Fobidden Relationships
Jan 19, 2018 8:28:17 GMT -5
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*Faith*, โ
Maplefrostโ
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Post by ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ท๐พ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ต on Jan 19, 2018 8:28:17 GMT -5
So, I've been re-reading the series, and something that came to mind recently is that, with the exception of Mapleshade, no cat has ever been directly punished for being in a forbidden relationship. Oakstar's strict reign aside, I suspect the events of Mapleshade's Vengeance is the reason why this is the case. After all, he didn't punish Squirrelwhisker, and Eaglestorm was implied to have joined ThunderClan anyway, just like how Dovewing joined ShadowClan.
Now yes, there have been punishments. Not just to the cats who were in a forbidden relationship, but their kits as well. Not only were Mapleshade and her kits banished, but her kits also drowned not long after, her mate was apparently cheating on her, and she wasn't even allowed to stay in RiverClan for the night. And as a result of his betrayal, Mapleshade vowed to cause harm to Appledusk's descendants.
Eaglestorm and Squirrelwhisker's relationship is unknown, but it's possible Eaglestorm and Windflight weren't trusted among their ThunderClan Clanmates, at least at first anyway. Windflight also lost his first mate Rainfur, and later his daughter Sweetpaw. His son Tawnyspots had to retire from his deputy position.
Featherstorm lost her mate after he was killed by their own son (which was probably for the best) and said sons were teased for being half kittypet (even though no one knew if this was actually true except for Yellowfang). She was later forced to become an elder and practically exiled with the rest of ShadowClan's elders. Her son Raggedstar was later killed by his own son, her sons with Blizzardwing died young, and her daughter Dawncloud lost kits of her own.
Fallowtail lost her kits for a brief time until Hailstar stole them back from WindClan, so Reedfeather ended up losing them. Her daughters lost kits of their own, Willowbreeze died of greencough, and Graypool developed dementia in her old age and later died due to a head injury.
Yellowfang lost her mate (again, probably for the best), two daughters, and her only son grew up to be a tyrant who accused her of murdering her younger siblings and banished her.
Bluestar had to give up her kits and lost Mosskit while taking them to RiverClan, and Mistyfoot and Stonefur hated her when they found out about their heritage. Meanwhile, Oakheart was killed by rocks and accused of killing Redtail. Stonefur later died defending Stormpaw and Featherpaw, and Misystar lost three kits and later nearly lost her remaining son and deputy.
While they were never mates, Firestar and Spottedleaf still had feelings for each other. Spottedleaf died before Firestar became a warrior and watched him take Sandstorm as a mate. She later died a second time while protecting Sandstorm.
Graystripe lost Silverstream and later his kits when they were in different Clans, and later lost Feathertail, who died young while defending the Tribe from Sharptooth. Stormfur isn't even with the Clans anymore.
Tigerstar lost Sasha, Tadpole died, Mothwing was manipulated by her brother for moons and this caused her to not believe in StarClan, and Hawkfrost turned evil before getting killed by Brambleclaw twice.
Onestar lost Smoke, most of their kits died, and their remaining kit grew up to become evil with a vendetta against him. Both cats later drowned to their deaths.
Okay, I'm sort of cheating with this one since it wasn't exactly forbidden in the way the others were, but Leafstar and Billystorm nearly lost their kits when Sol kidnapped them. Billystorm, Firefern, and Stormheart also died later on.
They weren't Clan cats, but Red and Harley's relationship still counts, and it ended with Red's death.
Crowfeather lost both Feathertail and Leafpool, and was later ostracized by his Clan. Leafpool herself lost her mate, her kits, her mentor, stepped down as medicine cat, and watched Hollyleaf die. Lionblaze lost Heathertail and nearly lost Cinderheart, Jayfeather was born blind and can't even be with Half Moon until he dies, both brothers were nearly killed by Breezepelt, and Hollyleaf went mad for a brief time before exiling herself to the tunnels and later returning, only to die soon after while protecting Ivypool from Hawkfrost. Crowfeather's son Breezepelt had an estranged relationship with his father and was later manipulated by the Dark Forest.
