Do you have any plans for Frost’s littermates in ASC?
It's odd that Canon!Curlfeather is portrayed on the screen as a scheming character who was fully willing to manipulate her daughter into a position of power, and smart enough to know that she needed lackeys to carry out her dirtywork... and yet, seemingly had no plans for her other two kids.
On one hand, I can understand her wanting to "use" her family as little as possible. You could say she's willing to make a sacrifice with Frostkit's comfort, but wants to spare her other children from it.
On the other hand... I just don't feel like that works. I want to portray BB!Curlfeather as someone who truly believes every choice she made was good for her children. She might reconsider some of her beliefs based on her closeness to Morningstar while in the Dark Forest, but in life, she is absolutely the sort of person who would have a use in mind for her kittens.
I'm not super proud of these quick designs I made for Mistpaw and Graypaw, but here's a first draft;
You probably notice that they're all dog-like, and that's because they are direct descendants of Bluestar in BB! WOLF MOTIF BABEY
In fact, this is going to be a massive contributor towards their characterizations. I may be shuffling my tree in some other ways to make for better faction drama in RiverClan, but BB!Curlfeather priding her lineage, especially as it connects to Crookedstar and Stonefur, is very important to how it shapes her identity.
DESIGN AND DRABBLE BENEATH THE CUT;
On the wolf motif as a whole;
To begin with; note the apple-leaf eye markings! They are subject to the Mapleshade Curse.
Something I like to play with a lot is misconceptions about wolf behavior. For Bluestar herself, where this all began, I use the myth of the "lone wolf" as symbolism that she never truly acted alone.
At every turn, she had friends and family. Her sacrifices, her ruling style, everything she's ever done, is based on her love for both ThunderClan as well as the cats in other Clans.
The symbol of her friend group, the Forget-Me-Not, comes to symbolize Fire Alone as an ideology.
So... the Curlkin.
What I'm playing with is the idea that wolves are perfect, ferociously strong predators from birth.
Curlfeather wants to eventually give her children strong, respectable positions in the Clan. For Frostpaw, that's the Cleric position.
For the other kids, she was still assessing them as they were growing. Deputyship would have been for one of them, but she hadn't planned so far ahead that it would have been unreasonable.
"When you see a fish upstream, you don't race ahead to catch it downriver."
So, she wanted Mist and Gray to be strong and always encouraged them to achieve greatness. They were battle training as soon as they could, and never missed a day.
But it wasn't really their interest, and they weren't really "naturally gifted" or anything. They just do what their mom tells them is good to do for their future.
As a result I want all of them to look a little goofy in some way, except Curlfeather herself.
Frostpaw herself is the softest of the lot, but I want to make sure Gray and Mist are pretty obviously sweeter than they seem too.
Unfortunately though, I don't think I captured what I was going for. I'm definitely gonna give the Frost Siblings a second pass, while Frostpaw will just get refined a little.
Graypaw
He's naturally huge. Even as a newborn, people would comment about him being a big fat kitten.
As a result, he was probably the most "promising," early on.
Understand though; this wasn't necessarily nefarious. Having accomplished warriors as offspring is a sign of a great warrior, it makes a strong family.
It didn't mean she only saw her largest child as an opportunity. He just had great potential, which she would nourish.
He's a little bit entitled as a result. He's big, he works hard, his family's a big deal, he knows it.
And that's sort of his "issue," if you want to call it that. He's not really interested in honor for honor's sake, or improving himself for the sake of the Clan, the way his mother would expect a great warrior like herself to be.
He likes the tangible rewards of strength and is motivated by approval.
...which causes him to be a bully to those he considers weaker.
That ear got shredded in a fight somehow, I haven't decided yet if there's going to be another set of apprentices around the time, if it was Splashtail or his sister, or if it was a cat from another Clan who got tired of his shit lmaoo
(In any case it was NOT his mother.)
Since him and his sister have "obedient to their mother" as major personality traits, I decided to give them both domestic dog characteristics. Graypaw has a german shepherd "stance."
