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  • A little over a week ago, a new super edition was released: Leopardstar's Honor.

  • This is not going to be a review of that book, but I will be using it as one of the main

  • examples to explore a phenomenon popping up in many of the recent stories.

  • As such, I will issue a preemptive spoiler warning for anyone avoiding material about

  • the new book.

  • I will also be going over Winds of Change, a recent graphic novel, and Blackfoot's

  • Reckoning, one of the newest novellas, so spoiler warning for those as well, in case

  • you haven't read them yet.

  • As protagonists, Leopardstar, Blackstar, and Mudclaw share something in common.

  • They are all...at the very least, morally gray characters.

  • Leopardstar put her clan in the paws of Tigerstar and ordered her deputy to murder two of her

  • apprentices simply in the name of purging half-clan blood from the clan.

  • Blackstar chose to be a loyal deputy to not one but two Shadowclan tyrants, both of which

  • went against the warrior code many times during their times in power, and Blackstar himself

  • murdered Stonefur before our eyes with no remorse.

  • Mudclaw, upset that he wasn't named as the new leader after Tallstar died, led a coup

  • against his own clan and new leader to try and kill Onewhisker before he could get his

  • nine lives.

  • These characters have done very bad things, but they also aren't purely antagonistic

  • forces in the ways that Tigerstar, Brokenstar, and most of our main villains are portrayed

  • to be.

  • Leopardstar and Blackstar, post-Tigerclan, were strong leaders for their respective clans,

  • and Mudclaw was a good deputy for Windclan, especially in contrast to Tallstar's more

  • lenient attitude.

  • The draw of these characters comes in rationalizing these two sides, and figuring out not just

  • how we feel about about them, but how they would feel about themselves.

  • And some of those questions have now been answered directly, because In the past year,

  • all three cats have been given books where we get to see their points of view.

  • Winds of Change has what I consider the best balance of protagonist and antagonist tendencies

  • in its protagonist of Mudclaw.

  • Throughout the book, we can see particular, trackable traits and values of his that lead

  • him to the drastic actions he takes.

  • Firstly, his ambition.

  • From before Tallstar's death through to his own, it is clear that he wants power,

  • and believes he deserves it.

  • Once Onewhisker steps up to be leader instead, with Ashfoot as the new deputy since he himself

  • refused the offer, he becomes self-pitying, wonders what he is without the power of a

  • deputy, what he could possibly do with his life.

  • He refuses to even step up and help the clan in the multiple times he was asked by various

  • different cats since he wasn't deputy.

  • And it isn't something he can get over easily, either.

  • Even in a casual, unrelated conversation with his littermate, Tornear, he still ignores

  • the topic and brings up Onewhisker's new leadership and his worries about the situation.

  • In a similar vein, Mudclaw also shows a problem with other authorities.

  • Even under Tallstar, the leader he does respect, Mudclaw is unable to follow his wishes and

  • orders to keep things civil between the clans.

  • Ultimately, the last of these refusals is what leads Tallstar to talk to Onewhisker

  • and give him the leadership of the clan.

  • And as soon as Onewhisker is declared the new leader, these problems become even more

  • apparent.

  • He outright challenges the new leader to a battle and considers killing him, first by

  • his own paw and then by letting him be slaughtered by a fox.

  • He won't even listen to the medicine cat when asked to accept Tallstar's choice.

  • Finally, and perhaps most detrimentally, he constructs certain narratives in his head,

  • and believes only in evidence that confirms those narratives.

  • His narrative that all the clans are ultimately out to get him, and then specifically that

  • Firestar is trying to make Onewhisker a puppet leader to control Windclan are ones he will

  • not let go for anything.

  • Even when his own littermate tells him he is going too far, and when he sees Onewhisker

  • making decisions to strengthen Windclan and being a strong leader like he wants, he doesn't

  • change his mind.

  • In the end, the only thing that made him realize what he had done was when Hawkfrost betrayed

  • Mudclaw, a rip in the lie he had told himself.

  • Two of the most important aspects of Mudclaw in Winds of Change that make him a good interpretation

  • of the character were, first, that he was distinctly and consciously doing and thinking

  • bad things for the majority of the story, and second, that most of the fault for his

  • beliefs and actions lies with him.

  • Without Hawkfrost, he likely wouldn't have joined himself with Riverclan or Shadowclan,

  • and he may have not created such a large group to launch a coup, but he already had delusions

  • and even murderous thoughts before he ever met the Riverclan tom.

  • Hawkfrost only amplified his existing plans.

  • This brings us to the other two, less successful examples: Blackfoot's Reckoning and Leopardstar's

  • Honor, and as such it's also time for the spoiler warning.

  • I won't go over many specific plot details for either of these books, but I will be discussing

  • the way they wrote certain key sections and the overall impressions they give of the main

  • characters.

  • If that is something you'd like to avoid, bow out now.

  • I'll give you some time.

  • All right.

  • So I will admit that while both books failed to properly portray their characters, it was

  • in very different ways.

  • In Blackfoot's case, he is presented as a completely good cat who has a constant conscience

  • through all of his actions...but who is also deeply stupid.

  • He felt bad for Brokenstar and Tigerstar based on their parentage and exile and only bound

  • himself to them out of loyalty.