Beechfur and Gorsetail's relationship is unknown, but you could argue that briefly losing Sedgekit, Thistlekit, and Swallowkit when the three kits went into the tunnels was their punishment. Swallowtail and Thistleheart also died in the Great Battle, and Gorsetail's granddaughter Larkwing trained in the Dark Forest. And whether they were mates or not, Swallowtail also lost Antpelt. Beechfur might've also died during the drought, since he hasn't appeared since The Fourth Apprentice.
Dovewing and Tigerheart nearly watched their kits die or get trapped.
And then there's also divided loyalties in general.
But like I said, not a single one of these cats was punished directly except for Mapleshade. The others were "punished," but these punishments had more to do with forces out of anyone's control, or by the cats involved themselves. Another thing I'd like to point out is that most of the cats who did have forbidden relationships ended up having happy lives later on (again, with the exception of Mapleshade).
Eaglestorm still got to be with his mate and son if the implications of him becoming a ThunderClan cat are anything to go by, and his bloodline is still running strong in ThunderClan.
Featherstorm still managed to move on by taking Blizzardwing as a mate and even had kits with him.
Fallowtail got her kits back and lived long enough to become an elder. Reedfeather stayed deputy of WindClan even after his relationship with Fallowtail was discovered.
Raggedstar became leader of ShadowClan before he died, and Yellowfang found a home in ThunderClan and had a loving relationship with Cinderpelt and Firestar.
Bluestar became leader of ThunderClan and is still thought of as being a noble leader to her Clan, Oakheart's name was cleared, and both cats are mates again in StarClan.
Firestar moved on and became ThunderClan's leader, and Spottedleaf is still respected by her birth Clan as a great medicine cat.
Graystripe was deputy for a brief time, moved on by taking a new mate, and became a grandfather twice.
Sasha became a kittypet again.
Onestar moved on with his life, became leader of WindClan, and died a hero.
Billystorm moved to SkyClan after the Sol incident.
Harley became the new leader of Dodge's group after the latter died.
Leafpool is a medicine cat again and has trained three apprentices, and Crowfeather is deputy.
Gorsetail seems to be a respected warrior within her Clan.
Tigerheart became leader of ShadowClan, and Dovewing is now in the same Clan as him.
Another thing I noticed is that there's always at least one cat who knows about the forbidden relationship, but every time that cat is confronted, that only seems to make them more determined to believe that their love wasn't wrong.
Mapleshade didn't seem all that worried about the consequences even when Appledusk did, and the same thing happened when Ravenwing confronted her.
Sagewhisker knew about Yellowfang and Raggedstar, but didn't do much to stop the relationship and only got involved after Yellowfang had given birth, trying to keep her away from Brokenkit.
Fireheart knew about Graystripe and Silverstream and confronted both of them about it, but he couldn't dissuade them. The same goes for Crookedstar when he confronted Silverstream. Mistyfoot also knew, and she at least also disapproved of the relationship. As revealed by Bluestar, she also at least suspected what was going on, but didn't get involved because she wanted Graystripe to figure things out on his own.
Echosong told Leafstar that she couldn't take Billystorm as a mate because of her duties as Clan leader.
Stick's overprotectiveness in general led Red to run away to join Harley.
Stormfur tried to warn Feathertail, using their own parents as an example, but she also refused to stop.
Cinderpelt confronted Leafpool, but she didn't listen and it even led to Cinderpelt attacking her when Leafpool said she knew nothing about being in love.
Both Hollypaw and Cinderpaw knew about Lionpaw and Heatherpaw, and Hollypaw even threatened to tell Firestar, but Lionpaw also didn't listen. It's implied that Breezepelt at least knew that Lionblaze used to like Heathertail. Jayfeather didn't know until after they broke things off.
