I saw people doing a warrior cats unpopular opinion thing, and I thought about mine and like
My (maybe?) unpopular opinion is that A Shadow in RiverClan would have been better suited as a Mistyfoot-centric book.
The story makes Feathertail wildly out of character with who she is in The New Prophecy, and I feel like all the story beats would work just as well with Mistyfoot struggling as deputy to connect with her clanmates. It's the struggle between knowing your clan would have left you for dead in that hole, but knowing just as well that your mother's clan was never happy with you in it. Where do you belong? How do you cope?
How do you cope knowing that your friend was the lover of the dictator that ordered the death of your brother? The man who hated you for the crime of being your mother's shadow. How can you listen to her say that she misses him? You don't cope. You look at Hawkpaw and Mothpaw in a new light. They're a shadow of their father and don't even know it.
You're now in the pawsteps of the others around you. You look at them, and you see their traitorous father. Your clanmates look at you and see your mother, who was once the enemy of RiverClan. Legacy is inescapable, but you try to look past it. You regret knowing everything you do. You wish that the secrets would have just stayed buried.
It means a lot more when Leopardstar dies for you. It's not just a leader dying for her clanmate - it's what any leader should do. It's a leader dying for her deputy. It's a leader who understands that she should have died nine times over for Stonefur, but she didn't, and now all she can do is lay her life down for you. Things are not always going to be good between you both. But for now the two of you understand one another. There will not be another Bonehill, execution, or death.
You are the deputy of RiverClan. You are a part of RiverClan, and this is your home.
No matter what it takes.