Nightheart: I am being held up to unreasonable standard and the stress of it is affecting my performance. Everyone tells me I’m supposed to be great, and yet every time I have an idea it is shot down and rejected. They want me to be like someone I never met and don’t care about my personality or interests. My mother abandoned me at an early age and - while I understand that she had no choice - I am having trouble forming a relationship with her because she still barely shows interest in me, which is causing me (a teenager) to harbor resentment towards her.
Y'all: OH MY GOD WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE WHAT A TERRIBLE SHIT PERSON FUCK YOU LITTLE CHILD STOP BLAMING THE WOMEN IN YOUR LIFE FOR EVERYTHING !!!
Breezepelt: Dad was mean to me because I was starting unnecessary arguments and taking risks I shouldn’t have been taking, now I (an adult) will try to murder a pregnant woman and a nun. Also he had other kids before he was with my mother, so I (an adult) will try to murder them.
Y'all: Omg poor baby……. He has suffered so much……… He was …. Abused……….
The thing about the Nightcloud/Crowfeather/Breezepelt dynamic is that all of it is told from other characters’ perspectives, which means we really can’t get an accurate read on each characters’ true emotions.
Which is really a shame because the whole thing really IS difficult to interpret.
But let’s try to analyze the scenes that we do get and try to come to a reasonable conclusion, shall we?
Breezepelt Thinks: That Crowfeather hates him.
This idea is backed up in universe by:
The three repeatedly noting that Crowfeather seems to dislike him - These scenes are in the book to serve as an ironic foreshadowing to Crowfeather being their father, and while they do show that he’s an /emotionally unavailable/ father, the worst thing he does in these scenes is scold Breezepelt when he misbehaves and not compliment his catch. That is hardly abusive.
The Dark Forest Cats literally lying to actively Manipulate Breezepelt, and then Breezepelt parroting back the words that they fed him - These scenes are unreliable because these are DARK FOREST CATS and they are LYING and Breezepelt is BUYING THE LIE. These things didn’t HAPPEN, and Brokenstar of all cats should NOT be the paragon by which we judge anyone’s parenting skills.
And a collection of other scenes where Breezepelt is scolded for misbehaving by Crowfeather - Which are in the book to establish Breezepelt as a Problem. Also, scolding your child does not mean you hate them or that you are abusive
Nightcloud Thinks: That Crowfeather doesn’t love either of them
It is, explicitly, true that Crowfeather doesn’t love her. There’s no arguments there. And while that sucks, and Crowfeather is in the wrong for taking her as a mate, he also doesn’t owe it to her to love her. You can’t owe romantic feelings to anyone.
But there’s really nothing to back up the idea that Crowfeather doesn’t love Breezepelt in Nightcloud’s eyes. The only scene I can think of is one where Breeze(paw) runs around to check the borders, and when he gets back Crowfeather double checks to make sure he checked the entire perimeter, at which point Nightcloud severely overreacts and accuses him of not trusting Breeze(paw). To my eyes this speaks more to Nightcloud’s extreme protectiveness than to Crowfeather’s abuse - literally all he did was double check that his son completed a task at a time of great importance.
Crowfeather Things: That Nightcloud is overprotective and that she is encouraging his son to hate him
This idea is backed up in universe by:
Several scenes of Nightcloud separating him from Breezepelt - Including the aforementioned border checking, and the Daylight Gathering incident, where he actively tries to help carry and tend to his injured son, and is not allowed to do so by Nightcloud. This scene serves no other purpose than to show Crowfeather’s care for his son and Nightcloud’s refusal to let him.
Nightcloud’s repeatedly demonstrated jealousy for Leafpool which - while justified on paper - literally leads to her clawing and Crowfeather and yelling at him in front of clanmates the moment he so much as glances as her. ~Which actually IS abuse~ ! Physical and Emotional ! And while these scenes are there to show that Leafpool and Crowfeather are still in love (which is awful for Nightcloud but does NOT justify her being abusive in turn), Nightcloud’s reaction is only there to show her character.
Breezepelt’s view is manipulated by the Dark Forest Cats.
Nightcloud’s view is clouded by her jealousy, which (again, justified on paper) leads her to literally abusing Crowfeather.
Crowfeather’s view is the only one which is backed up by scenes not serving an alternate purpose and is not clouded by an external motivation.
So the dynamic is:
Breezepelt hates his dad because his mother didn’t let them bond, because he scolds him when he misbehaves, and because literal cats from hell told him to
Nightcloud hates Crowfeather because he doesn’t love her (fair), so she resolves to set Breezepelt against him and physically and emotionally abuse him (unfair)
Crowfeather doesn’t love Nightcloud (which sucks), but he does at least try to be a parent to Breezepelt (he isn’t especially good at it) only to have every attempt thwarted by either Nightcloud or Breezepelt, only for the latter to turn around and tell him he was never trying because of the hell cats mentioned above
There is really no reason for us to believe that Crowfeather was abusive and didn’t love his son. What he /was/ is strict and snappy - which is and has always been his personality. What he /was/ is emotionally distant - which is awful, sure, but it isn’t abuse. He wasn’t a good father, but there’s nothing to suggest that he was an abusive father either.