Ivypaw confronted Dovepaw, but she didn't listen and it was also when tensions were high between them and I honestly can't remember if Ivypool confronted her about it again besides implying that Dovewing get back together with Bumblestripe in the bonus scene of Shattered Sky.
Bluestar might be the only exception since, while Snowfur at least suspected, this was moons before she finally admitted to herself to liking Oakheart, and any meeting they had before Fourtrees was more accidental than planned. Goosefeather also knew and was the one to suggest to Bluestar that she give up her kits to become leader. Thistleclaw might've known when Bluefur tried to stop him from attacking Oakheart for being on ThunderClan's side of the border, and even then this was after she and Oakheart agreed to go their separate ways.
And that's another thing, sometimes forbidden relationships don't become known until after the damage has already been done, and there are times where leaders don't find out about it at all either. For example, Sagewhisker and Fireheart were the only cats who knew about Yellowfang and Raggedstar. And the rest of the Clans didn't even know about Bluestar and Oakheart until after they were both dead.
Graystripe and Silverstream weren't found out by the other Clans until after their kits were born, and the same goes for Mapleshade and Fallowtail.
Stick found out about Red and Harley because he saw them together.
Crowfeather's relationship with Feathertail wasn't known to other cats besides their friends until after Feathertail died, and his relationship with Leafpool didn't get out to many cats until after they tried to run away. Hollyleaf revealing the secret of her heritage only made things worse.
The only cats who knew about Lionpaw and Heatherpaw were Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, Cinderheart, and Breezepelt.
Tigerheart and Dovewing's feelings weren't known until at least Shattered Sky when they were always spending time together, and even then it didn't become known to other cats until they had already left the Clans.
As demonstrated with Graystripe, sometimes one of the cats will see their lover's Clanmates as, well, Clanmates, instead of enemies. And like I said, if someone tries to get involved, that only makes them more determined to see each other. Exile is too extreme and apprentice duties are too light. There's also separating the kits if they have any, but that just seems cruel.
In my opinion, switching Clans seems to be like the best option, besides just breaking up entirely, anyway. It seemed to work well for Eaglestorm and Squirrelwhisker, and the worst that could have happened is Eaglestorm being distrusted at first.
Now yes, there have been punishments. Not just to the cats who were in a forbidden relationship, but their kits as well. Not only were Mapleshade and her kits banished, but her kits also drowned not long after, her mate was apparently cheating on her, and she wasn't even allowed to stay in RiverClan for the night. And as a result of his betrayal, Mapleshade vowed to cause harm to Appledusk's descendants.
Eaglestorm and Squirrelwhisker's relationship is unknown, but it's possible Eaglestorm and Windflight weren't trusted among their ThunderClan Clanmates, at least at first anyway. Windflight also lost his first mate Rainfur, and later his daughter Sweetpaw. His son Tawnyspots had to retire from his deputy position.
Featherstorm lost her mate after he was killed by their own son (which was probably for the best) and said sons were teased for being half kittypet (even though no one knew if this was actually true except for Yellowfang). She was later forced to become an elder and practically exiled with the rest of ShadowClan's elders. Her son Raggedstar was later killed by his own son, her sons with Blizzardwing died young, and her daughter Dawncloud lost kits of her own.
Fallowtail lost her kits for a brief time until Hailstar stole them back from WindClan, so Reedfeather ended up losing them. Her daughters lost kits of their own, Willowbreeze died of greencough, and Graypool developed dementia in her old age and later died due to a head injury.
Yellowfang lost her mate (again, probably for the best), two daughters, and her only son grew up to be a tyrant who accused her of murdering her younger siblings and banished her.
Bluestar had to give up her kits and lost Mosskit while taking them to RiverClan, and Mistyfoot and Stonefur hated her when they found out about their heritage. Meanwhile, Oakheart was killed by rocks and accused of killing Redtail. Stonefur later died defending Stormpaw and Featherpaw, and Misystar lost three kits and later nearly lost her remaining son and deputy.
