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Post by Rainstorm1026 on Aug 10, 2021 19:22:37 GMT -5
I'm serious, I think that that, I guess, there was a LITTLE foreshadowing? We see her gushing over Stormkit's handsomeness, and there are small signs that Rainflower favored Stormkit over Oakkit, but other then that... Now, you may be reading this and asking me, "Well, shouldn't that be enough?" I mean, sure, but I think that this understates the severity of Rainflower's behavior towards Stormkit. Now I guess we could chalk it up to bad writing, but you know what? That's no fun. Rainflower suddenly disowning her own child abruptly, so obviously that the whole FREAKING CLAN CAN SEE IT. AND IT GOES PRACTICALLY UNCOMMENTED ON. Now, I get what the Erin's were going for. Clan-infighting, bystander syndrome, but the sheer lack of subtlety about it all to the point where Shellheart is a lone voice in the wilderness (the clan deputy!) crying out for justice in the name of Stormkit, and the lack of exploration rings hollow. I also genuinely have some questions about how he handled the name thing, like, isn't protecting your son's name more important then proving your mate is a hard hearted witch? I mean, I think that realistically there would be SOME sort of controversy. Some cats think she's a jerk, some cats are trying to see her perspective. Like, take a more subtle approach: Maybe Rainflower doesn't care and thinks her son is being "soft" because he feels emotional and insecure over his new look, maybe Rainflower percieves his continued angst as being "ungrateful".
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Asexual
#07B04C
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Ṣanɗypaw™
The Shiny User
🎵Guess that's just the way it goes, easy come, easy go🎵
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Post by Ṣanɗypaw™ on Aug 11, 2021 17:54:13 GMT -5
I don't think it was very abrupt at all. When you get in an accident that injures a part of you permanently, the friends and family who really care about you are the ones who will help you heal physically and mentally and will always stay by your side. You will not know who is keeping you around because of your looks rather than your personality, and the people who were doing the former will suddenly show a very ugly side to them by treating you abhorrently and completely abandoning you.
This is a Rainflower-Stormkit situation- she only loved Stormkit because he looked pretty. Once Stormkit's jaw became disfigured, Rainflower's true side- the side that only cared about looks- was revealed. She did not even try to conceal that she now hated Crookedpaw subtly. This sad situation happens quite frequently in real life and I don't think it makes her a badly written character at all.
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Post by Rainstorm1026 on Aug 11, 2021 22:05:53 GMT -5
I don't think it was very abrupt at all. When you get in an accident that injures a part of you permanently, the friends and family who really care about you are the ones who will help you heal physically and mentally and will always stay by your side. You will not know who is keeping you around because of your looks rather than your personality, and the people who were doing the former will suddenly show a very ugly side to them by treating you abhorrently and completely abandoning you. This is a Rainflower-Stormkit situation- she only loved Stormkit because he looked pretty. Once Stormkit's jaw became disfigured, Rainflower's true side- the side that only cared about looks- was revealed. She did not even try to conceal that she now hated Crookedpaw subtly. This sad situation happens quite frequently in real life and I don't think it makes her a badly written character at all. Still it would've been neat to see how the clan was about it. I can see a lot of clanmates obviously siding with Crookedstar, but there are several, like Echomist, who might try and rationalize her behavior as "grief". I'm just saying that was a really underlooked part of Crookedstar's promise that I wanted to see more of.
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Post by αɳσɱαʅყ on Aug 15, 2021 5:16:23 GMT -5
I'm kinda attached to my reading that Rainflower took Crooked/Stormkit's accident very personally, not just a physical injury to her son, but damage to her pride as a mother. She basically showered her kits with attention, proudly seeing their bright futures as strong, healthy Warriors laid out in front of her. And she gets to play a part of their noble Warrior lives, imagine that. She plays a part in every step of their childhood, their path to becoming great Warriors, and she was absolutely distraught when Stormkit got injured. But after it looked like Stormkit would never recover she just... pretended he didn't exist. Like, she didn't want to remind herself of her own mistake, that she failed to bring in a healthy warrior into the Clan. She failed to bring in the Warrior she so clearly saw in her future.
like bein real yea she was sorta written to be a narrative punching bag for readers to slap silly with their minds. man that is really satisfying, just shredding on Rainflower internally as you read Crookedstar's Promise for the first time. BUT, just trying to think back on it, and I feel like I can grasp at something a *little* more psychologically compelling from her character than just "awful-mom-bad personality". Don't get me wrong this isn't justifying Rainflower at all, she did neglect her child and that is Bad Mom Moves (TM). I'm just saying this is Bad Mom Moves (TM) because her ego, her shattered dreams and pride, got in the way of actually being there for her kits when they needed her most.
And I like this reading of her character, because in a weird way, it allows for some character growth/potential to change. She's not just "bad" or "shallow", defined by a sole adjective, she's full of contradicting motivations that lead her to terrible choices, but she can choose to do better in StarClan and work harder to make amends with Crookedstar if he wishes to.
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