Nightcloud

I actually sorta like Nightcloud. I honestly feel bad for her.

Yeah, even though I've never been all that fond of Nightcloud, I did always like how she was portrayed in The Sight, minus the small moments of jealousy here and there and as you've said, even that was understandable given what was going on at the time.

It's a shame how every portrayal of her after this is that of an overly jealous, petty, and spiteful character who is partially responsible for how Breezepelt turned out. In The Sight, she actually acts like a mother should towards her child—firm, yet loving—and was shown to be grateful for both Lionpaw and Jaypaw after they heroically saved Heatherpaw and Breezepaw, and she even displayed some motherly affection for Lionpaw after he and Breezepaw nearly died.

Other than how she supported Mudclaw in Starlight , I feel like her personality was somewhat retconned if only to make Crowfeather and Leafpool more sympathetic, which honestly wouldn't surprise me at all if that were the case. I really would've loved to see more of this side of Nightcloud rather than the irritable warrior we usually see. Granted, we don't see her all that much to begin with, but most of her portrayals after The Sight aren't really all that pleasant either.

She's almost always unhappy, jealous, bitter, or snappy o.o" and I just don't like those kinds of characters.

I get she's just generally a bad-tempered character... and that's not inherently bad... but she's just so hard to read about. She rarely makes anyone's day better except for Breezepelt. Even her clanmates avoid her because of her toxic personality, no wonder she hasn't gotten a mate until Crowfeather. It just drives me insane how she demands everyone else around her to change yet she won't change herself.

Plus the whole "I need to have a kit in order to have self-worth" rubbed me the wrong way at the start.

Yes, I agree. I don't think she acted like a psycho at all. Imagine if your mate had loved a medicine cat from different clan all along and even had three kits with her and now he lies into your own eyes that hebdoesn't live her. I would probably be just as dramatic. I also have this headcanon that the reason Night is so overprotective is that Criwfeather wasn't there to help her with difficult birth.

Trivia fact, in french, Nightcloud is called Beauty of the Night :3

I personally loved Nightcloud. Imo she's not as bad as people make her out to be. She was a better parent than Crowfeather, and a faithful mate, it was Crow honestly that didn't seem like he was doing much. He barely involved himself with his own son, and when ever Nightcloud was trying to be "loving" toward him, he's always so cold. I don't blame her for becoming bitter, she did at one point try to make Crow love her, or at least pay more attention to their son. Also it's nothing new, women go out there and get married mostly because they want to have kids, like I see nothing wrong with that. I also take the guides with a grain of salt, there's wayyy too many inconsistancies in them, like what happened with Ashfur and how he died, or how Hollyleaf died, etc.

Also for people saying she's always bad tempered, that's not really true. Almost every time we see her it's because of drama involved things. Before the secret came out, and Breezepelt was still younger, she was most nice, calmer, also pretty valiant, she was an okay cat. But as things progress, I find her behavior, again, to be reasonable and understandable. Imagine staying in a relationship, that turned out to be loveless because the man you tried to make love you is in love with another woman, and he is cold toward you and your only son. Also you find out all this at a gathering, utterly being embarrassed, ashamed, angry, and confused at the revelation. Your family suddenly becomes talk of the town, and not in a good way, and your husband has been keeping this big secret from you for a long time, just using you and your son to seem loyal to his clan. Personally, I'd realistically feel the same way as Nightcloud. I'd be angry at Crowfeather for how he treated me and my son, and I'd be angry at the woman that he still loved. Personally I think Leafpool is just as much to blame, she was a medicine cat, and from a different clan, she knew what she was doing was wrong and still did it. This is why I have more sympathy for Nightcloud over Leafpool.

She just... gives Breezepelt bad parenting examples right in front of him. As a mother, you should give them good examples for behavior and raise them correctly. Like that one time when Leafpool was with Crowfeather, Nightcloud literally clawed Crowfeather away from her, screaming at him. And Breezepelt wailed when they were arguing. I actually felt sorry for him during this scene and I don't even like him.

I guess until after the truth came out, that's when Nightcloud changed. It makes sense because in OotS that's when we got to see more of her negative behavior. She was more hostile around Leafpool and Crowfeather's other kids. I do believe she truly loves Breezepelt, but she doesn't give him good examples about good behavior.