#Being Forest Four isn't the root of all evil and there are other ways of being bigoted | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bonefall · 1 year

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Can you tell us a bit more about your Sharpclaw? Why is he so concerned with loyalty when he likely was on his own before and this whole “being loyal to a clan” thing is probably as new to him as any cat else?

Long ago, Spiderstar realized that her Clan would not be able to survive if they stayed together.

No matter how many times they killed the rats, they would come back. For every warrior lost, it seemed like the hordes gained another. Her cats were admitting taking food from twolegs, always ready to run from the gorge at a moment's notice, looking at her with guilty eyes. She began to wonder if she was wrong for admonishing them, the way a leader is expected to.

The story goes that one day, she observed a web of spiders hatching from their eggs. The mother watched as her children created small plumes, and floated away on the breeze. It hit Spiderstar, in that moment, that this was how they would survive. Connected by a great web, but scattered to the sky, where they could not be found.

BB!SkyClan never fully disbanded. Like a web, they would share news, come to help one another and inform of safe twoleg houses, trade kittens to each other to raise as apprentices.

From Spiderstar, to her successor, and down to Skywatcher, there was always a "keeper" of this information. When Firestar and Brokenstar arrived, Skywatcher simply spread the news on the breeze. His connections told their connections, and soon, a dozen cats had answered the call.

And, of course, Sharpclaw was one of them.

He may be a rogue, lived most of his life on his own, but in his head that just means he knows more about what it's like to not have a Clan. He's happy to work with ex-Kittypets who choose the Clan above their humans... but even them, how can they ever truly understand what it's like to have nowhere else to go?

He's been waiting for this moment his whole life, from the time he was a young kit being told the stories of Old, from the second he was first introduced to old Skywatcher as a child. "And here," He argues, "Are kittypets who see our way of life as a game. The time of SkyClan's Scattering is over, we are upon the days of a new dawn, and these outsiders are clinging to the past. We don't need twolegs, or the kittypets that can't choose between US or THEM. Leafstar, loyalty is the value that this Clan is built on-- we have to be strong without the help of these Daylight Warriors."

"Lol," Leafstar says, "Lmao even"

I'm bit a bit hyperbolic, but that's how Sharpclaw FEELS about her responses. She's not LISTENING to him (because his ideas suck) or TAKING HIM SERIOUSLY (she is, she's just telling him no and he doesn't like that). She has him as her deputy exactly because she is seeking opposing viewpoints, but this doesn't matter to him in his perceived entitlement.

And this is the resentment that Darktail eventually targets, realizing that his pride and ego is the perfect wedge to drive between him and Leafstar.

Leafstar wasn't picked by SkyClan, someone else picked her for you.

She doesn't want to listen to you, you're so correct and she doesn't appreciate you.

She's letting weakness into your Clan, and if you wait too long it'll be too late

PROVE it to her by taking YOUR supporters and attacking her at night. Show her how good of an ally her kittypets are when they can't defend their Clan, safe in their human nests.

Take leadership from her, you will lead your Clan to the new dawn you've always envisioned.

#I disagree with the idea that you can't be violently committed to new ideas though #You don't have to have been raised with something to think it's important #Even destructively so #especially when you're talking about entitled assholes like my version of Sharp #It's a bit confusing to me how many people kinda like... meet the idea of a BB!Skyclan cat being xenophobic #They're very different from Forest Four but that doesn't mean they don't have their own flavor of xenophobia #Being Forest Four isn't the root of all evil and there are other ways of being bigoted #For a heavy handed example it's kinda like being confused at the idea of an american being xenophobic #because the country was built on immigration #bigotry doesn't really Make Sense. It's emotional and reactionary #better bones au

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