Warriors Most Hated Characters: Where They Really That Bad?

As with all book series', there will always be some cats that a large portion of the fandom hates. I'm going to take a look back into the series to review these much-hated characters and ask: were they really that bad?

1. Ashfur

People get very annoyed by the 'he just loved too much' excuse for Ashfur's actions. This is understandable, and a part of me agrees, but I don't believe that Ashfur was evil. Claiming you would kill 3 cats is very different to actually killing 3 cats. Would Ashfur have murdered Jay, Lion and Holly if Squirrelflight never revealed her secret? We will never know, so we may as well give him the benefit of the doubt. It's also clear that Ashfur regretted his actions, or he wouldn't be in StarClan.

2. Squirrelflight and Leafpool

I've put these two together for obvious reasons. I'll focus on Leafpool first. People dislike her because she broke the warrior code and then hid it. However, cats like Yellowfang, Bluestar and Greystripe committed similar crimes, yet these characters are generally beloved by the fandom. Of course Leafpool broke two codes, the medicine cat code as well as the warriors one, but as Firestar aptly put, she and her sister had already been punished enough. Squirrelflight lost her mate, Leafpool lost her position, and they both lost the respect of every other Clan cat. Their lives were hellish for many moons until after the Great Battle when they were forgiven. Let's cut these guys a break.

3. Hollyleaf

Ok, this is the last basic one. I agree that Hollyleaf was a bit annoying when she was like "warrior code this, warrior code that" but I don't think that's enough to hate her. Then there's the whole Ashfur issue. She murders him to keep him quiet and then tells all the Clans anyway? Yeah, not so smart, Holly. But I want to point out that she regretted her actions deeply and didn't actually think she was worthy of going to StarClan. Plus, Ashfur seems to have forgiven her over this (probably sees that he kind of brought it upon himself), and seeing as he was the one who died, he should be the judge. This fight is pretty old anyway, like the ones above, so let's just accept that Hollyleaf went to StarClan and that's that.

4. Ferncloud

What is people's problem with Ferncloud? As far as I can tell, it's about her staying the nursery from the time she had her first litter. But as many people don't realise, this doesn't mean she didn't go hunting and didn't fight in some battles. Besides, at some points she did go to the warriors den for short amounts of time. Her job was valued in the Clan and she gave the Clan lots of new warriors.

5. Daisy

Daisy is like Ferncloud, except she's a bit more selfish and lazy. Yeah I don't like her because of this, but I also dont think she tried to steal Cloudtail. Cloudtail was the one basically throwing himself at her the whole times, and her kits were good warriors (even though they keep dying).

6. Millie

I can understand where people are coming from with this one, but I don't see Millie as a replacement for Silverstream. Greystripe loves her, and as for being rude to Blossomfall and Bumblestripe because she was too worried about Briarlight, I think you can only judge her on this if you've actually been a mother and knows what it's like.

7. Dovewing

People call her a Mary-sue (perfect character) and then complain above her being bratty and whiney. Aren't you just proving she's not one by saying that? I don't think she's a Mary-sue but I do agree she was really annoying and acted foolishly. Still, you'd better get used to it, cause now Tigerheart's in the ThunderClan and we've got a Super Edition on the horizon, more foolishness is coming.

8. Firestar

Similar to Dovewing, people of call Firestar a Gary-sue. I’ll agree that he became a very mediocre character towards the end of the series. However I don’t see him as a Gary-sue. He caused a lot of problems for ThunderClan because of his style of leadership. He let so many cats into the Clan which upset his own Clan as well as the others. So he’s not a Gary-sue then? Like Dovewing, people keep contradicting themselves over this.

9. Pinestar

Pinestar was not suited well to be leader, or a Clan cat for that matter. He doubted himself far too much and was never certain in his decisions. He was easily pushed around by his Clanmates and the other leaders. Like Firestar, he wanted peace, but wasn’t strong enough to stand up for this morals. He took on a mate far too young for him, fathered her kits, and then decided to leave. This was definitely a cruel thing to do to Leopardfoot, and his one surviving kit, Tigerkit. One could say that Pinestar was the reason Tigerstar was evil, but I don’t honestly think that’s quite fair. Tigerstar chose his own path, no other cat can be blamed for it.

10. Onestar

Onestar OH MY GOD WHERE HAS YOUR SANITY GONE?!?! Seriously, Onestar was a good leader. Even though it seemed annoying, it was probably good that he proved himself a strong leader who would not follow ThunderClan around like a puppy as Tallstar did. To be honest, he’s done a bit of a Bluestar – EXCEPT HE HAS NO EXCUSE! Bluestar lost nearly every member in her family, the loyalty of her deputy and her faith in StarClan, but Onestar lost ONE WARRIOR! And suddenly he’s gone crazy!? He showed great cruelty and a lack of generosity towards ShadowClan. You can probably tell that I’m not such a big fan on Onestar at the moment.

11. Hawkheart

People hate Hawkheart for only one reason really; he killed Moonflower, Bluestar’s mother. Why did he do this? She was destroying his herb supply! It was an unfounded attack entirely, Goosefeather was old and paranoid, and Pinestar was too easily pushed around by him to say no the battle. Even though he seems cold and bitter enough to do so, I don’t believe that Hawkheart really meant to kill Moonflower. I don’t think anyone can be blamed for this death.

