I feel like I missed an important bit- what's the deal with Sharpclaw and SkyClan's brand of Thistle Law? I've been looking thru tags but I can't find any detailed info, would love to know more esp. since Sharpclaw was a character I loved as a kid
Sure! Summary and then some links.
BB!SkyClan, this is VERY important, does not have Thistle Law. Not until they reach the Lake. Their political overton window is COMPLETELY different from Forest Four, more centered around the "Fulfillment" of something called Spiderstar's Plan.
Spiderstar's Plan = That SkyClan would live apart, surviving in any way they could, until The Rats could be dealt with.
So Sharpclaw can be considered more like a "Traditionalist," if you had to compare it to Forest Four politics. He believes that it's time to cut ties with the behaviors that kept them alive during a time of great 'humiliation.' Kittypets and Daylight Warriors can't be trusted because their full loyalty is not to the continuation of SkyClan, they live with a paw still in "the past."
Leafstar wants her viewpoints challenged and to not live in an echo chamber, but she disagrees that this is even a problem. It makes no sense to her-- they do nothing but contribute. Daylight Warriors are paws that never take more than they give. They don't steal. They bring useful goods and toys. There's no point to isolating ourselves?
She should have done something the minute he started truly undermining her, but she didn't. It burns a hole in him that she "doesn't listen" to him (truth: his ideas suck and make no sense), that he's not the one calling the shots, and he starts to envy the power she has when she's so nonchalant about the "Future of SkyClan."
In BB!AVoS, Darktail EXPLOITS these negative feelings.
This is to display his Modus Operandi as a villain; divide and conquer. He finds dissatisfaction within factions and drives a wedge between groups, breaking off who he can and using them to destroy the rest. He's going to do this when he gets to the Lake, too.
I'm SICK of evil hordes of instant martians that every foreign villain can order from ACME corp to threaten the Clans. So in BB, The Kin has VERY. VERY. VERY few non-Clanborn cats. Darktail's first expansion is from SkyClan.
It wasn't a horde of evil barbarians that attacked SkyClan that night; It was Sharpclaw and his supporters, spitting a point at Leafstar about how her "reliance" on Daylight Warriors had left her weak, and that it was time for a change.
Sharpclaw meets his end that night, trying to convince Hawkwing to join him. Then, the SkyClan oaktree that houses a slumbering Brokenstar falls directly on top of him, pulling down the entire rockface of the gorge and giving the cats a chance to escape.
(RIP Sharpclaw)
RATS RATS: here are the rats.
Post on Sharpclaw
Darktail and Sharpclaw
On Leafstar
Bunch of stuff on Skypelt