he's willing to put the sisters in danger for what was previously squirrelflight's plan in chapter 14 when sparkfelt bramble and scrollflight's pregnant daughter is having anxiety about her mate being sick and shadowclan possibly poisoning them she blames bramblestar squirrelflight stands up for bramblestar here sparkpelt adds this why are you sticking up for him he's hardly spoken to you in days he's been treating you like an apprentice and you're defending him why are you being such a mouse heart mouse heart means coward by the way i'm just gonna translate that for you with my like crazy warrior cat's knowledge i've been recording for an hour while sparkpelt is a bit sick at the time this at the very least indicates that others are aware that squirrelflight's relationship with brambleclaw is unhealthy additionally the treating you like an apprentice line specifically is something that's come up before deputy or not agreeable or not ramblestar doesn't see scrollflight as if she's on the same level as he is when he's upset with her he treats her as if he would a child assigning her jobs usually for the clan's children talking down to her giving her the kind of restrictions and punishments a parent gives a child who's been caught acting out in chapter 19 when talking about sparkpelt's new kits leafpool asked squirrelflight why she hasn't properly made up with bramblestar we get this exchange have you talked to bramblestar yet it's not easy why not he's your mate what if i ask him about kids and he still doesn't want them as much as i do or i ask him about the sisters and he says they have to leave i know he's still angry that i went off and found them in the first place i'm sure he thinks that it's my fault that the clans are fighting the clans are always fighting i guess but this time bramblestar blames me are you sure i'm not sure of anything right now why don't you ask him it might make things worse will they get better if you keep quiet maybe scrollflight is afraid of bramblestar's anger she believes that communication might make things worse between them even though she desperately wants to discuss these topics in a healthy relationship she wouldn't be having these kinds of hang-ups in chapter 21 they come to a confrontation ramble star wants to send a patrol to scare the sisters off of their territory scroll flight doesn't squirrelflight resigns herself unable to stop this he asks her if he can depend on her tomorrow when they go to evict them she refuses saying she can't support this and she doesn't she thinks that it's wrong to try and force them to move for their own gain especially when one of them is kidding she doesn't have blind faith in a morally wrong decision you're my deputy i expect you to support me no matter what how can my clan trust my decisions when you constantly challenge me you're their leader they'll support you no matter how wrong you are so you doubt your clan too that's not what i said it's what you meant you haven't understood what i meant for a moon if you did we wouldn't be arguing now and you wouldn't be leading a battle patrol against an expectant queen is that all that matters to you some rogunder kits there's more to life than kits and there's more to life than fighting of course there is do you think i don't know that you're acting as if borders and battles are the only thing you care about and you're acting like the sisters are the only cats you care about bramblestar brings up kittens again here just like he does in the first chapter to trivialize her argument no matter what scrollflight says as this goes forward ramblestar isn't budging bramblestar has no justifications for why they can't wait until the sisters leave he justifies it by saying he's performing the will of starclan but we know this is untrue starclan's message was vague and kind of hinted the opposite then squirrelflight begins feeling sorry for bramblestar she tells him that she loves him he tells her that he loves her as well she's accompanying the patrol to chase out the sisters even though she knows it to be wrong because she suddenly believes displaying her loyalty to her abuser is more important than doing what she thinks is right soon after she is pulled into a nightmare about kits dying in battle she recognizes this as a prophetic warning as many dreams and warrior cats are and goes to check if sparkpeld's children are okay discussing this would leave pool makes them realize that it was moonlight's kids who are endangered and they take off ahead of the patrol anyway obviously when bramblestar catches them there he is unhappy they're going to attack then they're not then squirrelflight dies in a landslide as a scary ghost scrollflight overhears bramblestar regretting the terrible way he's treated her all book now that she's dead much like in the new prophecy and omen of the stars it takes a terrible crisis for him to realize he needs to stop treating her badly girlflight comes back to life for bramblestar and for her daughter spark belt who still needs her paw steps sounded outside and bramble star crashed through the brambles at the entrance she's awake fear glittered in his gaze is she okay she will be alderhart moved aside and squirrelflight met bramblestar's gaze her heart leaped as his face softened he suddenly looked like the young warrior she'd fallen in love with as he rushed towards her she stretched out her muzzle breathing in the warmth and the scent of him as he pressed his cheek against hers he began to lick her head as urgent and gentle as a mother lapping her kit she purred i'm sorry i scared you don't be sorry he pulled away and looked into her eyes don't be sorry for anything i was so worried i love you so much we should never have let things get so bad i'll never let it happen again just a quick note about this even here bramblestar's language is manipulative even though he tells her not to apologize he doesn't take the blame for the situation and implies both of them are at fault they make up completely this time he acts extra loving and extra caring he stands up for her at the gathering the idea of having more children has passed with his newfound affection and she now feels that her motherly instincts or whatever it was she wanted out of children can be fulfilled by her daughter's litter and others squirrelflight sat down to rest her leg why had she wanted kits of her own so much there would always be kids in the clan it didn't matter if they weren't hers a clan was like kin and their kits would be her kits too the sisters weren't the only cats to believe a kit belonged to every cat had she forgotten that warriors had been helping to raise each other's kits for moons she purred to herself that would never change bramble star doesn't bring up kits either probably because he doesn't want them this book bramblestar's actions are more blatant and obvious than any time beforehand this also follows the previously discussed cycle of abuse bramblestar gets angry he abuses scrollflight and then when things reach a breaking point in this case the danger of her death he makes everything nice and happy and wonderful again and sure maybe a person dying isn't the same as a person leaving another but the behavior mirrors abuse nearly exactly squirrel flight may be a little wild in this book going off on her own trying to fix problems behind his back but everything she's doing is the correct action to take meanwhile his anger