Hawkfrost in this book reads to me as someone who is really paranoid, and that's what fucks him over in the end and ruins his relationship with his sister. Cause like, he's not being supportive of Mothwing's interest here, but it's purely on the basis of "Oh my god Mothwing if you do that then everyone will think you're indecisive and noncommittal, so they'll throw you out and then we'll be homeless and now everything is so much harder and this could have been avoided if you just did what a warrior SHOULD do!" Not anything about Mothwing as a person. He's being wary and touchy because he's terrified that they're both going to be homeless at worst and scrutinized at best if they are not top of the line.

And the saddest part is... his paranoia is not unfounded. His clanmates DO distrust them and see them as lesser for not being clanborn. He explains earlier that he says they need to overachieve because of something Leopardstar had said.

Yknow.... the same girl who let her halfclan cats get executed. That one.

Also this entire situation is LITERALLY happening because Mudfur says out loud that they need a sign from StarClan because Mothwing isn't clanborn and thus doesn't have the privilege to become a medic without anything less than godly intervention. Like. Wow. Hawkfrost is not wrong here but it's so depressing cause that's not going to help his deteriorating relationship with his sister.

I know it's not exactly groundbreaking or anything but man. Mothwing's Secret!Hawkfrost is literally so fucking interesting to me and I love it. I will take this Hawkfrost over his other incarnations in a heartbeat. I don't care if he's being "woobified" or whatever here, him being a guy who was ultra paranoid because he was treated as lesser for not being clanborn and that leaves him vulnerable to manipulation and ends up twisting him into a terrible person and ruining his relationship with the one cat he could unconditionally confide in is so much more interesting than him being a generic "evil twin" that is evil just cause and who is mean to his sister cause that's what evil people do. Idk I very much prefer MWS having Hawkfrost seem desperate and almost guilty for faking the moth wing sign, because a moon had passed and his sister was hanging on a branch and he was genuinely terrified they'd both get kicked out, and then confessing to her cause she was so elated and living on a lie and he couldn't not let her know the truth, vs Hawkfrost evilly smiling and laughing when he tells Mothwing he faked the sign and being like "lol LOSER you thought StarClan existed and liked you lmao cringe I only did this for The Power ha ha fuck you"

Hawkfrost/Mothwing positive sibling interactions before it all goes wrong compilation...

Mothwing's Secret Diagnosis: A

Holy shit that was good. Definitely my favorite novella as of this point. The way both Mothwing and Hawkfrost are characterized here is so good and does such a good job of humanizing the both of them, Hawkfrost especially. I like how Hawkfrost starts off the book being sympathetic to Mothwing, and then in his last appearance he's depicted as haggard, depraved, and insane from his time in the Dark Forest to the point that he just can't listen to Mothwing anymore. It's such a devastating comparison.

I also love how Mothwing's journey with StarClan is presented. In any other scene, the writers would wrench the protagonist's mouth to be like "Wowie StarClan was so cool and justified and good for this actually", but Mothwing sees through their bullshit and doesn't rely on them for her work. She still doesn't do the prophecy thing and that's okay. She accepts that it helps her clanmates and that Willowshine can take care of things. She even resents StarClan for taking the credit for her healing. And I especially love that it's Hawkfrost's decayed spirit that breaks her there. She hates StarClan for letting this happen to her brother and letting things get this bad. And that's a REALLY good place to take a medic in my opinion.

Not gonna lie, this is the first book in my readthrough where I just had a good time in each chapter. Ravenpaw's Farewell and Pebbleshine's Kits were good but they both had chapters that felt like padding or just unnecessarily meanspirited moments. Mothwing's Secret is about how clan culture decayed her relationship with her brother and warped him into a monster and slowly broke her and at no point does Mothwing stop and go "actually this is all good and fine". It's played as the tragedy it is and that's just really good. Augh.

Hawkfrost fans with Mothwing's Secret

Mothwing: Hey it's so fucked up actually that you had everyone kill each other over borders and encouraged them to get stricter on that during a time of need, and then sat on your asses during the first huge part of the battle til so many people died. Especially now that you're claiming it was for the greater good and that we need to be better and unified actually when that is NOT what you were saying earlier. Also you could have helped me with my disillusionment thing.

Mudfur: .... nuh-uh.

:(

I see the Erins dodging the Mothwing and Leafpool interactions in this book. I see them.

oh my god leopardstar hadn't taken mothwing and hawkfrost to a gathering until after they were warriors...

The parallels between Hawkfrost telling Mothwing that they have to "be at their best at every waking moment and there's no room for failure" because they're not clanborn, and Violetpaw starving herself so ShadowClan can eat because she thinks that since she's not clanborn, she doesn't deserve to until the "rightful" cats have had their share