All my Warrior AUs, Theories, and Opinions!

Leafpool- Good or Bad?

Category: Opinion

Spoilers

Beginning from:
The New Prophecy; book 5, (Twilight)

Middle:
Leafpool's Wish, if you've read arc 3, there's nothing new.

Ending at*:
The Power of Three; book 6 (Sunrise)

*minor spoilers for the beginning of A Vision of Shadows, book 1 (Apprentices Quest)

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Welp, one of the slightly controversial subjects of warriors-- is Leafpool a good cat and/or mother?

My opinion: She's both a good cat and a good mother; before people get angry, please read to learn why!

I'm going to summarize and point out certain points/events:

1. When Crowfeather asks her to leave the clans with him, she replies she can't and that her clan needs her.

2. Leafpool saw Brightheart and Cinderpelt working and getting on perfectly fine without her help felt like the clan would be fine without her help with no endangerment to its members.

3. Before she decided to leave with him, she went to the moonpool where Spottedleaf told her to follow her heart-- she's asking what to do because she's in love with a cat. How else would she take that sentence?

4. She leaves the clans, and not knowing she'll have to return, ends up getting pregnanant.

5. When they learn the Clans are in danger, they return to help.

6. After Cinderpelt dies, Leafpool stays in the clan, knowing she'll be needed as the only medicine cat in the clan.

7. She learns she's 'pregananant and confides with Squirrelflight for help.

8. Leafpool, close to kitting, tells Firestar she needs to go on a medicine cat quest and Squirrelflight goes with her on her own accord, Leafpool didn't ask her to.

9. Squirrelflight is lied to by Yellowfang that she will never be able to have her own kits. (Leafpool not knowing it was a lie, either)

10. Squirrelflight ends up taking in the kits, deciding that if she can't have her own, at least she will have a family with Brambleclaw with them.

11. Leafpool stays a medicine cat, still the only medicine cat in ThunderClan as Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw are a happy family with her kits.

First off, I will admit: when the clans are told the truth, Leafpool became annoying in scenes that included Crowfeather, but she wasn't actually a bad cat. (Put it this way: Squirrelflight was annoying as an apprentice, but she wasn't a bad cat, you know?)

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If Leafpool wasn't told to "Follow her heart" by Spottedleaf, a trusted and respected medicine cat from StarClan she would have debated actually leaving the clans for a bit longer and would've been there for the badger attack.

I will admit: if Cinderpelt didn't die during the attack, Leafpool might have left with Crowfeather later on, (as Leafpool had seen Brightheart and Cinderpelt working fine without her and believed the clan didn't need her much) but it's likely Cinderpelt would still die, or been weakened enough to die, or to have to retire- leaving Leafpool as the only medicine cat.

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When Leafpool says she needs to leave for a herb that doesn't grow in Clan territory, (a cover-up for leaving to have her kits) Squirrelflight was the one to 'request' (well.. demand, pretty much!) to go with Leafpool.

The manipulation from Yellowfang telling Squirrelflight she will never bear kits, and Feathertail telling her, "These kits deserve parents who can be proud of them, who can raise them among their Clanmates as fine warriors," manipulated and influenced her to take them in.

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On the topic if she was a good mother: Yes. She was a good mother. When someone gets pregnant and knows they can't take care of a child without causing harm to the children or don't have the ability to care for them correctly, they're recommended to give the child up for adoption, if they put the interest for the child(ren) first, they generally do give them up for adoption.

If she had kept them, she would've left the clan without a Medicine Cat, causing danger to not only the clan, but herself and her kits as well.

When Squirrelflight gave her one last chance to keep the kits instead before they returned to the clans, she said "No," knowing it would be in the best interest for everyone else, not her own wish to keep them. In turn of giving them up, (believing what Yellowfang told Squirrelflight as truth not a lie) she thought with her sister deciding to take them in, she was giving her sister the only chance she would have to have a family, while also giving the kits the best chance of a normal clan-kithood without prejudice.

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TLDR: (leaves out a bit- if you disagree on something, read above, please!^)

Leafpool was dealt bad hand of cards after a lapse of judgment influenced by Spottedleaf, a StarClan cat she trusted, and the belief the clan wouldn't be in any more danger without her there (after observing Cinderpelt and Brightheart getting on just fine) but when her clan was in danger, she ran back to help and continued to do what she could to fix her mistake and make the best decision at the time.

Leafpool did NOT manipulate Squirrelflight, but Feathertail and Yellowfang did to get her to take the kits in; and Leafpool stayed as the only medicine cat in ThunderClan, knowing her sister was taking better care of her kits than she could at that time.

Conclusion:

Leafpool was not a bad cat to either her clan, her sister, or her kits, and though she was annoying later on in scenes with Crowfeather/Nightcloud/her kits, it doesn't make her a bad cat.