#dark forest trainee

[fiishdesigns]

yayyy

[velo-cats]

Blossomfall

[canned-cards]

Weekly warrior cat! Sunstrike. She's my background character that I can do whatever with. I made a design for her and then put her with a bonus Ivypool and Antpelt. Rambles below.

For those who have forgotten her, she was a WindClan warrior that was a dark forest trainee. She organized a day meet between the ThunderClan and WindClan trainees that got interrupted. She fought against the Dark Forest in the great battle and was killed as a result.

She stood out to me in the books as she trained in the dark forest, but seemed quite happy and a bit silly. Ivypool even comments in the books how she is surprised to see her there. Also, she has a pretty name and a unique description. Not only is she a tortie, but is described to have a white mark on her head.

Now on to headcanons! I think she was lured into the dark forest with promises of getting stronger. I picture her as a smaller cat, maybe others in her clan underestimate her and she want to prove them wrong.

She is best friends with Antpelt (and Breezepelt, but he won't admit it). She also has a big, one-sided, crush on Ivypool. Ivypool knows, maybe even reciprocates a bit, but is too busy dealing with the rest of her life to really dwell on it. So she mostly ignores Sunstrike. She later regrets this and wishes she would have gotten to know Sunstrike better.

When Antpelt dies from his injuries, Sunstrike is devastated and her trust in the dark forest is shaken greatly. Her trust in Breezepelt is shaken as well. She can't leave however. If she leaves, she will be killed and would have to cut ties with the friends she has made. When Ivypool kills Antpelt the second time, it breaks Sunstrike. She admires Ivypool so much, and has crushed on her since they were apprentices. Now her best friend, one of the few cats who she still actually trusts and will go out of their way to talk with her, is dead by Ivypool's claws. Her life is crumbling around her and she doesn't know what to do.

I like her. She is neat. If you feel inclined, share/tag your background characters that you are unreasonably attached to!

[pineconekitty]

Ivypool of ThunderClan

Honestly, I have to admit that I wasn't super fond of her back when she was a protagonist in OotS... It wasn't even that I disliked her, but the way she was always portrayed as a sort of rival to Dovewing, who I liked a lot more, just caused me to be kind of indifferent about her.

I'm honestly considering rereading the first four arcs, just to see if I would feel differently about the characters than I did the first time I've read about them. Especially Hollyleaf and Ivypool, since they're both fan favourites that I remember just not caring about.

Anyway, I started liking her more recently, mostly due to her superedition, but also because of her characterization in AVoS and ASC. I don't actually remember her doing much in TBC... I think she only showed up towards the end of the arc, to be Bristlefrost's mom for like 5 minutes..?

Design-wise, I wanted her to be the opposite of Dovewing. And so, unlike her round and fluffy sister, Ivypool is lean, sharp, and scruffy. She gets those traits from Birchfall - maybe aside from the sharpness, that she could maybe get from her grand-uncle Ashfur. She's mostly covered in white, but underneath it she also has the same tabby patterns as her dad. I'm also just now realizing that I gave her Ashfur's eyes and leg stripes... Which is interesting, considering Ashfur was the one to cause her daughter's death... With the leg stripes, I initially took them from Whitestorm, who is Ivypool's great grandfather. And the eye color originally came from Whitestorm's mother, Snowfur. But still, Ashfur has those traits as well, so... I dunno, just thought I'd point it out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Btw I have some design requests in my inbox, and I promise I'll get to them soon, right after I post Dovewing 🙏

[astersight]

Transparent

Misc

[animatewarriorcats]

Shadowsight 2.0! He needed an update now that the Broken Code is over, and since I was doing his siblings finally I decided to get it done. He is the son of Tigerstar II and Dovewing, sibling to Pouncestep and Lightleap. He was mentored by Puddleshine, and hazed by Mothwing haha. Seriously I do not know why Mothwing of all cats became the antagonist, she doesn't even like starclan but apparently gets bothered by Shadowsight not being able to do his job correctly? when he literally has no problem with herbs or healing it was always spiritual shit? anyway I digress

He was a narrative punching bag and now is just kind of a quiet boogey man in the corner as a cautionary tale for how much spirits can fuck you up. How come he wasn't more of an example for Frostpaw? He could have made her feel confident in her ability to be a healer and explained the difference between real and fake visions. But whatever! She's too scared of him I guess and no one can explain to me in a satisfactory way why he doesn't have a connection to starclan now, it just doesn't make sense.

[vvildie]

Ivypaw and the evil man

[darkforestpetalkit]

This was originally just rough sketches of comic idea I was planning to do, but I honestly kinda like it like this lol.

Thistleclaw learning the hard way that Petalkit (3-4 moons here) is still very much Mapleshade’s daughter. He can't get away with hiding her from her mother and have her as an apprentice without suffering from Petalkit's sass and sharp tongue. He's far too used to obedient kits like Tigerpaw.