CONTREVERSIAL THREAD

No one deserved to be killed by Mapleshade. I’m only going to say who deserved what after life, as Mapleshade reacted immaturely to the situation by killing cats who did not deserve death, no matter how bad of deeds they did (which weren’t even that bad imo, no one killed anyone)

Mapleshade most definitely deserved the Dark Forest. My reasoning is above.

Appledusk can stay in StarClan. Although a jerk, he didn’t kill anyone. Sure, he’s the reason Mapleshade went wild, but it’s not his fault his former mate was not thinking of her actions. His kits with Mapleshade need someone to look after them in StarClan, so I like to think he does care for them up there, but that’s just my personal headcannon.

Ravenwing deserves the Dark Forest. Even if he did misinterpret StarClan, enforcing exiling three young kits in a storm is cruel. Mapleshade could have been exiled alone since it was what Ravenwing believed a sign from StarClan and I would have forgave him, but the kits I can’t forgive him for. He put the kits directly in danger, therefor resulting in their deaths later on.

Oakstar is the same as Ravenwing, except I’m more passionate about him going to the Dark Forest then Ravenwing.

Darkstar deserves StarClan. She rejected Mapleshade and refused to let her sit in vigil for her kits (which is cruel) but she really did nothing much cruel. Mapleshade was a fully grown she-cat, she can figure it out on her own.

Frecklewish should have gone to StarClan. Most ThunderClan cats can’t swim, let alone swim during a flood, and if Frecklewish tried to save the kits she would have probably drowned and died too. Yes, she could have gone help, but I don’t see Russetfur and her patrol in the Dark Forest after watching Berrykit suffer and almost die in a fox trap while teasing him when they could have saved him. I’m not saying Russetfur and her patrol should go to the Dark Forest either, but if they stay in StarClan and Frecklewish, who had a much more reasonable situation to not save the kits, should deserve StarClan too imo. The Erins arrival about this topic wasn’t reasonable either, in fact it was pretty terrible.

I generally hate Mapleshade. I think she’s selfish, pathetic, and immature. People can like her, but I just don’t. She’s a terrible cat and acted in awful ways to do in a situation like this. She didn’t deserve to be exiled, but the cats she killed didn’t deserve it either.

and it was treated way worse than graysilver as well

mapleshade: dark forest (triple homicide)

appledusk: i despise him, but if cats like mudclaw are in starclan then appledusk can stay. get away from reedshine tho, i dont care if he took the bullet for her, he couldnt respect and love her enough to just not cheat in the first place.

ravenwing: dark forest. i dont care if he was young and inexperineced who the hell just stares coldly while kits are exiled because of your own actions. dude didnt even have the audacity to look worried for the safety of the children? can you imagine the uproar if any modern medicine cat did what he did

oakstar: dark forest. exiling kits? bye lmao

frecklewish: eh…. im on the border here. i like frecklewish and like the idea of her dealing with shit (including her own bad actions) after the fact in starclan. im more hung up on that theres no sign she even tried with the kits. she didnt call out or anything. i dont care if it didnt work, just make the effort for kits youve been co-parenting, yknow? the fact that she didnt even stick around to see if they turned out okay is pretty messed up too, its such a cold and callous way to act.

I never liked that Appledusk went to StarClan. He broke the code too and got away with it easily. I suppose some cat has to look after Mapleshade's kits since Mapleshade can't do that in the Dark Forest.

Frecklewish watched the kits drown and didn't get help, so she deserves the Dark Forest. Yeah, some cat will save them...right? Even the RiverClan patrol didn't make it in time. Bad choice.

Oakstar deserves the Dark Forest for exiling kits, even though he was right to exile Mapleshade. (Of course, Mapleshade shouldn't have tried crossing the river in bad weather in the first place....) Perhaps Oakstar could've waited until the bad weather was over to send her on her way. :/

Ravenwing is fine in StarClan. Though he could have waited for a better time to break the news.

And there's no question of whether Mapleshade deserves the Dark Forest or not. She murdered cats, so yes. She's where she belongs.

I feel like this whole situation was an “everyone sucks here” situation besides the kits and Reedshine.

Mapleheart - no question, dark forest triple murder. You can justify it all you want, but murder is murder. (Let female characters be EVIL!)

Appledusk; StarClan is fine. While he broke the warrior code to be with Maple, there’s been other cats who have gone to StarClan that have done the same. While he was a huge cheating jerk, it really isn’t dark-forest material. (If characters like Mudclaw and Skystar can be in StarClan, then he can too.)

Oakstar ; I guess we never really saw much of his life, so we do not know the good deeds that may have outweighed the bad, but he exiled KITTENS. I understand exiling Mapleshade, but his vendetta against the kits’ fatherhood is no reason to exile them from the clan into a forest they would die in. Any leader that did this now would be hated on so hard. I lean more towards DF

Ravenwing (I think that’s his name); DF as well. I don’t care if he misinterpreted the sign, his job is to protect those who are weak and that includes kittens. He should have stood up for the kits at the very least, putting his duty over his feelings. His sign lead to pointless death.

