Post by halogen on Dec 17, 2019 18:48:31 GMT -5
Ok, this is basically an idea I had inspired by how a lot of people on the forum are talking about how ShadowClan never gets held responsible for their actions collectively and the series/StarClan always seems to insist on treating them just like any other Clan and that their bad actions are just the fault of their leaders. And combined with the whole plot of the latest arc being about cats trying to punish the cats who broke the code but were just let off for it before, I had an idea - what if the first half of AVOS essentially went like it did in canon, but instead of the second half just being filler and SkyClan drama, it was the TBC plot instead - except it's ShadowClan's leader being possessed after Rowanstar's death instead (Tigerheart is actually dead and can't be revived, but he is possessed while on the Moonstone and then given eight lives. But possessed Tigerstar isn't just obviously a villain like possessed Bramblestar, just someone very determined to have his own Clan account for its actions, and he essentially has essentially a cat version of the Nuremburg trials where he holds everyone to account for what they did as part of the Kin and in events of the pasts - like Tigerstar's leadership, for the oldest cats, and dismantles their claims that they were just innocent and caught up in the events/only following orders. But this all happens in the background of SkyClan trying to be accepted into the forest, and Possessed Tigerstar is at the head of a group of StarClan cats who (like in the original) really, heavy-handedly want SkyClan to stay in the forest. Maybe there are several possessed cats involved in this (as I would like to happen in the canon TBC).
So this is all also happening in the context of Violetshine trying to decide whether she wants to stay in SkyClan or ShadowClan. Throughout the story the trials force her to confront her own feeling and biases, particularly about Needletail, and she ends up sympathizing with possessed Tigerstar more than she thought she would. A lot of stuff from TBC might still happen, including some of the more nastily zealous actions of the possessed StarClan cats - while some of them basically just want to force the Clans, particularly ShadowClan, to confront their crimes so ShadowClan won't just be trapped the way it is forever, some of them are very overzealous and vengeful and some (maybe Ashfur is involved here) are really just opportunistic. And like in TBC , the disappearance of StarClan still is making the cats suspicious enough to follow the possessed cats and give them trust - which is where Tree would come in, he and Violetshine would end up working together to understand what is going on and their outlooks would contrast - Violetshine, who is pessimistic but still has an idealized view of Needletail and wants to stay in ShadowClan to save it because she feels leaving it would be too easy and be saying that she feels ShadowClan is beyond saving, vs. Tree, more laid-back, but feeling like he was mistreated by his birth home and has no obligation to be loyal to it or forgive the cats there. Violetshine eventually develops into feeling more like Tree, that Needetail wasn't really entirely a hero, and that ShadowClan really can only change if the individual cats, even her, acknowledge how they were complicit - and that she doesn't have to be a martyr for their sins, like she was staying in the Kin with Needletail, that it's Ok to want to live in a place that will accept her like a real Clan - and that doesn't mean she is giving up on ShadowClan, or giving up any hope that a cat like Possessed Tigerstar can change them, and she ends up becoming one of possessed Tigerstar's greatest supporters.
There would still be the horrible winter from LS, but it would actually kill a lot of cats here, which would help contribute to the drama around SkyClan as the stakes of living in the wild are life-and-death again, and not everyone is happy with letting themselves starve to let another Clan stay and to atone for a crime that occurred generations before they were born. But possessed Tigerstar and his allies are insistent that the Clans have to let SkyClan in to atone for their past sins. As he points out, all the worst enemies of the Clans have been products of their own past crimes - Brokenstar came from Yellowfang breaking the code and was said to be a curse for SkyClan's exile, the Dark Forest from the memories of the worst cats in Clan history, helped by apprentices who resented crimes done to them in the past, and then Darktail, who came from Onestar and ShadowClan's selfishness. Time and again the Clans have mistaken compassion for those who would abuse it with the compassion for the weakest - the kits, the elders - that the code demands. But he and his allies ultimately go too far in their actions with SkyClan, as they try to force SkyClan to stay in the forest even when the other Clans - and eventually Leafstar herself - think that there's no real reason not to go to the gorge anymore, that they shouldn't be willing to sacrifice lives just for tradition. Twigbranch has the opposite character arc as Violetshine here - she starts out as an idealist about SkyClan who believes that everyone will get along in the forest, that it is simply StarClan-decreed destiny, and she is just tirelessly working to get everyone to get along with SkyClan so they can stay in the forest. But the harshness of the winter gives her a rude awakening - she's spent her whole kit hood more sheltered than her sister, and now realizes that when cats are starving and dying, you can't prioritize your own personal vision of a perfect world, or a recreation of a perfect past when there were five Clans in the forest, over reality. But it's hard for her to make that decision when Violetshine decides to stay in SkyClan, because if she lets SkyClan leave, than her sister would leave. Her arc is basically bringing back the concept of survival in the series over its increasing focus on family drama and "Clan-switching", and showing the dangers of focusing only on the latter.