  • Even as he did horrible things, he knew and continuously told himself that the deeds were

  • horrible, but continued to do them because...his leaders ordered him to, we can suppose.

  • But if he knew they were bad cats asking him to do bad things, what exactly was stopping

  • him from just...not following orders?

  • We didn't see any deep-seeded reason for his commitment to duty over all other things.

  • He regretted every one of his actions immediately after or even as he was taking them.

  • So why didn't he stop?

  • Well the book doesn't give us a good answer, and it can't, because it refuses to compromise

  • his moral purity.

  • From the reader's point of view, the blame still lays with him because he had every chance

  • to stop and never did, but he is also framed as a good cat who knows what is right and

  • wrong and won't struggle to lead Shadowclan properly once it's in his paws.

  • That doesn't quite fit with the unapologetic, stubborn, stern picture of him we get in the

  • first and second arcs of the series, and as a result this whole book feels like an inaccurate

  • depiction of his character.

  • Leopardstar's Honor, meanwhile, does give Leopardfur faults, early on at least: her

  • being too impulsive, temperamental, and quick to hold a grudge.

  • Her ideals and belief that she will be special and save her clan in some way also lead her

  • to make rash decisions and trust in her own judgement rather than the advice of others,

  • which let's her be manipulated by Tigerclaw's suggestions that she take advantage of her

  • deputy position and later, that she needs alliances to stand against Thunderclan and

  • its treachery.

  • All of this could have been good reason for her to accept Tigerstar's offer and create

  • such a warped state of mind for herself that she made the horrible decisions she did, and

  • only later came to regret them when she realized what all she was wrong about.

  • However, the latter half of the book changes the direction dramatically.

  • Rather than being rash, aggressive, irrational, and self-aggrandizing, the combination of

  • a bunch of deaths she couldn't prevent and the rhetoric her leader Crookedstar and her

  • father Mudfur have been forcibly pushing on her for the whole book turned her into a hesitant,

  • self-deprecating mess who worried about every possible risk and didn't do anything at

  • all for fear that it could hurt her clanmates.

  • And this new character...is one who doesn't fit nearly as well into the role she has to

  • fill when the topic of Tigerclan comes up.

  • Even before Tigerclan was formed, Leopardfur had already been witness to plenty of examples

  • of Tigerclaw betraying her and his own clan, and had assessed him to be untrustworthy and

  • someone she would keep at arm's length.

  • However, in her desperation, she did decide to ally with Tigerstar's Shadowclan and

  • together take down Windclan and Thunderclan too so that all the clans could live as one,

  • and her clan would have more places to find prey with the river poisoned.

  • Very quickly, Tigerstar abandoned all of his promises and started subjugating Riverclan,

  • now Tigerclan, and Leopardstar herself.

  • Leopardstar is angry and knows everything he is doing is wrong, but is scared of him

  • and unwilling to even speak up and help her clanmates when they look to her.

  • It would be bad enough if her brand new subservient nature was causing her to passively let her

  • clanmates be hurt, but under this premise, she also actively hurts them by exiling Mudfur

  • and ordering Stonefur to kill Featherpaw and Stormpaw.

  • The only reason Leopardstar ever became submissive in the first place was because she had a fear

  • of risk instilled in her, a fear that actions she chose could hurt her clanmates.

  • Here her lack of assertiveness is hurting her clanmates, and she continues to do it

  • anyway.

  • And like with Blackfoot, even while she is doing these bad things she already recognizes

  • them as wrong.

  • A younger Leopardstar, or even one who still remembered why risks were scary, would have

  • stood up to Tigerstar, booted him out of her camp, and declared him a mortal enemy forever

  • at the first sign that he *might* hurt her clanmates.

  • The character this book established for her, one that was in line with what we saw her

  • be in prior works, wouldn't have taken the actions she did at all.

  • And even if you do believe the book's later, more submissive Leopardstar would have lost

  • the will to care for her clanmates, there is still a large issue that the reason she

  • got to that state was because of Mudfur and Crookedstar constantly hounding her for being

  • too brash and reckless.

  • By making the attitude they encourage the same one that leads her to allow Tigerstar

  • to reck her clan, they are inadvertently shifting the blame off of Leopardstar, who wouldn't

  • have let Tigerstar do anything in her original state, and onto her father and leader.

  • Reading Mudclaw's manga, you are able to grasp that he is wrong and blame him for his

  • actions while still seeing his thought process for how he came to believe he was doing what

  • was right.

  • However, in Blackstar's case he is given far too much moral purity and in Leopardstar's

  • case the blame is shifted off of her and onto other cats.

  • In both cases the portrayal feels inaccurate, and a reader will come away not with the understanding

  • of how someone's mindset could be warped to cause them to do bad deeds, but with confusion

  • or pity over seeing good cats do bad things when they could have, and even would have,

  • made different choices.

  • Characters with gray morality were never going to be easy ones to pin down and write properly,

  • but I can't help but wish that, for characters this popular, their points of view were given

  • a little more care and allowed a little more darkness.

  • Thank you for watching, and always remember that wrong things can sometimes feel right.

A little over a week ago, a new super edition was released: Leopardstar's Honor.

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塑造道德灰色人物 - Sunny's 演講 - 貓戰士分析(Portraying Morally Gray Characters – Sunny's Spiel | Warriors Analysis)

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