What if Ivypool, in her grief, wanted someone to blame for her daughter’s death. Ashfur wasn’t enough, because she needed someone to direct her anger to, someone she could see and someone who mattered to be angry at (Ash is double-dead so what does snapping at him do?).
So she chooses Shadowsight. He started this all, didn’t he?
She goes off on Ivypool, saying how she has hurt her (Dove) for long enough, and she will NOT be hurting her son too. She deserves to grieve, yes, and she doesn’t deserve her pain, but it’s always HER pain.
Ivypool never once considered how Dovewing felt. She wasn’t even bothered to talk to her before Dovewing left, and didn’t bother talking to her when she returned or when she announced she would be leaving forever for Shadowclan. She hated Dovewing because she got powers, but never wondered how the burden of such a prophecy cost Dovewing.
She didn’t consider why Dovewing didn’t like Bumblestripe and loved Tigerheartstar, nor did she ever respect it. She just wanted her sister to be with someone in the Clan because she didn’t like Tiger and it didn’t matter to her that being with Bumblestripe would have made her unhappy.
And it goes beyond Dovewing, too. She broke her own apprentice’s heart when she refused to help look for her family just because both Dovewing and Tigerheartstar would be on the patrol.
And Dovewing gets it. She gets the resentment when they were apprentices because they were young and Dove was in a prophecy and it was important and ‘cool’, but it wasn’t. Suddenly, Dovewing was burdened by so much responsibility when she was so young. Ivypool did too, training in the Dark Forest, but that was MOONS, even YEARS ago.
Yet Ivypool still resents her for it all, still resents her for following her heart. She didn’t even bother saying hi to Dovewing’s kits, and now she has the audacity to blame one of those kits for getting Bristlefrost killed?