While they were never mates, Firestar and Spottedleaf still had feelings for each other. Spottedleaf died before Firestar became a warrior and watched him take Sandstorm as a mate. She later died a second time while protecting Sandstorm.
Graystripe lost Silverstream and later his kits when they were in different Clans, and later lost Feathertail, who died young while defending the Tribe from Sharptooth. Stormfur isn't even with the Clans anymore.
Tigerstar lost Sasha, Tadpole died, Mothwing was manipulated by her brother for moons and this caused her to not believe in StarClan, and Hawkfrost turned evil before getting killed by Brambleclaw twice.
Onestar lost Smoke, most of their kits died, and their remaining kit grew up to become evil with a vendetta against him. Both cats later drowned to their deaths.
Okay, I'm sort of cheating with this one since it wasn't exactly forbidden in the way the others were, but Leafstar and Billystorm nearly lost their kits when Sol kidnapped them. Billystorm, Firefern, and Stormheart also died later on.
They weren't Clan cats, but Red and Harley's relationship still counts, and it ended with Red's death.
Crowfeather lost both Feathertail and Leafpool, and was later ostracized by his Clan. Leafpool herself lost her mate, her kits, her mentor, stepped down as medicine cat, and watched Hollyleaf die. Lionblaze lost Heathertail and nearly lost Cinderheart, Jayfeather was born blind and can't even be with Half Moon until he dies, both brothers were nearly killed by Breezepelt, and Hollyleaf went mad for a brief time before exiling herself to the tunnels and later returning, only to die soon after while protecting Ivypool from Hawkfrost. Crowfeather's son Breezepelt had an estranged relationship with his father and was later manipulated by the Dark Forest.
Beechfur and Gorsetail's relationship is unknown, but you could argue that briefly losing Sedgekit, Thistlekit, and Swallowkit when the three kits went into the tunnels was their punishment. Swallowtail and Thistleheart also died in the Great Battle, and Gorsetail's granddaughter Larkwing trained in the Dark Forest. And whether they were mates or not, Swallowtail also lost Antpelt. Beechfur might've also died during the drought, since he hasn't appeared since The Fourth Apprentice.
Dovewing and Tigerheart nearly watched their kits die or get trapped.
And then there's also divided loyalties in general.
But like I said, not a single one of these cats was punished directly except for Mapleshade. The others were "punished," but these punishments had more to do with forces out of anyone's control, or by the cats involved themselves. Another thing I'd like to point out is that most of the cats who did have forbidden relationships ended up having happy lives later on (again, with the exception of Mapleshade).
Eaglestorm still got to be with his mate and son if the implications of him becoming a ThunderClan cat are anything to go by, and his bloodline is still running strong in ThunderClan.
Featherstorm still managed to move on by taking Blizzardwing as a mate and even had kits with him.
Fallowtail got her kits back and lived long enough to become an elder. Reedfeather stayed deputy of WindClan even after his relationship with Fallowtail was discovered.
Raggedstar became leader of ShadowClan before he died, and Yellowfang found a home in ThunderClan and had a loving relationship with Cinderpelt and Firestar.
Bluestar became leader of ThunderClan and is still thought of as being a noble leader to her Clan, Oakheart's name was cleared, and both cats are mates again in StarClan.
Firestar moved on and became ThunderClan's leader, and Spottedleaf is still respected by her birth Clan as a great medicine cat.
Graystripe was deputy for a brief time, moved on by taking a new mate, and became a grandfather twice.
Sasha became a kittypet again.
Onestar moved on with his life, became leader of WindClan, and died a hero.
Billystorm moved to SkyClan after the Sol incident.
Harley became the new leader of Dodge's group after the latter died.
Leafpool is a medicine cat again and has trained three apprentices, and Crowfeather is deputy.
