I'm powering through most of ASC: Star to get it over with (and planning to summarize all my thoughts in one big post instead of a liveread), but this part of the Curlfeather/Frostpaw interaction sticks out like a thorn to the point where I need to comment on it alone.
For context, Frostpaw is on her deathbed and this is the moment where she's having a very important, culminating argument with her mother about her motivations.
The writers decided that their thesis is that StarClan itself is what really makes the Clan cats warriors-- not necessarily an unchanging Warrior Code. The law might change, but unwavering faith in their religion will keep their morality straight through such times. Through Frostpaw and Curlfeather, this is is the point in the story where the narrative has to prove this. Or at least make a compelling argument in its case.
Frostpaw's sentiment here, that Curlfeather wouldn't have been able to get legitimacy as a leader, is just factually wrong.
StarClan has been shown to have absolutely no power to deny cats lives. They're also completely incapable of pointing out "illegitimate leaders" to the living cats.
Brokenstar and Tigerstar were already murderers who had eliminated political rivals when StarClan gave them "their blessing." They also completely refused to give Nightstar any lives, when they're shown to be capable of "life-splitting" in the case of Pinestar's successor, Sunstar. It goes back and forth between being "unable" and "unwilling" to influence the mortal plane, but the bottom line is consistently that they can't do shit.
This whoooooole book was also about how Splashstar, who also didn't accept the extra lives, was able to keep control over a frustratingly compliant RiverClan. You sit through entire chapters of RiverClan cats whining about Just Following Orders and the main characters being washed in pity at how hard of a situation they must be in. Curlfeather is demonstrated to be a hypocrite; but if RiverClan HAD followed the Warrior Code and killed Splashstar in "self-defense" like it stipulates, or moved to prevent the kits from suffering at his hands like it says, then she's correct.
The Warrior Code, as a system of laws, IS actually what makes them a proper society... at least, in this atomized fantasy where Clans aren't communities with a sense of interpersonal duty towards one another, but instead dedicated to process and pride.
Don't misunderstand me; Curlfeather herself as a character claims that what was bad about RiverClan, and needed to "change," was that they'd started caring about other Clans under Mistystar. This is nonsensical and clearly wrong; Mistystar was only slightly less isolationist than Onestar, and every time she'd helped another Clan was a good thing. It did not make them "weak," being a more "traditionalist" leader wouldn't make them "strong."
What I'm getting at is that her wider point, in the debate about Law vs Faith and which one truly makes a cat a Warrior, is supported by the entire arc. Faith in StarClan didn't stop any of this from happening, but a better sense of honor sure as hell would have.
I didn't think it was possible for them to make me more anti-StarClan after they enabled Ashfur's hostile takeover of ThunderClan in the last arc, but here we are.
