squirrelflight may not be real, and the abuse she faces at the hands of bramblestar may not be real either.. but thatâs not exactly the point? thatâs not.. why people care so much.
we care so much because the way squirrelflightâs abuse is written is so realistic to real-life abuse that irl survivors of abuse can point it out and resonate with squirrelflight as an abuse victim. and terrifyingly enough, so many people have been able to compare their abusers bramblestar and his beliefs. his control and anger issues, his manipulation and violence. his behaviours may be fictional but the concept of abuse, and even bramblestarâs type of abuse specifically, are far from fictional.
we care so much because itâs almost.. scary? how careless kate cary has been with the handling of bramblestarâs abuse. at first she dismisses it, acts like it never even happened. acts like squirrelflight and bramblestar have been on equal playing ground their entire relationship. then she admits bramblestar was abusive, in squirrelflightâs hope. but she acts like that was the only time bramblestar has ever been abusive towards her when we know, as readers, thatâs blatantly untrue. that bramblestar has always been abusive to squirrelflight for the entirety of their romantic relationship.
itâs scary because kate cary, one of the authors of both the warrior cats main series and the super editions squirrelflightâs hope, isnât a fictional character. sheâs a real person, who has an influence on many young impressionable people, who learn how to handle many real life situations through reading fiction starting at a young age.
we all know fiction impact and effects the way we view and experience reality. we, as readers, are basically told several times through the warrior cats series to apply our worldâs morals to the book about religious battle cats. we know fireheart in series 1 is in the right to help others. we know squirrelflight was in the right to help the sisters, to protect their kits and queens. we know this because we apply our morals to the text weâre reading. itâs definitely not a coincidence that people who are horribly misogynistic in real life agree with squirrelflightâs mistreatment, or bramblestarâs actions.
even if squirrelflight and bramblestar arenât ârealâ characters, even if bramblestarâs abuse towards squirrelflight isnât ârealâ, even if the situations they went through didnât actually happen; why does that matter? why are you using the ârealityâ of what happened in these books to dismiss very real peopleâs very real feelings? why do you care more about whether or not the abuse squirrelflight faced was real, when the impact it had on so many people indisputably was?
