Who is going to be RiverClan’s next leader?

I’ve been summoned to once again show my support for Sneezecloud to become RiverClan’s leader.

I also haven’t read any of the recent releases, so there’s probably a more obvious candidate.

Seriously speaking, I HAVE NO IDEA on who is better. Like, FrostStar has a nice edge to that name BUT I feel like icewing is better in terms of like leadership qualities while frostpaw just seems like she flat-out deserves it at this point

Froststar 2024!!

Not only that, but Frostpaw has never shown she wanted to be leader. And we’ve already seen what happens when someone that doesn’t want to or plain just doesn’t feel like they are cut out to be leader tries to lead. Firestar was a young leader, but he was already trusted by Bluestar (even with her mental breakdowns, when it’s directly stated he is the only one she trusts) and most of the Clan at that point. Plus the narrative makes it clear he’s honored and comfortable taking the position. Frostpaw has never mentioned anything like that, and while it would be interesting for the series, I’m not sure how the character would handle it. It would be different if the foreshadowing seems to be going in that direction, but I don’t think so.

To be fair, none of the leaders that have stepped up when their Clan was in crisis have done well. Nightstar had the issue with his single life, Onestar’s cowardice caused a lot of trouble, Tigerstar I basically planned to take over the world, Tigerstar II is way too aggressive even if he is well meaning and does try to look out for his Clan, Bramblestar wasn’t too confident in himself and then ran into issues with Ashfur, Galestar and Stripestar from the most recent release were a complete mess and acted really rashly to the point of nearly destroying both their Clans, Rowanstar unfairly threw everything onto Leafstar, Splashstar’s (or tail’s) leadership fell apart before he even started and was earned illegitimately and he has shown that he can’t act reasonably, and Squirrelstar is already under fire and could easily be hiding some dark secret that we might find out in this book.

So it would be interesting if an unexpected leader took the position during a crisis and did well, but that’s never seen. There is a reference to Flowerstar, but her leadership is never seen on screen, so we have no idea how well she did. Firestar was in the deputy position for a long time and knew what was coming, so I don’t count him either.