In the end, after lots of horror and loss, the Clans band together to defeat the more extreme of the possessed cats and let SkyClan escape - and they are unexpectedly helped by possessed Tigerstar himself, who realizes his allies have gone to far but has been afraid to act because he feared admitting anything he did was wrong would delegitimize his genuinely important and necessary actions, in a Clan like ShadowClan that is always looking and hungering for weakness. Tree and Violetshine eventually figure out the possessed cats' real identities: some of the others were Ashfur (the opportunist one in ThunderClan, whose actions are basically like TBC Bramblestar) and Molepelt (who acts as the most extreme one, but is genuine in his beliefs), but Possessed Tigerstar himself was actually Nightstar. Nightstar tells Tree and Violetshine everything. He had risked everything to overthrow Brokenstar and rebuild ShadowClan, and was willing to exile the cats who had done the worst deeds under Brokenstar's reign and even to kill Brokenstar, only to watch the other Clans protect and forgive Brokenstar and suffer for it, realizing their mistake too late, and watch another tyrant take over ShadowClan and bring back all of the criminals of Brokenstar's reign into power, and his name and actions be forgotten. After he saw history repeat itself once more with Rowanstar, he could not take it any longer, and took over Tigerstar's body in the belief that, with the nine lives he should have had and the vigorous body of a young leader, he could do everything he had wanted to and at last make ShadowClan face its past. He himself wanted to do things better without the constant pressure of his age and a Clan that believed he was weak, and so while past Nightstar had tried to keep WindClan exiled because he knew an unstable ShadowClan would never give him authority if he willingly ceded territory to another Clan, however unjustly taken, he thought in his new body he could atone for that himself by saving SkyClan. But in the end, he himself fell into the same trap that has always haunted ShadowClan, the fear of being weak, and he decided that even if it meant hurting his own cause he could not let that happen again. And his increasing frustration with his utter helplessness, and the utter inability of his Clan to change, made him increasingly furious and desperate. Nightstar quietly leaves his body, allowing him and Tigerstar to die for real (since Tigerstar never really got his nine lives, and has essentially died moons ago), and Violetshine mourns alone for him.
After the defeat of the possessed cats, a bunch of ShadowClan cats make a speech basically saying that "well, that was a sordid era in our history, let's go back to just total amnesty for the former Kin, etc., and the other Clans are mostly ok with that because they had some bad experiences with Ashfur, Molepelt, etc. But then Violetshine speaks up and says that this is wrong, that just because you shouldn't go too far with trying to atone for past sins (like insisting SkyClan remain in the forest when they are perfectly happy in the gorge and no one's even really affected by the crime of the past anymore), that doesn't mean you should just ignore the past, it doesn't mean you should idealize it or make excuses. Some ShadowClan cats jump to her defense, and while the ending is left ambiguous it's suggested that maybe ShadowClan will have actually learned something from everything that happened. She and Twigbranch sadly part ways and SkyClan leaves for the last time, but Twigbranch is happy in ThunderClan and happy with what she has learned about being a warrior, even in times of danger, and that life is not just about finding your own identity, but about caring for and defending others even if it's not fun or glamorous. A new, uncertain dawn rises on the Clans.
So this is all also happening in the context of Violetshine trying to decide whether she wants to stay in SkyClan or ShadowClan. Throughout the story the trials force her to confront her own feeling and biases, particularly about Needletail, and she ends up sympathizing with possessed Tigerstar more than she thought she would. A lot of stuff from TBC might still happen, including some of the more nastily zealous actions of the possessed StarClan cats - while some of them basically just want to force the Clans, particularly ShadowClan, to confront their crimes so ShadowClan won't just be trapped the way it is forever, some of them are very overzealous and vengeful and some (maybe Ashfur is involved here) are really just opportunistic. And like in TBC , the disappearance of StarClan still is making the cats suspicious enough to follow the possessed cats and give them trust - which is where Tree would come in, he and Violetshine would end up working together to understand what is going on and their outlooks would contrast - Violetshine, who is pessimistic but still has an idealized view of Needletail and wants to stay in ShadowClan to save it because she feels leaving it would be too easy and be saying that she feels ShadowClan is beyond saving, vs. Tree, more laid-back, but feeling like he was mistreated by his birth home and has no obligation to be loyal to it or forgive the cats there. Violetshine eventually develops into feeling more like Tree, that Needetail wasn't really entirely a hero, and that ShadowClan really can only change if the individual cats, even her, acknowledge how they were complicit - and that she doesn't have to be a martyr for their sins, like she was staying in the Kin with Needletail, that it's Ok to want to live in a place that will accept her like a real Clan - and that doesn't mean she is giving up on ShadowClan, or giving up any hope that a cat like Possessed Tigerstar can change them, and she ends up becoming one of possessed Tigerstar's greatest supporters.