Frecklewish ; I’m torn with her. I don’t think she acted maliciously when she did not save the kits from drowning, even if calling them creatures was messed up, being a jerk isn’t illegal. Makes me wish there was a purgatory area for these cats to go to, neither heaven or hell. Even the ghost realm, similar to Needletail, where they need to amend for their deeds before earning a place in StarClan.
I would say she deserves StarClan more than the dark forest. While her inaction could have cost the kits their lives (an untrained cat swimming in a flooding river would likely have not ended well, she probably would have drowned too,) she never did anything that directly costed lives. She was a victim here.

mapleshade - dark forest no question about it
appledusk - starclan, but he should repent for him cheating
ravenwing - unsure. maybe starclan but have a trial for him there. he was just doing his job, but his role as medicine cat was a position of power. a position of power he had to prevent the kits being exiled, instead he just "had a cold look on his face".
frecklewish - starclan. the riverclan patrol were already on their way to the river and they're cats with the ability to swim. she couldn't swim and would drown herself. there was no point calling for help either they were already on their way lol. with her attacking mapleshade and calling the kits half-clan creatures? yeah some appledusk treatment starclan repenting would do for that too

some starclan assigned anger management classes for everyone maybe even a little lesson on how to Be An Adult And Make Responsible Choices

Have the RiverClan cats go to StarClan. The ThunderClan cats, I've always had mixed feelings on, but Mapleshade definitely deserved the Dark Forest either way.

I think most people here will be in the agreement that none of the three cats deserved execution, and that Mapleshade definitely deserved the Dark Forest for not only murdering others but because she reveled in it.

It's still not entirely clear whether Appledusk did technically cheat (since we have no idea what was going on with him between Mapleshade's pregnancy announcement and taking the kits to the river), and if so, to what extent. Regardless... I would have liked to see a bit more temporal punishment from his own clan for breaking the code so severely, but I can also understand the decision that his kits' untimely death was punishment enough.

Ravenwing was a young and inexperienced medicine cat. Did he interpret the omen correctly or was he overzealous in his confidence? We will probably never know. I do think he genuinely meant well and was trying to follow his conscience and the will of StarClan, even if his decision was not ultimately the right one. I don't think he saw exile as a death sentence for the kits, just a harsher life. For that reason, I don't think he deserved punishment.

Frecklewish is tricky. Prior to Word-of-God revelation from the editors, you could definitely make the argument that Frecklewish might not have been in a position to help the drowning kits. However, the editors have basically confirmed that she was in a reasonable position to help and chose not to. The Dark Forest feels a little overkill, considering cats like Russetfur have done similar things and yet earned StarClan, but I guess you could argue there's a lot about Frecklewish's character that we don't know about that might justify that placement.

Mapleshade-Dark Forest for obvious reasons.

Oakstar-Unfortunately, time marched onward for him so he got to crawl to his place in StarClan. I wonder if Tigerstar was a casual stab in the back for him as a better punishment for his actions with exiling Mapleshade and her kits? You get to continue your line at the loss of your older kits but your only other son abandons the Clan and then your grandson is a monster and takes your experience of cats that are half-Clan to a much crueler step.

Ravenwing-Dark Forest, he is the reason that everyone was exiled in the first place. He knew he was inexperienced and could have mulled over the vision more or even go to Highstones to consult StarClan. (Not to mention Oakstar’s clear hatred for RiverClan and Appledusk. That’s like Mudfur going up to Leopardstar and advocating that she should welcome Graystripe back to RiverClan. It was just not a situation that was going to go well considering the circumstances of Oakstar and the father of the children. At best, even waiting until the kits were closer to six moons would have been better for their overall survival but dumb ole’ Ravenwing didn’t think about that.) If he had lived longer, he could have redeemed himself from this haunting mistake but he did not.

Frecklewish-Dark Forest. Could have helped but didn’t. I feel if she had lived past her snake attack, she could have redeemed herself like her father. Perhaps it would be her children that would become Tigerstar instead and moving the need for Oakstar to get with Sweetbriar as he still had a living kit from his first mate. Like Juniperclaw, she’s a victim of died too soon to redeem herself further for the Clans.

Edit:
Realized I forgot Appledusk! While cheating makes him scummy, regardless of who he cheated on first, he goes to StarClan. I do imagine some of his kits like Patchkit kinda avoid him since he had been close with Mapleshade.

Dark Forest. We've been over this. What happened to her was awful, but becoming a serial killer over it ain't it. I don't think she should have killed any of her actual victims; even Frecklewish, who I would argue is irredeemable in light of her decision to just watch kits drown and not care, shouldn't have been murdered. Mapleshade is a villain. She knows it. She relishes it. She's fine where she is.

StarClan. While all cheaters deserve to suffer, I think "hell" is a little too much. Besides that, he really didn't do anything wrong.

StarClan. Revealing the truth behind a lie is not a crime. I think he should have argued for leniency on Mapleshade's behalf, but that's not really his role. Getting killed for it was already incredibly disproportionate; sending him to the Dark Forest on top of that would have been disgusting.

Dark Forest. As much as I despise her for calling the kits "creatures", I wouldn't say that's an offense worthy of "eternal damnation". Sitting by and watching children die in the flood without an ounce of pity or guilt, however, absolutely crosses that line, and then some.

I guess?? But that wasn't exactly a punishment that happened while he was alive. It was passive and happened while he was already in StarClan unpunished