Warriorcats

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Tigerstar: Heart of evil, or misplaced ambition?

Tigerstar stalked his way onstage in Book One: Into the Wild with a curled lip and his amber eyes narrowed in sinister fashion. Even before Ravenpaw revealed the horrid truth about Redtail's death, we knew that this was a Bad Cat, one who would be Firestar's implacable enemy until his dying breath. The scene was set for a classic tale of hero versus villain, ending in a bitter and bloody fight from which the hero emerges triumphant and the villain is, well, dead.

But fast forward to Book Six: The Darkest Hour, and what is this? Tigerstar has been killed in a breathtakingly savage battle, but not by Firestar. Instead, our hero is left staring at his old enemy's body, wishing with all his heart that he was still alive because the Clans need fearless and battle-skilled warriors to defeat BloodClan and save the forest. What happened to the classic tale of good versus evil? Perhaps Tigerstar was never the forest's biggest villain after all.%u2026

There are few things that are absolutely certain in this world. Plenty of things seem to be certain-my dog is the cutest creature in the world, chocolate brownies are the best food ever, heavy metal music is the quickest way to give yourself a headache-but if you stop and think about it, it all depends on your point of view. Lots of people would think my dog is scary looking, one of my closest friends really doesn't like chocolate (I know, he's very strange!), and heavy metal bands have a huge following of dedicated fans. For all those people, their certainties are completely different.
Tigerstar seemed to be nothing but evil from the moment Firestar set paw in the forest-and it's impossible to deny that he did some pretty awful things, from bullying Ravenpaw and killing Redtail to trying to murder Bluestar and luring the pack of dogs into ThunderClan's camp with a trail of dead rabbits. Firestar wasn't the only cat in ThunderClan to fear and hate Tigerstar in equal measure, and it seemed that all their fears came true when he appeared as leader of ShadowClan and launched his bloodthirsty campaign against half-Clan cats. But wait a moment! If he achieved his ambition to be the leader of a Clan, StarClan must have given him nine lives. That's a pretty big sign of approval from the warrior ancestors! Didn't they notice the bloodstained trail of havoc he'd left in ThunderClan?

The cats in StarClan have never willfully done anything to damage the Clans before, so they must have had their reasons for allowing Tigerstar to become a leader. And what about the cats in ShadowClan? Tigerstar clearly had their support, at least at the start of his leadership; even Tawnypelt left ThunderClan to be with her father in his new Clan. Perhaps Tigerstar wasn't entirely bad, and maybe even quite good, from a different point of view.

If you look past his murderous plots to overthrow Bluestar and destroy Firestar's credibility, you'll find a brave, skilled warrior, utterly committed to protecting his Clan, proud of his kits, respectful of his ancestors, and loyal to the things that are most important to him. He was the strongest, most fearless fighter in ThunderClan and taught
Firestar pretty much everything he knows about battle techniques. He had high standards for his own apprentices, and it's not hard to imagine how much Ravenpaw must have frustrated him, being suited to neither fighting nor life in a busy Clan. When he joined ShadowClan, they were reeling from Nightstar's death from greencough, which had revealed that he had never been given nine lives by StarClan. The former leader of ShadowClan, Brokenstar, was still alive, albeit blind and held prisoner by ThunderClan, and the warrior code does not permit two cats in the same Clan to have nine lives simultaneously. The cats in ShadowClan were scared, defenseless, and desperate for a proper leader that would make their Clan strong and proud once more. Tigerstar must have seemed like the perfect candidate, with his bold plans, his reputation as a brilliant fighter, and his loyalty to whichever Clan gave him the best opportunity for achieving power.

He inspired enough loyalty among his adopted Clanmates to launch his astonishing plan to take over the whole forest, with the help of BloodClan. Part of this plan was a private battle against half-Clan cats, leading to the death of Stonefur in RiverClan, when he tried to defend Graystripe's kits. But when Tigerstar lost all his nine lives one after the other in a deadly clash with Scourge, Firestar felt nothing but grief. The biggest certainty then, from every Clan cat's viewpoint, was that the forest had lost its greatest warrior, and the battle against BloodClan might be over already.

So much was wrong with Tigerstar's path to power, it's surprising he didn't leave a trail of bloody paw prints behind him. Cats died and were wounded badly enough to prevent
them from becoming warriors, one cat had to leave his Clan in secret to save his life, and Bluestar was almost driven mad by the depths of Tigerstar's betrayal. But one cat's enemy is another cat's hero, or at least the answer to some of their problems, and Tigerstar deserves respect for what he achieved as much as he deserves to be punished for his crimes.
Copyright © 2008 Working Partners

(P.S. I got this text from www.readingwarriors.com----I DID NOT WRITE IT!)

