StormClan's Folly Spoilers
i haven't finished the book yet. But I had to stop and make a tiny little rant. I hate Stripestar. So much.
1. He wants to act like this great, strong, capable leader but he can't seem to find the courage to be honest with the cats around him. From almost the very beginning, he constantly lies by omission, actively having the mindset of "if I'm honest, Galestar will want to go back, and /I/ NEED her to not want that" like bro, let her have agency to make her own decisions. It's so selfish of him to lie just because he can't face his wild dreams of travelling without some other cat being dragged along behind him and his dumb decisions (which he makes over and over again)
2. The dumb decisions he makes over and over again. It was his idea to merge the Clans. Yet he struggles with being biased over ThunderClan and WindClan cats (a problem that Galestar doesn't seem to have until Stripestar's behavior is apparent). He gets not one, but three cats killed, and while he feels guilty for a while, he doesn't learn from his mistakes. He still decides to take chances that StormClan cannot afford
3. His jealousy of Galestar. He knows it's wrong to feel that way. He actively thinks about how ugly his jealousy is. Yet he lets it rear it's head, so much so that he triangulates Galestar with Tinyclaw in order to steamroll Galestar's decisions.
4. When they're in the two leg den, and Galestar attempts to talk to him about what's going on with him, the reader knows that he's worried and lying about his dream. I was SO frustrated when Galestar said she knew what was happening with him - it was the kits they lost. Like girl, I know you don't know, but Stripestar 100% imo took that as an out and decided to keep lying. Part of me would wonder if he even cared about the kits at all if the author didn't actively write it into Stripestar's POV.
The entire book, I just can't help but keep thinking "imagine how much easier this journey would have been if Stripestar and Galestar weren't so dead set on pulling their Clans into their cross clan relationship." Like how hard is it to just step down as leaders and go live as rogues? This book is so impossibly irritating yet fascinating at the same time.