Thoughts Rainflower?

Rainflower is an abusive brat

She can go die in a hole

Everyone dislikes her
except for the apologists.

I once saw someone claim that she was 'heartbroken' and that's why she disowned Crookedstar. what even?

Well, my thoughts on Rainflower is one the most misunderstood cats, alongside with Scourge and Ashfur.

When harm came to Crookedstar she could not be in control and keep him safe his whole life.  she couldn't protect him while she was on the inside. It ate her up, her only solution was to pretend he didn't exist.

Any cat, any mother who loved their kit. As much as she loved Crookedstar would have done the same thing.

Neutral, border with like.

I find her to be realistic to a degree. I was actually glad that for once, there was a character that is not flawless. Not all mothers are as loving as Squirrelflight, Goldenflower or Ferncloud. Some are truly just cold and heartless-looking, and that is a reality. It gives some depth to warriors as a series.

Rainflower is no better than Millie, duh.

I agree, and I hate Millie a lot! 

Rainflower is evil and abusive and neglectful and I think she is full of crap. 

I agree. She only cared about what a cat looked like outside, and ignored what they were like inside. 

I really don't like how she was mean to Crookedstar when he was a kit. But honestly, it made me think. I actually have a theory:
So Rainflower got manipulated by a Dark Forest cat. They didn't train her because she wasn't good enough,but they think her kit is. So they manipulate her to be cruel to Stormkit, saying that now that he has a crooked jaw, he is never gonna be the strong,handsome warrior she wanted him to be,so he will be more influenced to be trained by Mapleshade. After she finds this out, she tells them to stop training Crookedjaw. Because she says she is going to tell Crooked jaw about the Dark Forest, they decide to kill her off by making her hit her head on a rock.

This is just a fan made theory. I honestly hope that she gets her own super edition or novella to explain why she was so needlessly cruel to Crookedstar

That's a really interesting psychoanalysis, and I think I mostly agree.

Some dismiss Rainflower as petty and shallow, and it's true that she may have had some need for good social standing (I mean, who doesn't?). But I feel like that's an overly simplistic and equally petty explanation for what she's done. If she really were that shallow, then why did she praise her kits for being "brave" when they broke the Clan rules by leaving camp, which definitely affected their social reputation negatively for a time? It does not add up.

I'm not saying she was a particularly good mother. But when people claim she's abusive, I can't agree. While neglect is a form of abuse, Wikipedia defines neglect as the "deficit in meeting a child's basic needs, including the failure to provide adequate health care, supervision, clothing, nutrition, housing as well as their physical, emotional, social, educational and safety needs." I mean, half of these things are already provided by the Clan (housing, safety, social, etc.), and it's not like Rainflower wanted him kicked out in order to neglect his needs (in fact, she wanted him to shelter in the safe, warm nursery, just not near her). I mean, you could make an argument for emotional needs, but Crookedstar had his father to provide those, so there isn't a deficiency in meeting his needs.

Instead, I see a mother who spoiled her kits too much, and some parents have a hard time saying "no" or putting a foot down for their children because they love them and want to be the reason for their happiness. After seeing her kit get injured, which seemed like he would never fit in or be happy later in life, Rainflower probably partially blamed herself for not being able to provide for her kit. 

In that sense, there is pride and stubbornness coming into play. Rainflower is psychologically unable to compromise for her failure to provide her kit happiness, and as a result would rather pretend her mistake never happened. That means ignoring the cause of her failure, and instead work harder on making her other son happy (which we definitely see, she ignored Crookedkit but provided more affection for Oakkit).

With that being said, I don't think all mothers will do this. Millie is a living example of the contrary, after all. I think Rainflower had her own personality flaws and was unable to take the correct action as a parent. I'm glad she and Crookedstar talked things out.

P.S. I'm not excusing Rainflower at all. What she did was poor parenting, and I think it's reasonable if you think she was neglectful, even if I may disagree with this facet. She does deserve a realistic reason, however poorly-judged it is.

I'm neutral on her. I don't like what she did to her son, but at the same time, so many other cats have done much worse… Furthermore, she's a more realistic example in Warriors... Realistic in that in the real world, many animals will abandon their young if there's something wrong with them… That's effectively what she did to Crookedstar… It's definitely something different than expected in a twisted kind of way... And at least they reconciled in Starclan…