Post by ʀᴀɪɴʟᴇᴀғ 🍁 on Nov 19, 2019 10:43:15 GMT -5
I'm referring to Oakheart's death and how you can prove RiverClan's lack of need to clarify Oakheart's death in the battle over Sunningrocks.
A possible way to have the truth revealed and keep continuity is taking the vague (from what I remember) statements from Tigerclaw and applying them vaguely as well to what is fact. Now, for the sake of keeping continuity, I'm invalidating Redtail's Debt, as it obviously ignores prioritised canon.
We know Oakheart died from a rockfall while battling ThunderClan. Given the fact that RiverClan never corrects the whole Tigerclaw slaying Oakheart, it can be considered that they never heard ThunderClan's full version or Tigerclaw made Oakheart's death appear as a freak accident in battle that he unintentionally caused. This would prevent tensions with RiverClan rising and cover his lie up. We never heard the story be told in complete detail in the presence of RiverClan from cats that were in the battle and Mudfur only confirmed that Oakheart died from a rockfall. It's just very possible Tigerclaw remained vague and only claimed credit to avoid errors in his story. However, his failure to elaborate helped cause his downfall. If he gave a detailed and bulletproof story that included Oakheart's accidental death being caused by Tigerclaw, then Fireheart would have little to go on.
As for Ravenpaw's version at a Gathering, I believe that Graystripe dismissing this version is easily what the other cats could do. Ravenpaw is an apprentice and to make himself seem like a better warrior, he could exaggerate the story and deal with the consequences later. Tigerclaw was indeed listening to Ravenpaw to make sure Ravenpaw wouldn't disrupt the narrative that Tigerclaw had originally told.
I don't think RiverClan would take major offense to Tigerclaw taking credit for Oakheart's death, as they would have called him out on his lie if someone would have seen it. Sometimes horrible things happen in battle and given the blind eye Leopardfur gives Tigerclaw, I'm not surprised RiverClan challenged ThunderClan.
What do you think on the possibility of this plothole not really being a plothole, but a matter that was never clarified correctly and outspokenly by the authors in or out of the series? We certainly have context clues to support an idea like this, so why do some consider it a plothole still?