Spottedleaf's honest answer

Hello? Hi, I'm Spottedleaf. Whitestorm said you
were looking for me. Welcome to StarClan, and
congratulations on finding your way here! I know
it's not easy. Don't worry, you'll be allowed to
leave after we've talked. It is not your time to
stay, little one.
Let's sit down on that patch of moss beneath the
willow tree. The sun can grow quite hot here,
enough to scorch a dark-colored pelt, but the moss
will keep us cool. Are you comfortable? Good. We
shouldn't be disturbed here. Most of my Clanmates
will have found their own sunning places by now.
So, you'd like to know about Firestar and
Sandstorm, would you? Well, Firestar is the leader
of ThunderClan, and Sandstorm is his mate. Firestar was born a kittypet-when he came to the forest, he
was called Rusty. Can you believe it? Honestly,
Twolegs give their kittypets the most ridiculous
names! Bluestar found this inquisitive kit
wandering at the edge of our territory, and%u23AF
What? You know this already? So why%u23AF Ah. I get it. You want to know what I think of Firestar and Sandstorm, don't you? Okay. I'm not going to pretend that I don't know why you're interested-every cat in StarClan knows how I feel about the ThunderClan leader, but they're too polite to say anything. After all, I'm a medicine cat. We can't have mates or kits; our role is to care for the whole Clan as if each and every cat were our kin.
And of course, I'm in StarClan now, while Firestar is still very much alive, with a few lives yet to lose. He has a mate, too, who has given him kits and stayed by his side all through the Great Journey and never stopped loving him, not even when it looked as if the Clans would not survive in their new homes. Perhaps you think I should have gotten over him by now, that I should have given up long ago and accepted that we could only ever be friends? I can tell by the way your eyes have narrowed that this is exactly what you think. But like my Clanmates, you're too kind to say anything. Do you think I don't know how hopeless this is? Do you think I still hope that he'll be mine one day, that somehow I'll stop being a medicine cat and Sandstorm will vanish like the dew, and every cat will forget that we should never have been together?
I'm sorry, you asked an honest question and it's only fair I should give you an honest answer without clawing your fur off. The truth is, I love Firestar now as much as I ever did, and I'll watch over him forever, knowing that he can never be mine. He belongs to Sandstorm and to ThunderClan. But my heart is his, and always will be.
It wasn't love at first sight, you know. When he first came to the forest, I had been a medicine cat for several seasons, and I loved every part of it, from knowing which herbs heal and soothe, to sharing tongues with our warrior ancestors and interpreting omens for the Clan. How ironic that one of the last prophecies StarClan sent to me-a shooting star that clearly meant Only fire can save the Clan-foretold Firestar's arrival in the forest. He has saved the Clan many times over-and not just his own Clan, but all five of them. You know about SkyClan, yes? Those are my warrior ancestors, mine and Tigerstar's,
because we are descended from Cloudstar and his mate Birdflight, who stayed with ThunderClan when her Clanmates were driven out of the forest. The fate of the Clans was Firestar's destiny-but I was never a part of it.
At first he was just another apprentice to me-different in that he had been born a kittypet, but as curious, bold, and occasionally mouse-brained as the rest of them. I knew Bluestar felt a special connection with him, even if it took her a while to recognize that he was the fire that would save the Clan. It was only when Yellowfang came to ThunderClan that I began to see Firepaw differently. He refused to be intimidated by the cranky old she-cat, and yet he learned to respect her and care for her even when his Clanmates couldn't see past the fact that she was born in ShadowClan. Perhaps it was because Firepaw knew what it was like to be the outsider, to have to earn a place in the Clan by proving his loyalty over and over. I soon stopped doubting him, that's for sure. I started to watch him more closely listen to Bluestar's reports of his training, and I talked to him whenever our paths crossed not just the gossip of Clan life, but about things that mattered to both of us, like the rising threat of ShadowClan, or what StarClan held in store for us. He was kind, brave, and stubbornly loyal to the Clan that had taken him in. I saw in him the cat that he was, and I knew how fortunate we were to have him, and also the cat that he would be: He was the fire that would save the Clan-and the cat I should never have fallen in love with.
When ShadowClan invaded the ravine and sent me to StarClan much, much too soon, I lay in my den for a moon, wishing Firepaw could join me. I should not have died then!
Even if I always had to be a medicine cat, cut off from Firepaw in the most meaningful ways, I could have walked beside him as he became a warrior, and then deputy and leader. Instead, I was condemned to watch him from far away, not always clearly, like gazing at fish flitting at the bottom of a pool. Sometimes ripples hid him from me, and I would pace StarClan's forests night after night, searching for him. When I found him again, things would be different; he would have seen things, done things without me knowing, and it was like meeting a stranger for the first time. But I never stopped watching, never gave up trying to help him. I walked with him in his dreams, shared his fears, guided him with all the knowledge that being in StarClan gave me. I know how much he looked forward to seeing me, how glad he was to have my scent wreathe around him and linger on his pelt. Can you imagine how much that hurts, to be closer to him now that I am in StarClan than we were when I was alive?
After one of those moonless nights, Sandstorm was his mate, and I knew that the invisible river between us had grown too wide to leap across. Did you know that he came looking for me in a dream, sought me out to explain that he had to move on and that he couldn't be in love with a memory anymore? I am not a memory! I wanted to wail, like a kit abandoned by its mother. I am here, I still love you. I will walk beside you forever. But what is that compared with the warmth that Sandstorm can offer him, the solid presence of a mate to help him lead the Clan, to give him beautiful children and watch their kin grow up together? I will still be young when Firestar grows old, but Sandstorm will match him step for step, reflecting his graying fur and slowing paws like a pool of clear water.
Does Firestar love Sandstorm? Oh yes, I have no doubt about that. Sandstorm is a good mate to him; any cat can see how much she loves him, how much she believes in him as leader of her Clan. Their daughters are wonderful cats, and I love them as if they were my own. Leafpool has a special destiny, just like her father did, and it is an honor to be able to walk in her dreams and guide her. But sometimes I can't help wishing that I was her mother instead, standing side by side with Firestar to watch her grow. I will do everything I can to make sure that no harm comes to her, or to her sister, Squirrelflight, until the time is right for them to join me here.
Look, the shadows are lengthening, it's time for you to go. Cherrypaw will show you to the border. Cherrypaw, come here, please! Thank you for visiting. I hope I've told you what you wanted to hear-and if I haven't, then perhaps it's best to say nothing of our conversation. Especially not to Firestar! The truth is that he and Sandstorm are happy, which is all that matters. I could wish and wish for things to be different, but they aren't, and never will be. I would not change a single heartbeat of my life, nor all the time since, if it meant losing a moment of Firestar's friendship.
Now, go well, and may StarClan walk your path always.
Copyright © 2008 Working Partners