Warrior Cat Rants

Leafpool: Hate

(Spoilers for The New Prophecy, Power of Three, and Omen of the Stars)

Leafpool is too irresponsible to me and is one of my least favourite cats. She's the daughter of Firestar and was given Cinderpelt as a mentor since she wanted to be a medicine apprentice. As the Clans finished their journey to the new territories, Leafpaw discovers the Moonpool and is given the '-pool' suffix for that. Any other cat, more expierenced, was more likely to find it rather than her. It just happens to be that the cat gets a special name ('leaf-' being in honour of Leafstar and maybe Spottedleaf) since she just so happens to be Firestar's daughter. Then we discover that "she has a destiny greater than any other cat who has walked before her". So this must be why she gets everything she wants, whenever she wants it.

Leafpool's about to fall off a cliff until Crowfeather saves her and then the two are magically and deeply in love with each other. Firstly, the two never even knew each other that much to even decide they're in love with each other. They only talked about three times, and that was only at a Gathering. In my opinion, LeafXCrow just so happens to be another cliché, rushed forbidden love like any other forbidden couple and is another GreyXSilver.

Squirrelflight catches them meeting up with each other and tells Leafpool she shouldn't be seeing him since it obviously wasn't a good idea. After Leafpool answers, Squirrelflight promises to keep it a secret since she wouldn't betray her sister just like that. And then after that Cinderpelt realises Leafpool's "in love" with Crowfeather. Cinderpelt warned her many times that she shouldn't be near him but Leafpool refuses to listen. Spottedleaf even told her to follow her heart, which belonged to ThunderClan, not Crowfeather. And then Leafpool was angry at her and blamed Spottedleaf for giving her some advice. Leafpool couldn't have cared about her Clan that much. If Cinderpelt died before she came back/never did, then ThunderClan would be weak and have no medicine cat, many warrior dying because of that.

"Peace, dear one. I told you to follow your heart--and your heart lies with your Clan. So you have followed your heart after all." - Sunset, page 58.

Leafpool decides to run away with Crowfeather, a cat she had never talked to more than five times who comes from an enemy Clan. It just so happens that Crowfeather's a Prophecy cat and saved the Clans from almost being destroyed by Twolegs like Leafpool's sister. It just so happens that Firestar's daughter gets a special tom as a mate who happens to be a total jerk to everyone. What bugs me is how Leafpool easily threw away her duty, kin, Clan, and loyalty away just to run away with a tom she hardly knows. She knew the consequences but refused to acknowledge it. She knew her Clanmates would look down on her but she was too stubborn to listen to everyone who knew about her "love" for the tom. She even knew becoming mates with a tom outside ThunderClan was wrong--in fact, taking a mate at all was bad for her yet she still couldn't care about anything but herself. She knew well enough that medicine apprentices and medicine cats couldn't take mates. There's no good enough excuse as to why she broke both warrior and medicine code.

"But Leafpool couldn't control her heart!" Leafpool could but she only put herself first above anyone. She needed a special mate for her own needs and suddenly Crowfeather appeared to be that special mate. Look at Cinderpelt. She loved Firestar but she never told anyone and managed to control her heart. Leafpool's no different than her and nothing can excuse what she did.

When she realised she was pregnant, it was her own fault and not anyone else's. She lost everything because of her choice to be with Crowfeather: her reputation, medicine cat duties, and trust from her Clanmates. Everything. As soon as her kits were born, she pretty much left them to Squirrelflight. Squirrelflight took the big enough risk to lie to Brambleclaw because of her. Although Leafpool did it for the best of reasons, she still made the situation worsen. Unlike Yellowfang, everyone found out about her lie. If anything, Leafpool should have just dealt with everything rather than cause her sister to take risks for her. But obviously Leafpool didn't care much about being a mother if she left her kits with her sister. If she did care, she'd have talked to Firestar about it to work something else. But Leafpool couldn't care less about the consequences Squirrelflight would have to go through as well.

What bugs me a lot is how most people pity Leafpool when she was the one who broke up with Crowfeather, not vice versa. If you looked at Crowfeather's side from when he went back to WindClan, he had to prove his loyalty while Leafpool never. He got shunned for everything while Leafpool barely got anything but forgiveness. The only cats who took longer to forgive her were Jayfeather, Lionblaze and Hollyleaf. How come Crowfeather has to go through more than her? Because Leafpool happens to be so special, I believe.

As soon as the secret comes out, Leafpool brings the knife down on herself without hearing from the other leaders and medicine cats. Saying that she wasn't worthy of being a medicine cat made her show how self-centred she was about herself. Squirrelflight had to suffer more from her yet Leafpool kept going on about herself and didn't bother defending her sister after all Squirrelflight had done for her. She got so many cats caught up in her lie: Squirrelflight, Crowfeather, Breezepelt, Nightcloud--the whole of ThunderClan and WindClan, basically.

Leafpool doesn't even get the punishment she deserves because Firestar's her father. All she ever got for her crimes was forgiveness very quickly while Squirrelflight got shunned and shoved into the background. She even still plays a bigger part in OOTS unlike Squirrelflight. And then Leafpool manages to adjust to being a warrior very quickly unlike any other cat. She even had no training at all yet she was so perfect almost straight away. Firestar never even bothered to teach her how to hunt since ThunderClan had already lost two warriors by then and it was the middle of leaf-bare. Leafpool broke both medicine and the warrior code which is a lot more than any other forbidden couple.

Leafpool got everything she wanted and never paid for it while Squirrelflight had to for her actions. I may not like Squirrelflight, but I do prefer her over her stupid sister and actually feel more sorry for her than Leafpool. Leafpool just got a mate who happened to be a Journey cat, a special name, a high rank, the daughter of the Clan leader, a so-called "great destiny unlike others before her", two special sons, and basically everything else she got. Even when she joins StarClan, the Erin's say that Leafpool's going to be with Crowfeather. Oh, and she also becomes a medicine cat again after The Last Hope. To me, Leafpool doesn't deserve to be a medicine cat after all she did. I know Yellowfang did the same thing but I do think Yellowfang did better than Leafpool.