And then, Smokehaze.
Oh Smokehaze. Could have been the Firestar of her generation had her life not brutally been cut short by the impostor.
Even as a kit her life was more tumultuous than Brindle's somehow. Onestar was always weird about her, she even got kidnapped by Darktail while still a kit herself. (Genuinely, she should've been the avos protag so badddddddd).
I personally can't see Breeze and Heather as perfect parents. They're good and Breeze does his best, but one does not negate years of neglect and trauma and fail to raise four children totally unscathed. Their first litter was fine, even if Smoke felt a little odd with them, but I will come back to this once I'm getting to their Younger girls.
Anyways, Smokepaw was a prodigy. She and Sparkpaw would have been a terrific duo, but that would've been too powerful lmao. She was just good at everything and showing a lot of promise for a high position in the clan (although there was some competition from Featherpelt lmao. I'll get to it in a min).
Smokehaze was really happy to get Woodpaw as an apprentice because Woodpaw needed someone there for her. I have said before that Woodsong has NPD and while I haven't done all the research I want yet to make it fully fit into place, Breeze and Heather struggling to deal with her is definitely a major part of that.
But Smokehaze was there. She did her best to help Woodkit and by extension also the FeatherOat kids.
Featherpelt and Oatclaw aren't amazing parents in my mind (trauma? Who's that?). Oatclaw's just kindof a dummy and tries his best, but really doesn't know what he's doing (see that video of a male kestrel trying to feed his chicks an entire mouse and not understanding that they can't eat that. But a whole kithood). Featherpelt on the other hand does love her kits too, but she's busy.
She's gunning for that deputy position. She feels like she deserves it for how hard she works and how loyal she is to WindClan, but there is also 1000000% a resentment to the Crowfam because Featherpelt deserves that spot and before that Sedgewhisker deserved that spot and before Gorsetail did and they all god snubbed (in her mind (also also mine a bit)). So she works her tail off to prove to Harestar that if something were to happen to Crowf, she can very easily take his spot and do a better job even.
And after all that job, dealing with three rowdy children's fucking tiring you know. Mom's back from her full-time job and overtime trying So Hard to get that goddamned promotion and when she's home she just doesn't feel like also dealing with the kids. It's too tiring, she's done for the day. So while she doesn't intentionally neglect them, she's tired and doesn't do as much effort as one would expect from a parent actively engaging with their children.
Anyways, her seeing another Crowspawn gain prodigy status, despite that being what she was as an apprentice made her dislike Smokehaze quite a bit and this made Smoke helping the FeatherOat kids have At Least one good adult in their life (and before you ask, Sedgewhisker also wasn't an amazing mom, Sunstrike is too busy having issues to babysit and Gorsetail was also not a good mom when she was young and now she's old and has even less Patience. Love generational trauma).
Featherpelt never forbade her kits from spending time with the HeatherBreeze kids (I mean, they were in the nursery together, so she kinda just Couldn't), but she didn't always hide her disdain for Smokehaze all that well. Smokehaze did her best to brunt that hatred radiation (and trust me, you can feel it emanating from people sometimes) while being there for her sister and friends.
Meanwhile she was also busy with the Interclan politics. As a very open minded cat woth a keen eye for justice and a critical mind (I have to admit I don't know where she got it, WindClan is by volume 95% horrendous jaded bastards), TBC was bad for her. She didn't believe in that spiel of punishing codebreakers because StarClan won't come back if they didn't, so she joined the rebels. (Canon says Breeze did too, but I unno if he really would. Material to chew on I suppose). Anyways, Smoke was an active participant and while she didn't help in on the attempt on Ashfur's life, she did fight in the Battle for ShadowClan in Veil of Shadows and died during it.
Canon doesn't say how, I choose to be mean and say it was while taking a blow to protect Whistlepaw, who had been chosen to join on the side of the impostor for some stupid reason (thanks Crowf) and got a severe distaste for fighting because of it (and also seeing Harestar die at the claws of Lionblaze).
Anyways, Smokehaze now in StarClan wishes she had more time to be with her loved ones (and that's part of what I wanted to explore in the Smoke and Whis buddy comedy I tried last year, but since people didn't seem to care about it, I just stopped it because why do so much effort when people don't even bother </3)
When it comes to Brokenstar, she would've definitely been the most inquisitive of her sisters. She's a curious mind after all and this is a whole other mystery to uncover.
She never did manage to while she was alive because none of the living windclanners remembered Brokenstar (aside from like, Onestar, but he was NOT going to talk to Smokekit lmao) and the stories told about him never made her think of the shaggy cat that was gruff yes, but protective in his own way
You put so much work into this I've always admired your passions for tangling through these freaking cats!! Everyone stare at this for a moment
That is tragic, you're right! I'm now imagining Smokehaze like trying to chase the mystery while still focusing on all the drama going on and feeling it kinda itch at her and then her life is upended suddenly and she's even in the dark forest for a bit except not conscious or aware like you mentioned earlier. That's kind of heartbreaking. She could've had a moment to actually meet Brokenstar but it didn't end up happening.
To me he's probably a little skeptical of Smokehaze due to how righteous and involved she was but definitely proud of her skills and achievements. Brokenstar notoriously isn't that progressive about clan relations so he'd dislike the attempts to participate in this codebreakers thing but he possibly didn't really care for Ashfur either I think before all the dumb shit he got up to in TBC Broken viewed him as annoying. Perhaps even gross if we look at the obsessive romance aspect (aro hater moments)
If this is the first of the kits to die Brokenstar probably tries to tighten his grip bc of shock and the weirdness of this all.
Yeah, Breeze isn't the best father most likely. He probably had a honeymoon phase except with being a dad bc he was so happy that someone like him could be loved and love too, but he has alot to unpack in terms of parenting and I don't think he's very smooth with it. He can tackle it with Heathertail, I feel like he confides in her (and doesn't really trust anyone else to do that alot. Maybe when the kits are older he'll attempt to have a heart to heart with them. Like something he wished Crow did.)
WOODSONG NPD REP!!!!!! I LIKE THAT!!! I ENCOURAGE