What we can believe is that Breezepelt’s hatred of Crowfeather wasn’t justified (HIS IDEAS CAME FROM CAT HELL) and that Nightcloud was overprotective of Breezepelt and abusive towards Crowfeather.
“ Destiny isn’t a path that any cat follows blindly. It is always a matter of choice, and sometimes the heart speaks loudest. ” — Leafpool, Sign of the Moon
And it’s finished! This illustration took me awhile - although simple, I put a lot of thought into it! I wanted to make Leafpool’s omen of the three a little bit more dreamy than real looking, I hope I did it justice This is a remake of an old drawing I did a while back too!
I kinda like more the concept of the original, but I think the new perspective and colors help Leafpool to pop up more!
In the past, WindClan actively practiced Gray Wing’s idea of kindness and friendship. They fought only when necessary, and would offer aid to other Clans when possible.
Tallstar was especially fond of the tradition, but it was mostly forgotten during Onestar’s reign, since he believed the ideology sounded too much like Firestar’s way of doing things.
Unsurprisingly, this aided in WindClan’s turn in reputation, as they are now known for being harsh and antagonizing ThunderClan.
Crowfeather and Nightcloud are the only cats who can remember the old tradition, and they’ve been trying to reintroduce it since the change in leadership. Fortunately, Harestar is very open to the idea.
Crowfeather’s Trial is coming out on Sept 4!! I’ll be more active then!!!!
I’m pretty excited for this book and I hope it doesn’t disappoint because I’d be rlly interested to know about that massive gap in crowfeathers life that we missed and only got leafpool’s p.o.v
Whewww that’s a lot of cats! I tried to stay away from repeats but what can I say, I love Sandstorm and her kids!!
Also was challenged to try and pick some less popular relationships and since I have so many favorites, I think they still qualify even if they’re not at the very top of my list. Right????? Because listen, it would just be full of FireFamily…
Brambleclaw- This boy was fun to design! I wanted him to have VERY similar features to Tigerstar (as he is always compared to looking strinkingly similar to his father) but with some softer and more saturated colors (like his mother). His eyes are a bit more golden in honor of his mother. Honestly, I really WISH his Warrior name had been Brambleflower or something much more soft? Brambleberry, Brambleheart- something other than BrambleCLAW like TigerCLAW. Yes, way to remind the child of his FATHER. Anyways, I loved his character until Hawkfrost got involved- and then in my opinion, he just went downhill from there
Squirrelflight- I LOVE HER! A good girl! Didn’t deserve ANY of the shit she’s been put through, at all. Small ears like her mother! A bit more of a yellow-ginger when in direct comparison to my Firestar design. I just love her. I love how she was such a good mother to the three. I haven’t read any books since the end of Omen of the Stars so I don’t really know how she is now, other than she was dragged into cat hell by the imposter. I wish she would have been made leader. OH! I also read Squirrelflight’s Hope, and although I didn’t know a lot of the characters, how DARE StarClan put her on trial? She was RIGHT that entire book and Bramblestar was just a jerk the entire time. She deserves so much better.
Tawnypelt- Ear tufts just seem to run in this family and I love it! I headcannon her to be a BIG GORL. BIG LADY. I really tried to pull from Tigerstar and Goldenflower’s designs, having her have patches of gold and brown, like a perfect blend of her parents. I just feel so heartbroken that she left ThunderClan to go to ShadowClan where she thought she’d be accepted more- and it looks like she is happy there She found a seemingly wonderful mate and had beautiful kits. She is good. I want TAWNYSTAR! Crowfeather- Angry boy, I love him. I could go into a big discourse on his character but I just, he’s well-written, I believe. He’s flawed and I can get behind that- his choices were never the best and he was kind of a shit dad, but I liked that in writing? It was a breath of fresh air compared to how some characters are written and I can get behind that. I think he really redeemed himself quite a bit in Crowfeather’s Trial and really like how he and Nightcloud ended it as friends.
Feathertail- Some aspects get gets from her father, but I would say a majority of looks come from her mother. I really love how gentle and patient she was with Crowpaw and how he fell in love with her. I am not sure if I headcannon that she loves him back romantically or more-so platonically, like a little sibling or something that she felt she must care for and protect, kind of how she felt towards Mothwing and Hawkfrost as kits. She was also incredibly brave when facing down the sharptooth and a true warrior to the end.
Stormfur- Same head stripe as Graystripe, as well as mane! He almost looks a bit too blue in this picture, but I was aiming for one of those really dark stormclouds! Blue-ish like his mother, dark-ish like his father! I LOVE STORMFUR AND BROOK. Stormfur and Squirrelflight would have been ok, but BROOK. YES. I loved how he chose to stay with her in the mountains and is happy living there. I also kind of headcannon him to be bi- totally having a crush on Brambleclaw.
