#brightheart

[pineconekitty]

I've read A Thief in ThunderClan for the first time today, and I wanted to try redrawing one of the panels c: I chose the one where Cinderpelt tells Brightheart that she's expecting kits, mostly because I wanted an excuse to draw the sisters together

[a-kinda-boring-writer]

Can you explain Brightfire a little bit to me? I'm open-minded but it does seem strange when that's his nephews mate, and he mentored her sister. I guess I could see parts of it??

I can try lol.

Yeah, it's admittedly a bit strange! It's not meant to be wholly healthy tbh. Far from toxic, but still worth mentioning. And to be honest, it started out as a joke, before I gave it any serious thought. Even then, I think it's very much still within the realm of crackship.

I wrote this thing the first time someone asked me about it, but it's quite long and rambly, and just kinda sucks I think.

The TL;DR is that this ship occurs within a very specific context and point in time, which is during the latter half of TNP, right after Daisy joins ThunderClan and Cloudtail starts neglecting his wife (not on purpose, of course) to spend time with this newcomer.

I tend to view Brighthear's relationship with Cloudtail much less favorably than the vast majority of the fandom. Small part of it is simply because I just don't like Cloudtail. At all. lmao. But also because I have the bad habit of interpreting certain throwaway things the Erins put in their books perhaps in the worst possible way. In this case, it's these passages from the guides:

-

I understand that this is meant to be like cute and the power of love overcomes all and stuff. I get that that's the intention. I do understand what they were trying to do.

But what silly dumb me gets out of that is: Brightheart derives way too much of her self-worth, dare I say much of her identity post dog attack too, from her relationship with Cloudtail. "As long as Cloudtail loved me, I was no longer Lostface, but Brightheart" and considering what being Lostface means to her... that's kinda dreadful, innit?

So imagine what must have been going through her head when after all the bullshit they go through in TNP, losing her home and her mother in the way she did, and then suddenly Cloudtail (in her eyes) stops loving her and starts chasing another woman.

(and won't even stand up for her when things like this happen 👆 which IS actually real and canon, not something she imagines)

Now, in canon, it's Leafpool who puts a stop to this, chewing Cloudtail out and telling him to stop being a piece of shit to his wife (common Leafy W)

In the Brightfire timeline, though, it's Firestar who gets involved. He's always kinda had a habit of checking on his clanmates, trying to keep their spirits up, getting them back on their paws when they're down. His interactions with Longtail post rabbit attack comes to mind.

He would notice that Brightheart isn't doing so well and would try to cheer her up. Brightheart wouldn't be too receptive at fist, but she ends up latching onto him and inadvertently sort of starts getting from Firestar's company and kinds gestures the same validation she used to derive from Cloudtail's. Plus, he takes her out on patrols, and she starts spending time with other cats that are not her husband, who are happy to have her around, and that all helps with her self-esteem. And she starts to realize that, while she needs to be loved to be Brightheart, it doesn't necessarily have to be Cloudtail's love that does it.

Crucially, this version of Firestar is the funny fanon interpretation of him: handsome, charismatic and very charming, but incredibly clueless when it comes to romance involving himself. Much of what he does for her comes across as flirty to Brightheart, who at first isn't too sure what to make of it, but ends up enjoying the attention. Which leaves her feeling very, very conflicted. Though if Cloudtail's eyes have started to wander... well, why shouldn't hers?

Firestar, meanwhile, he doesn't realize what he's causing. Copying a paragraph from the prev post: He just sees that Brightheart responds well to what he does, so he keeps doing it. He invites her to share some fresh-kill with him and Sandstorm, and while they eat, he slips in that her fur looks lovely today. Then he pats himself on the back when Bright smiles, and offers to go on another patrol with him. Man, he's just so great at supporting his clanmates! 😌

And... that's it, really! That's the set up more or less. From there, you can take it wherever you want. It doesn't have to end in romance. All this can be reframed as purely platonic if you prefer it that way. Hell, you can go back and change Firestar for someone else if you want, and the premise will still kinda work.

I went with Brightfire because Firestar is very easy to ship with other cats, he's actually closer in age to Brightheart, than Brightheart is to Cloudtail, which I found curious... and finally I reiterate, before this became sort of an exploration of what goes on in Brightheart's head and what are HER feelings about whats happens with Cloud and Daisy and everything else, it started out as just a dumb joke. Cloudtail getting cucked by his uncle was hilarious to the me of like 3-4 years ago. Sorry :((((

However, now it's too late. I've grown genuinely, unironically attached to Brigthfire 😔. My very own shitty crackship <3

Anyways, er...

Bonus Brightheart pretending to be Sandstorm in the Darktail's Judgement allegiances:

(it was fixed already because the editors are cringe)

Also, if it serves to illustrate, here's some mid snippets I've written about their situation: [One] and [Two]. There's a suggestive joke on the second one, tho.

[narawarrior0]

hang in there, Swiftpaw

[faithfulmonk]

Chinese cover of an illustrated magazine of TNP#3:Dawn.

[ninjaarsenal]

HAPPY DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE: ft: my first exposure to disabled characters aka kitties!!! was their representation the best? no! but did they lay down the idea that being disabled does not define me and it’s okay to actually have symptoms??? YESSS. and for that i’m grateful.

[redtulips2]

brightheart

[fallenrain40]

[doyoulikethiswarriorcatship]

Cloudtail X Brightheart

My OTP/Fav ship

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Art by hfbsjk: Tumblr