and stubbornness clouds his judgment and causes him to take the wrong path repeatedly which just makes it so scrollflight needs to do more rule breaking to make up for it he even purposefully sets her up to fail making up rules about patrols just to find something wrong with the way she does things he wants excuses to put her down the difference between brambleclaw and the new prophecy belittling and yelling at scrollflight because he's upset with her about hawkfrost and bramblestar here is nothing more than the level of power he has over her and i'm not saying they planned this or had any grand scheme in mind to acknowledge brambleclaw's earlier abusive behaviors but that because bramblestar is written vaguely consistently in his interactions with scrollflight between these stories he's also consistently abusive towards her scrollflight is absolutely the victim in her relationship and always has been no matter how spunky no matter how horrible you can read into her actions you can't deny that she is not on the same level as brambleclaw not even close this isn't a both bad for each other situation this video has gone on so long that you've probably forgotten that that was what i was originally addressing scroll flight's sins are a puddle of water compared to a lake in every book where she's opposing him she is on the right side she is doing the right thing much like fireheart in the original series scrollflight is willing to break the rules of the clan for the benefit of what's good and right she was right about hawk frost she was right to take her sister's kits well kind of it was something that was later acknowledged not just by brambleclaw but by everyone she was right to try and solve skyclan's territory issue she was right to try and protect the sisters to make it seem like she has done something wrong by doing these things you're not just talking about fan perception but also twisting the very narrative of the text which presents scrollflight as the correct party in every one of these situations the only time where she's really truly been in the wrong was when she was acting jealous in ramblestar's storm something that wasn't particularly manipulative or serious that she got over on her own and rather quickly throughout scrollflight's hope squirrelflight acts like she doesn't feel like she deserves happiness she acts like she doesn't feel like she deserves kids she has no thoughts about lording her wants and needs over bramblestar not once every thought she has is being passed through a filter of guilt and shame for asking for something in her relationship and when it comes to bramblestar you're not fixing his character simply by selectively ignoring squirrelflight's hope on one hand scrollflight's hope isn't an out of character book for him and on the other his actions and other arcs are almost identical with just less power and control over his mate and keep in mind that abuse isn't always malicious people with a poor understanding of abuse will argue that scrollflight being disobedient or argumentative is on the same level as bramblestar's punishment but i don't know what to say beyond the fact that this is simply wrong the way he treats her continually is manipulative controlling and blatantly wrong additionally most abusers don't know or realize that their behavior is wrong they largely think that they are completely right to treat the subject of their abuse the way they do and bramblestar always does right up until the point where he's about to possibly lose squirrelflight through some terrible force and what drives me up a tree is that people want to call scrollflight things like entitled to justify her treatment sometimes based on the fact that she tagged along during the journey as a child and sure maybe she was entitled as skrullpaw the child but this is the cat who took her sister's children even though she desperately didn't want to lied to everyone even though she desperately didn't want to took months of punishment from her ex-mate in shame for doing those things when she was barely at fault for it sat down and accepted jesse might come to the clan and become ramble star's new mate and literally did the right thing when nobody else would even though it would be a million times easier to just shut up and do whatever bramblestar says this character is as far from entitled as you physically can be when people use this word recently though they're talking as if scrollflight felt entitled to children but this is more than proven wrong she asks once one single time after he brings it up unnecessarily it's on her mind constantly but she's afraid of being yelled at afraid of being rejected and never even touches the subject with her mate for the rest of her goddamn life with him and we're supposed to play pretend that she was entitled to them some people even go as far as to compare her to finley which shows a level of reading comprehension that i think is in a negative score what's wrong with finley isn't that he wanted children it's that he didn't take no for an answer he threatened and squirmed his way into trying to make twig branch into a mother squirrelflight gets an answer that is basically okay we'll have kits and rejects that because he doesn't want them as much as she does she feels like their relationship is unbalanced and it is but even if scrollflight was entitled even if scrollflight was entitled and bratty and annoying and disobedient she's still being abused and to say she deserves it or is just as bad for any of these factors is completely off the train tracks they're not on even terms at all even when scrollflight does things wrong she's doing them out of honesty saying don't you love me anymore after brambleclaw has literally brought her personal feelings into their business discussion adding her own thoughts during a meeting where ideas are literally being thrown around isn't undermining her leader and nobody but ramblestar saw it that way but bramblestar does things out of anger and the books outright confirmed this the characters claim he will be more reasonable when he calms down he stops being a jerk when things start going his way scrollflight thinks about how he is or will be angry all the time even if you like bramblestar even if you hate squirrelflight you don't need to deny this is happening and that's the weirdest thing about this the denial that this resembles almost perfectly a real-life abusive relationship even if it's not what the authors intended at all and i'm sure it's not what the authors intended it all what's on the page is literally domestic abuse and i'm not asking for anything here because largely squirrel flight is in the right and right now bramblestar is kind of half dead but what's done is done half of the plotlines i've talked about here are a decade old who knows where they're going with bramblestar and squirrelflight's characters from here on out i hope they don't get back together well i mean i hope ramblestar stays dead and then they don't get back together um but you know who knows i don't think ashford's a better alternative i don't think anybody feels that way i guess on some level i want justice for my little red cat but it's already much too late for any justice for scroll played

Channel: Moonkitti

Views: 545,088

Rating: 4.9358144 out of 5

Keywords: warrior cats, warriors

Id: pAv-CTp2AoQ

Length: 66min 46sec (4006 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020