There would still be the horrible winter from LS, but it would actually kill a lot of cats here, which would help contribute to the drama around SkyClan as the stakes of living in the wild are life-and-death again, and not everyone is happy with letting themselves starve to let another Clan stay and to atone for a crime that occurred generations before they were born. But possessed Tigerstar and his allies are insistent that the Clans have to let SkyClan in to atone for their past sins. As he points out, all the worst enemies of the Clans have been products of their own past crimes - Brokenstar came from Yellowfang breaking the code and was said to be a curse for SkyClan's exile, the Dark Forest from the memories of the worst cats in Clan history, helped by apprentices who resented crimes done to them in the past, and then Darktail, who came from Onestar and ShadowClan's selfishness. Time and again the Clans have mistaken compassion for those who would abuse it with the compassion for the weakest - the kits, the elders - that the code demands. But he and his allies ultimately go too far in their actions with SkyClan, as they try to force SkyClan to stay in the forest even when the other Clans - and eventually Leafstar herself - think that there's no real reason not to go to the gorge anymore, that they shouldn't be willing to sacrifice lives just for tradition. Twigbranch has the opposite character arc as Violetshine here - she starts out as an idealist about SkyClan who believes that everyone will get along in the forest, that it is simply StarClan-decreed destiny, and she is just tirelessly working to get everyone to get along with SkyClan so they can stay in the forest. But the harshness of the winter gives her a rude awakening - she's spent her whole kit hood more sheltered than her sister, and now realizes that when cats are starving and dying, you can't prioritize your own personal vision of a perfect world, or a recreation of a perfect past when there were five Clans in the forest, over reality. But it's hard for her to make that decision when Violetshine decides to stay in SkyClan, because if she lets SkyClan leave, than her sister would leave. Her arc is basically bringing back the concept of survival in the series over its increasing focus on family drama and "Clan-switching", and showing the dangers of focusing only on the latter.
In the end, after lots of horror and loss, the Clans band together to defeat the more extreme of the possessed cats and let SkyClan escape - and they are unexpectedly helped by possessed Tigerstar himself, who realizes his allies have gone to far but has been afraid to act because he feared admitting anything he did was wrong would delegitimize his genuinely important and necessary actions, in a Clan like ShadowClan that is always looking and hungering for weakness. Tree and Violetshine eventually figure out the possessed cats' real identities: some of the others were Ashfur (the opportunist one in ThunderClan, whose actions are basically like TBC Bramblestar) and Molepelt (who acts as the most extreme one, but is genuine in his beliefs), but Possessed Tigerstar himself was actually Nightstar. Nightstar tells Tree and Violetshine everything. He had risked everything to overthrow Brokenstar and rebuild ShadowClan, and was willing to exile the cats who had done the worst deeds under Brokenstar's reign and even to kill Brokenstar, only to watch the other Clans protect and forgive Brokenstar and suffer for it, realizing their mistake too late, and watch another tyrant take over ShadowClan and bring back all of the criminals of Brokenstar's reign into power, and his name and actions be forgotten. After he saw history repeat itself once more with Rowanstar, he could not take it any longer, and took over Tigerstar's body in the belief that, with the nine lives he should have had and the vigorous body of a young leader, he could do everything he had wanted to and at last make ShadowClan face its past. He himself wanted to do things better without the constant pressure of his age and a Clan that believed he was weak, and so while past Nightstar had tried to keep WindClan exiled because he knew an unstable ShadowClan would never give him authority if he willingly ceded territory to another Clan, however unjustly taken, he thought in his new body he could atone for that himself by saving SkyClan. But in the end, he himself fell into the same trap that has always haunted ShadowClan, the fear of being weak, and he decided that even if it meant hurting his own cause he could not let that happen again. And his increasing frustration with his utter helplessness, and the utter inability of his Clan to change, made him increasingly furious and desperate. Nightstar quietly leaves his body, allowing him and Tigerstar to die for real (since Tigerstar never really got his nine lives, and has essentially died moons ago), and Violetshine mourns alone for him.
After the defeat of the possessed cats, a bunch of ShadowClan cats make a speech basically saying that "well, that was a sordid era in our history, let's go back to just total amnesty for the former Kin, etc., and the other Clans are mostly ok with that because they had some bad experiences with Ashfur, Molepelt, etc. But then Violetshine speaks up and says that this is wrong, that just because you shouldn't go too far with trying to atone for past sins (like insisting SkyClan remain in the forest when they are perfectly happy in the gorge and no one's even really affected by the crime of the past anymore), that doesn't mean you should just ignore the past, it doesn't mean you should idealize it or make excuses. Some ShadowClan cats jump to her defense, and while the ending is left ambiguous it's suggested that maybe ShadowClan will have actually learned something from everything that happened. She and Twigbranch sadly part ways and SkyClan leaves for the last time, but Twigbranch is happy in ThunderClan and happy with what she has learned about being a warrior, even in times of danger, and that life is not just about finding your own identity, but about caring for and defending others even if it's not fun or glamorous. A new, uncertain dawn rises on the Clans.