12. Rainflower

WORST. MOTHER. EVER. Jeez Rainflower, what’s your problem?? What sort of a mother judges the appearance of her child so harshly that she gives him a cruel name and rejects him? I can’t find any excuse for Rainflower really. Was she that bad? Yes. Yes she was.

13. Nightcloud

Nightcloud is disliked because she was so bitter and raised Breezepelt to hate his father. I blame Crowfeather for this. Some backstory: Nightcloud was afraid she would never find a mate and have kits. So when Crowfeather came along, she threw herself at the opportunity. She didn’t realise that Crowfeather didn’t even really like her – he just wanted her as a token mate to prove his loyalty. When she realised this she became very bitter and unhappy. I don’t think it’s her fault that Breezepelt turned out the way he did. Blame Crowfeather, he acted very unfairly towards her.

14. Spottedleaf

I don’t hate Spottedleaf. I don’t really like her, but I don’t hate her. I don’t ship FirexSpotted at all too. The only thing that I find annoying about her is how she’s always following Firestar around. She made him depend on her, asking her for advice he could have got from his real mate, Sandstorm. Spottedleaf’s inability to let go almost ruined Firestar and Sandstorm’s relationship in Firestar’s Quest. I don’t think Firestar would have been as upset when her spirit was destroyed if she hadn’t been acting like his guardian angel the whole time.

15. Clear Sky

*Sigh* If only Clear Sky stuck to his promises in Moth Flight’s Vision. He sort of just went back to being his greedy selfish self. He also caused a lot of deaths in cold blood. Cleark Sky wasn’t a good guy, let’s be honest. I don’t hate him exactly, but I definitely don’t like him.

Some dishonourable mentions:

One Eye: The one from Dawn of the Clans. Randomly killed a heap of cats. Rude much?

Star Flower: It’s not cool to hook up with your boyfriend’s dad, girl.

Lionblaze: Generally irritating and invincibility is an annoying power.

Jayfeather: Was just grumpy up until the latest series, now he’s just a bit cruel. Stop being so mean to Alderheart and Twigpaw!

Palebird: She was a bit of a crybaby and lived in the past too much UNTIL she got a new mate, then didn’t really show any sympathy to her oldest kit.

Leopardstar: Let me say one thing; she thought she was doing the best thing for her Clan until it was too late.

Jessy: I never really liked her, regardless of the whole Bramblestar and Squirelflight issue. I think it’s best she left. Bramble and Squirrel were meant to be together and they both still loved each other, not like Bramblestar and Jessy.

Hawkwing's Journey Review

In obvious set-up for the new series, the Erins have given us a third SkyClan themed Super Edition, but this time things aren’t looking good for the fifth Clan. We jump into the story as Hawkpaw, soon to be Hawkwing, an ambitious young cat who loses his confidence after an early life tragedy. I was really glad to have another SkyClan book as they are a favourite Clan of mine, though I wasn’t quite sure about the premise for the book, especially since it had been hinted In The Apprentice’s Quest that SkyClan was coming into the main story. I was not disappointed in my worries.

What was good

I think Hawkwing’s inner thoughts were quite well written. In more recent books this isn’t something that you always get but in this case I think it was well done. He was more understandable than most characters, which I appreciated. Seeing as SkyClan is going to turn up in the new series, most likely the next book, so the existence of this book is important or we wouldn’t really understand anything that was going on. The idea for this book was good, the execution is a different story. It’s also good that we now know who Twigpaw and Violetpaw’s parents are.

What was ‘meh’

The rushed and sloppy writing made it hard to enjoy the good bits and feel sad at the tragic bits. A lot of important moments were ruined by terrible choices by the authors. I can’t say I’m impressed by the quality of this book, but the story was good enough for me to not hate it.

What was bad

SO many characters died in this book. Probably one, maybe more, on average per chapter. The book was WAY to heavy and too much important stuff was happening too quickly. I felt a bit betrayed by the Erins to be honest. Its normal to brace yourself when reading the Warriors books for the imminent deaths of your favourite characters, but everything just went to shit in Hawkwing’s Journey. This book was also just tragic. By the end of it I felt like crying. Cats like Leafstar and Hawkwing seemed to have been targeted as the main focus points of the ‘tragedy’ and it broke mt heart.

Overall verdict

I can’t say I liked this book for any reason except it being a Warriors book. So yeah, not that great. I think the Erins need to calm down a bit and focus on writing even slightly better stuff than just getting the books out ASAP. I see a lot of people talking about how they love it because it was so emotional. Yeah it was emotional but it was also rushed and poorly written. I’m disappointed.

Stats

Favourite character: I didn’t really like any of the characters that much

Least favourite character: No specific cat, but I was really annoyed at some particular cats by the end of it for the bad decisions they made. I hated Darktail too. This is all his fault. Also Leafstar get some sense after Sol how can you not see how evil he is???

Characters killed (and are confirmed dead): 12

Characters missing (most suspected dead): 8

Cats who left the Clan: 5-8 (uncertain)