Gorsetail seems to be a respected warrior within her Clan.
Tigerheart became leader of ShadowClan, and Dovewing is now in the same Clan as him.
Another thing I noticed is that there's always at least one cat who knows about the forbidden relationship, but every time that cat is confronted, that only seems to make them more determined to believe that their love wasn't wrong.
Mapleshade didn't seem all that worried about the consequences even when Appledusk did, and the same thing happened when Ravenwing confronted her.
Sagewhisker knew about Yellowfang and Raggedstar, but didn't do much to stop the relationship and only got involved after Yellowfang had given birth, trying to keep her away from Brokenkit.
Fireheart knew about Graystripe and Silverstream and confronted both of them about it, but he couldn't dissuade them. The same goes for Crookedstar when he confronted Silverstream. Mistyfoot also knew, and she at least also disapproved of the relationship. As revealed by Bluestar, she also at least suspected what was going on, but didn't get involved because she wanted Graystripe to figure things out on his own.
Echosong told Leafstar that she couldn't take Billystorm as a mate because of her duties as Clan leader.
Stick's overprotectiveness in general led Red to run away to join Harley.
Stormfur tried to warn Feathertail, using their own parents as an example, but she also refused to stop.
Cinderpelt confronted Leafpool, but she didn't listen and it even led to Cinderpelt attacking her when Leafpool said she knew nothing about being in love.
Both Hollypaw and Cinderpaw knew about Lionpaw and Heatherpaw, and Hollypaw even threatened to tell Firestar, but Lionpaw also didn't listen. It's implied that Breezepelt at least knew that Lionblaze used to like Heathertail. Jayfeather didn't know until after they broke things off.
Ivypaw confronted Dovepaw, but she didn't listen and it was also when tensions were high between them and I honestly can't remember if Ivypool confronted her about it again besides implying that Dovewing get back together with Bumblestripe in the bonus scene of Shattered Sky.
Bluestar might be the only exception since, while Snowfur at least suspected, this was moons before she finally admitted to herself to liking Oakheart, and any meeting they had before Fourtrees was more accidental than planned. Goosefeather also knew and was the one to suggest to Bluestar that she give up her kits to become leader. Thistleclaw might've known when Bluefur tried to stop him from attacking Oakheart for being on ThunderClan's side of the border, and even then this was after she and Oakheart agreed to go their separate ways.
And that's another thing, sometimes forbidden relationships don't become known until after the damage has already been done, and there are times where leaders don't find out about it at all either. For example, Sagewhisker and Fireheart were the only cats who knew about Yellowfang and Raggedstar. And the rest of the Clans didn't even know about Bluestar and Oakheart until after they were both dead.
Graystripe and Silverstream weren't found out by the other Clans until after their kits were born, and the same goes for Mapleshade and Fallowtail.
Stick found out about Red and Harley because he saw them together.
Crowfeather's relationship with Feathertail wasn't known to other cats besides their friends until after Feathertail died, and his relationship with Leafpool didn't get out to many cats until after they tried to run away. Hollyleaf revealing the secret of her heritage only made things worse.
The only cats who knew about Lionpaw and Heatherpaw were Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, Cinderheart, and Breezepelt.
Tigerheart and Dovewing's feelings weren't known until at least Shattered Sky when they were always spending time together, and even then it didn't become known to other cats until they had already left the Clans.
As demonstrated with Graystripe, sometimes one of the cats will see their lover's Clanmates as, well, Clanmates, instead of enemies. And like I said, if someone tries to get involved, that only makes them more determined to see each other. Exile is too extreme and apprentice duties are too light. There's also separating the kits if they have any, but that just seems cruel.
In my opinion, switching Clans seems to be like the best option, besides just breaking up entirely, anyway. It seemed to work well for Eaglestorm and Squirrelwhisker, and the worst that could have happened is Eaglestorm being distrusted at first.