but for anyone who would still like to read it, I will try to keep this mostly spoiler-light.

It won't be spoiler free though, so feel free to skip this episode if you're worried.

When Lost Stars was released, I fell in love with Bristlefrost instantly.

She was a hard-working apprentice with a strong sense of duty born of instinct rather than training.

When she saw a young cat in danger, even though he was from another clan,

she dove in to save him without a second thought, even though it put her life in danger too.

She was praised by her mentor and older warriors and given a chance to take her warrior ceremony early.

But, in a rare occurrence for Warriors, she failed.

She did all she could, but it was the middle of leaf-bare, and there simply wasn't any prey for her to catch.

This was, understandably, very frustrating for her, particularly because she had her eyes set on a specific future:

one where she would become mates with another respected cat, and friend, Stemleaf,

and they would both rise to success in their clan as a couple.

Now the only thing keeping that future from her was the season, something she had no control over.

Already we can see the basis of her character.

She has a very specific goal she wants to reach, will do everything she can to reach that goal,

and becomes very frustrated and a little impatient when she's prevented from reaching it.

Otherwise, she's a good person...er, cat, and a talented warrior.

This gave her good qualities to root for, but also a literary string to pull on.

A character who has something they care about has something to lose.

And to my excitement, that's exactly what Lost Stars did to her.

When she finally did pass her assessment, and became a warrior, it seemed like a fairytale ending as went to confess to her future mate.

But...he didn't return her affections.

He thought of her as a good friend, and nothing more.

He, in fact, had affection for a different cat, Spotfur. Bristlefrost was devastated.

This put her in a vulnerable position, but an advantageous one from a writing perspective, in two ways.

First, this situation left her without any idea for her future.

Where she had previously decided exactly how her life would go and who she would be, now everything was up in the air.

In that sort of state, she was more ready to believe the fake Bramblestar when he gave her a new purpose,

helping him find and fight codebreakers to save the clans.

That's a great position for a protagonist, being manipulated by the villain,

and they could have taken that plotline much further than they did if they wanted to.

But the second vulnerability she had created even more possibilities, for me.

She had no one cat now that she could rely on.

She had staked her hopes on Stemleaf alone, rather than bonding with her siblings or parents more, or finding friends in the clan.

Now that she was on her own, she had the chance to meet all the cats in Thunderclan she had ignored,

and build a stronger foundation of character by interacting with all of them.

In this way, we would not only get to know a bunch of characters who didn't yet have characters,

but Bristlefrost would have the chance to grow strong and loyal to Thunderclan on her own merits,

rather than by following a single, simple, fairytale path.

One huge benefit from making Bristlefrost develop past her current relationship with Stemleaf

is in how it would affect her story with another character I have pointedly avoided mentioning so far:

Rootpaw.

A lot has been made of their relationship.

I'll say first that I'm strongly on the side of disliking it...as an endgame.

However, I absolutely love it as it's used in Lost Stars.

Rootpaw is a brand new apprentice.

He's self-conscious about how different his father is and is being picked on by the other apprentices exactly where it hurts.

He feels outcast from his own clan and isn't sure who he is or where he fits in.

Then...a beautiful, strong, mature Thunderclan cat saves his life.

Of course he's going to fall for her.

But whenever we see the things from Bristlefrost's perspective,

she either doesn't care about him or is actively annoyed or embarrassed by him.

Rootpaw thinks they would be a great match, but he doesn't know Bristlefrost well enough to decide that,

and Bristlefrost herself strongly disagrees.

But they do work as parallels of each other.

Rootpaw is just beginning to form an idealized version of who Bristlefrost is and what their future could be together,

while Bristlefrost is about to have herself snapped out of her own idealized world with Stemleaf.

This made me giddy as I awaited the next books in the arc,

because it meant Bristlefrost was in a perfect position to learn about being strong on her own

and making your dreams a reality instead of making reality into your dreams,

and then teach that to Rootpaw, who would need to learn the same lesson!

And that would align perfectly with Rootpaw learning to come into his own with his Sister powers and fitting in with his clanmates.

He too, with Bristlefrost's help, would be able to form a good life for himself

and maybe keep Bristlefrost as a friend like Bristlefrost and Stemleaf were able to stay friends.

Oh.

OH.

OH?

Oh NOOOOO

Ughh...well, okay.

Bristlefrost and Stemleaf do not stay friends.

Stemleaf in fact dies and Bristlefrost shows no grief for the guy she at least cared about as a best friend not one moon ago.

Then over the course of Veil of Shadows and *shiver* Darkness Within,

Rootspring grows on his own and by the latest book,

he's a competent warrior learning entirely new things about his powers and heritage,

and worrying in his chapters about complex problems like how to navigate an aggressive ghost possession

and mediating with a group the clans were previously hostile to in an attempt to get them to help.

He's reached a state of maturity...but it wasn't with Bristlefrost's help.

And fine, they didn't use that juicy plotline potential.

It would be strange of me to get mad at a harmless plotline just because it's not what I predicted.

Except that...it actually does do quite a lot of harm, to Bristlefrost.

Because unlike Rootspring, she doesn't find something to ground herself.

Instead of growing closer to her clanmates, she ignored them.

She didn't make an effort to talk to any members of her clan and didn't even do much as a warrior anymore.

In Darkness Within, the only two things she does, over and over, in her chapters,

are declare her friendship with Spotfur and declare her love for Rootspring.

It would be nice if she actually had a relationship with Spotfur, as it would be nice for her to have a friend at all.

But they never become friends.

Bristlefrost just says that they are friends to herself over and over in hopes that the audience will believe it.

Show, don't tell people.

Spotfur doesn't seem to share the wish to be friends either.

The only connection they could have had was Stemleaf's death.

But this book does a fabulous job of letting Bristlefrost say what she felt for Stemleaf wasn't real love,

because she doesn't care about him being gone, unlike Spotfur.

But...Briss...you did really care for him.

Even if you didn't get together you were friends and he supported you in every step of your journey.

You don't care at all that this cat is dead?

And then there's Rootspring.

Unlike before where Rootpaw, the unsure apprentice disconnected from his clan,

looked up to the accomplished, strong, loyal she-cat Bristlefrost who didn't need him since she had her clan,

we now have Bristlefrost, a warrior somehow more disconnected from her clan with no defining relationships,

clinging to the mature respected and talented warrior Rootspring.

It just feels so icky stripping someone who used to be talented, confident, and full of promise

just to make her pine after a younger cat who, when she confessed, was neither talented, nor confident, nor respected.

This is made even worse by looking at their journeys.

Bristlefrost idolized a cat, found out he didn't like her, then went on to try and stumble through life without him

and eventually clinged to a different cat who she already knew liked her back.

Rootspring idolized a cat, and after a lot of one-way pining, she suddenly confessed she liked him too

and then he grew on his own with his love interest padding one step behind him like a kit.

Why did Bristlefrost conclude this arc by learning she couldn't have her fairytale life

while Rootspring got it handed to him on a silver platter only to find out he didn't even need it?

*Deep breath*

Bristlefrost was set up in the first and even second book of this arc to be a wonderful, interesting protagonist.

But instead, Darkness Within tore down everything she had going for her,

and there's not much character left to salvage.

If you're on board with BristleRoot as a ship, I'm not going to blame you,

and I'm sure you have plenty of fluff waiting in the future.

But personally, I was never a fan,

and now that "love for Rootspring" is the only personality trait Bristlefrost has,

I am a bit worried for her future in this series.

Sorry for ending this on a low note.

Maybe The Place of No Stars will change things.

Thank you for watching,

and always remember to please, *please* not lose your mind when you follow your heart.