Not to escalate an argument or anything. Just pointing out that there’s a few imperfections and flaws in OP’s post.
1. Appledusk didn’t have to lay a paw in the River to save Mapleshade when in actuality to quote the book
Which I’m presuming Appledusk, with the assistance of Eeltail and Splashfoot, got her out by bending the branch inwards to bring her close enough to the shore to drag her out without risking getting caught in the perilous undercurrent.
Now onto the article. It’s stating that she didn’t stick around to watch and make sure the kits were saved. Which is direct contradiction to the book, to quote.
Which implicates Nettlepaw presumed the kits made it safely across to riverclan based off of what Frecklewish told her Clanmates. And that Frecklewish stayed around long enough to think so. To quote further
Which tells us that Frecklewish was on the scene at least until the Riverclan patrol showed up, though not exactly when she arrived at the scene. And by Nettlepaws reaction to the revelation, it implicates that the kits being in the river is unknown knowledge up to this point, and that Frecklewish didn’t know either.
And to further reinforce that she wasn’t privy to the kits endangerment or demise.
Both the words “stiffened” and “Raspy” are indicative of shock, surprise and or suddenly being overwhelmed with emotion yada yada. Which reinforces the objective statement that she wasn’t knowledgeable of the kits being in the river or drowning, and that she certainly didn’t reap pleasure, or wish for misfortune to befall them.
Now there’s the whole not calling for help part. Which we don’t have any evidence to support her calling for help or not in the book, so there’s that. And we know that she stuck around at least until the Riverclan cats showed up, and presumably long enough to witness them actively jumping into action to help Mapleshade, so whom would she be calling for help from? Cats back in the Thunderclan camp? The Riverclan cats that are already assisting? Idk. And than there’s her jumping into the River to possibly assist the Riverclan cats in Mapleshade’s Rescue of course, which we know would be incredibly risky, and high potential of drowning herself. Now I’m not going to make the argument that she couldn’t swim, because I’m sure she has some basic swimming skills, though not nearly as defined and adept as the Riverclan cats of course, however there is the fact to consider that she was clinically depressed and undoubtedly traumatized from watching Her brother and Flowerpaw drown in the river, and the mere prospect of getting near water is probably something that’s very terrifying to her, and implicating that a traumatized person should just swallow their fears of something, and just act like there nonexistent would be considered cruel and abusive.
So there’s quite a bit of objective evidence pointing towards Frecklewish not being cognizant of the kits being in the water/drowning in the river. And we also know that Frecklewish’s recitation of what took place at the river has holes, being that she said Mapleshade fell off the stepping-stones, which is inaccurate. however, given the adverse weather conditions and poor visibility there’s a high probability that she didn’t see it everything clearly and passed on the message according to what she witnessed to the best of her ability.
now in conclusion that would give us 2 options.
1. Frecklewish told Thunderclan the truth about what she saw took place at the River, and was telling the truth about not knowing the kits were in the river. And was truthful about not wishing for them to die.
or
2. She distorted and twisted her reenactment of the events to Thunderclan, and did witness the kits getting swept away and drowning, and merely omitted those pieces of the story out of her statement.
which then would impose the question “ Why would she lie?” And honestly what would be the purpose or reason for her to lie to Thunderclan about what happened? What benefit is it to her to lie? Pretty much everyone unanimously agreed to exile Mapleshade and her kits, so I doubt she’d be punished if she told Thunderclan she watched Mapleshades kit’s drown without lifting a claw or caring.
I really don’t think Frecklewish would lie, there’s really no motivation or reason too, and Nettlepaw certainly wouldn’t lie.
of course the article is leaning more towards that interpretation, and makes contradictions against the book to support its legs to stand on.
Anyway, enough rambling. Thanks for coming to this Ted talk.