I really like when people give Gray some cream in his design, so I made him look kinda like how I imagine Stonefur.
I don't really like it, though, especially since he's usually described as "silver tabby."
In my next draft, I'll probably make him look more like "Swansong if he had the wolf motif."
And also fatter. They are not fat enough. These are RiverClan warriors and they are all too damn skinny.
Frostpaw
Since this arc began, I've imagined that Frosty has a sort of "little red riding hood" vibe. It's been mixing in my head with the wolf motif, the phrase "wool over the eyes," and the idea of a wolf in sheep's clothing to result in a sort of wooly cloak idea.
Something about a wolf cub who doesn't know who to trust-- the Big Bad Wolf, or the Lumberjack with a blood-soaked axe.
Lost, confused, their whole world turned upside down.
(hmmm.... maybe I'll do a thing where, before their mom's death, the wool covers her eyes. When she sees her die, the look of shock and horror is etched into her face forever.)
In BB, the Clan cats are monitored by scientists. They wouldn't be spaying or neutering the subjects of their investigation-- so I made her iconic "scars" MUCH bigger.
In fact, they're autopsy stitches. I'm going for a sort of "BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD" vibe there.
Real "there is no way you would have survived those injuries without modern medicine" hours
I'm satisfied with this design, so I probably won't be changing it much besides tweaks. Though, I might make it so her "belly" wasn't exposed before the scientists shaved it to stitch her back up.
NOTE: If you wanna see more Frostpaw Plans, go check out this post where I jotted down a ton of ideas, it's also got further links to explore on BB!ASC thoughts I've been sitting on
Mistpaw
This is the one I like the least. She looks waaaaay too much like an Ivypool.
In my next pass I need to make her look cuter and goofier, give her some curls.
Like Graypaw, she only has one particularly unique scene in ASC so I'm building her personality around that.
Graypaw was a bit of a bully, so Mistpaw's got her mom's silver tongue and sharp wit. She can give a Mistystar speech if she wants.
She's a natural thinker, very curious, willing to question. It's something Curlfeather encourages in her, always coming in with the right answer to keep her satisfied.
"Mom, why do we train so much harder than everyone else?"
"To outdo them, of course."
"But... why train so hard when there's no threat? The impostor is gone, we're at peace."
"Oh, my love. You cannot pack a week's worth of training into the minute before a battle. They come hard and fast, and your attacker will have the advantage of surprise. Only practice will compensate."
Though Gray was a really big kitten and naturally imposing, Mist would be the one Curlfeather would ultimately decide was most fitting as a deputy.
If they'd gotten to that point, the siblings probably would have gotten in more fights as Gray started desiring the position for its benefits.
He'd see his mom was clearly giving Mist more opportunities to prove herself, and demand equal chances.
Mist would start thinking of Gray as a stupid bully who thinks he deserves everything because his shoulders are big.
BOTH of them would probably start trying to get Frost to support them over the other.
It would have been a MESS.
BUT, they never did get to that point. Curl was pretty equally focused on them at the point where she died.
When Graypaw got his ear shredded, Mistpaw thought it looked painful and horrific and "decided" to crop her own entirely, so they could never be shredded in battle. For reasons I covered in this Hearing Loss guide, RiverClan relies very little on hearing while hunting anyway.
I wanted Mistpaw to look extremely practical, and reference the cropped ears of a domestic dog. Give her a sort of "doberman" vibe.
Something struck me that Curlfeather could have talked her daughter into getting her ears cropped, both to show visually that she's politically grooming her just as much as she's politically grooming Frostpaw.
But... I'm unsure if I'll stick with it. I might have both Gray AND Mist get their ears cropped, or neither.
I also batted around the idea of a cropped tail, too, but THAT would definitely be too far since a tail is very important in swimming.
In fact, I made her tail waaaay too short and her build too thin, in the pursuit of that "doberman" idea.
Again; not a fan of this design. I will probably re-use it later or just give it away. Maybe I'll wait until I have a couple of "Rejected BB Designs" and do an adoptable batch lmao.
