i like the part about Mudclaw's rebellion in Nightcloud's bio, where it starts simple right - he is the rightful leader bc he was the deputy and it's sus that ThunderClan insists that Onewhisker should be blessed. and how both she and Crowfeather agree with Mudclaw is the right one, even thought they don't agree on other things (namely how much truth as ThunderClan speaking and all).
and then Mudclaw goes mask off when Hawkfrost joins and brings open Thistles with him in. and Nightcloud starts having some doubts, because.. 'wait is that actually right'. but she is a bit too deep in this shit to bail out. and Hawkfrost is using the ever present 'hypothetical massacre' that will definitely happen if ThunderClan gets what they want (crowning of their totally spy Onewhisker) and it triggers something what Hillrunner used to say when she was a kit. so surely there must be some truth in there, right. it's actually reasonable to kill Onewhisker, right..? yes, to prevent ThunderClan massacring and driving them out they need to kill those that side with them, that's the only way. Hawkfrost and Mudclaw are right.. until they werent. like she was already tiptoeing that thin line between hard traditionalism and outright Thistle Law, but that was really pushing her over to the right side.
at least that's how i interpret it! i dont want to say she was a soft Thistle, bc it sounds like an oxymoron lol, but definitely somewhere in the very short very thin middle between traditionalist and it, while still parroting the dogwhistles (thistlewhistles).
Thistlewhistles LMAO
Something I'm getting at with Mudclaw's Rebellion that I'm glad people are picking up on is that there's a point where the differences between them all don't matter anymore.
Is Mudclaw himself a true supporter of Thistle Law, or is he just willing to work with them to benefit himself? In the end, he's invited TigerClan cats like Blackclaw into his cause. He repeats all the same rhetoric, and exploits xenophobia to his own ends. He's organized an insurrection. He never states an opinion on the Queen's Rights, which is the "litmus" test for if they've crossed the line between Traditionalism and Thistle Law...
but it doesn't matter. The distinction is no longer meaningful. If it grows like a thistle...
Nightcloud, too. She was born under Queen's Rights. She felt suspicious when Mudclaw started bringing in those outsiders to the rebellion. She was too far in to back out. She had a sympathetic backstory and good, understandable reasons to be so paranoid about WindClan's weakness.
Didn't matter; in the end she fell in line, was complicit in the assassination attempt.
Cats like Crowfeather don't even believe that Onewhisker lied. He just truly felt that Mudclaw was the better leader, and Tallstar's last-minute madness shouldn't be considered legitimate. You don't have to believe the conspiracy to support its actions, you can just be a VERY useful idiot.
In the end, literally nothing good came of this conflict. It's the start of Onestar's downfall, several people died, they were fighting peat fires for weeks. Your good intentions mean nothing when you ally with hate movements.