i think that after gaining a certain amount of power in starclan, spottedleaf had mapleshade murder cats to create a more tense atmosphere in order to seize full power. she was at about deputy ranking before the great journey, but so was several other cats. she brings mapleshade appledusk, then lies to starclan that she only witnessed his double death and wasnt part of it; while shes speaking, she just. goes on to make suggestions about patrols and not going out in less than groups of two that others listen to. when the clans journey through tribe territory, half moon is distracted and spottedleaf suggests for her to transfer all power over to spottedleaf until they reach the new territory. half moon agrees and spottedleaf keeps coming up with excuses to stay in power after they reach the lakes, saying things such as ‘the prophecy cats trust me the most’ and ‘cats are disappearing much more rapidly; a transition of power leaves us open to attack’
mapleshade, meanwhile, has to deal with actually making a cohesive group during the journey. she asks spottedleaf to send out specific cats on certain patrols in order for the dark forest cats to actually want to stay near each other for any significant period of time. she has a lot of infamy; but needs to work at gaining the social power that comes from having a clan. and having this many cats working towards one goal leads to increased powers; id imagine in the afterlife, each cat has so much individual spiritual power, but that if many cats are gathered together, they can pool their power together for a common goal. this is how cats are invited to the dark forest, and explains the limited omniscience starclan and the dark forest seem to have.
starclan has an automatic advantage over the dark forest because of how hard it is for cats to even find others there. furthermore, if a dead cat kills another dead cat, they can absorb some of their power; which is why, despite there being so few dark forest cats compared to starclan, theyre so powerful.
