#sedgelightning

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Art Dump Time!

tallpoppy was drawn before lolling's favorite ship with her so her flag isn't up to date lol

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Chapter 118

Chapter 118: We Didn’t Start The Fire, But We’re Gonna Let It Burn, Burn, Burn, Burn!

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little sparks was so cute!!! poor lightningkit :( even more heartbreaking when you look at her character now… i believe she does still love spottedleaf, but buries those feelings as she doesn’t want to be seen as “weak.”

what would you say caused such a drastic shift in her character? growing up with her + her siblings constantly stigmatized for being kits of a “codebreaking” medicine cat?

i’d love to see you write a lightningfur analysis.. only if it doesn’t spoil any future events though!

Lightningkit has grown up so much, my little murder baby <3

woof im not sure i could do a full character analysis like the ones i always scroll past on here but ill tell ya some stuff about her character progression!

In Little Sparks and "Prequel" (Before Into The Wild) chapters, Lightningkit loves her mother! She does the whole "I hate you! I'm not your mom!" attitude of a little kid. She was very rambunctious as a kit and always loved that Spotted would give her extra attention when she was being 'bad,' and hated when Spotted's attention was elsewhere (five kits, one who was very ill as well, plus Willowpelt and Darkkit, and her medicine cat duties--her attention was all over the place!). She acted out a lot as a kit and didn't like getting scolded, bossed around the other kits and got mad when Creekkit would be just as "bossy" as her (aka tell her off or try to lead the games instead to be more fair). She liked all her siblings except for Airkit, because she didn't get as 'attached' to him and just sort of saw him as the thing that always took Spotted's attention away (since he was sick in the med den).

Once she has her father's attention though, it all shifts and she starts changing from "I want to be good for Spottedleaf!" to "I want to be good (read: bad) for Thistleclaw!" She also admired Mapleshade A LOT and thought she was sooo cool and, later into her apprenticeship, started wishing Maple was her real mom because Spotted was "too much trouble." She hated that cats thought she was "less" just because her mom was a med cat and her dad exiled. As a kit, she sort of understood what all the fuss was about and sympathized with her mother, but as Thistle was there to twist her mind, she started to care less and less about her mother's "tough life" because "Thistle had it just as tough and he loves me more!"

Thistle really enabled her to keep her "acting out for attention" mindset, because whenever she did bad things (ex.: clawing during training, being rough with her siblings, getting mad at Spotted/others), she got his praise. She felt justified and vindicated in taking her anger out on others. Surprisingly, this also started to twist her feelings towards Airpaw from one of "ugh he's so annoying i hate him leave me alone!" to "follow me because im so much better than you and you need me to be good at anything :)" (aka the exact same stuff Thistle was pulling with her).

she liked Firepaw because he was a "neutral" ground -- he followed Thistle and he was willing to play rough, meanwhile Air was too "weak," Copper was too "soft," and Creek was too "obedient" to be mean. she was enraptured with the idea of leading the clans with all her kin, and she was enamored with the prospect Thistle gave them.

she also HATED Speckletail and Frostfur. Frostfur, in her early moons, was too "bossy" and would always try and correct Lightning and Lightning would be like "UR NOT MY MOM," plus Frost would always huff about Lightning's bad attitude. Speckle tried to be a good mentor, but she was blinded by her prejudice against Lightning, already viewing her as a "helpless bad case," so they just butted heads way too much and Lightning felt vindicated disobeying her thanks to Thistle encouraging her to

she ran to RiverClan because she LOVED the attention she received there. needless to say, everything Lightningfur does is for attention. And those who give her attention that she deems weak/pitiful/lesser than her (Airleap, Robinstorm, Sedgecreek, etc.), she treats like sh*t because "what are they gonna do? hate me? they love me too much to hate me."

it's kind of why Silverstream was her best friend. in canon, Silverstream is kind of, well, spoiled and thinks she can get away with anything. she's not mean, but she's just as attention-driven as Lightningfur. The two bounced off each other immediately, giving the other attention, but there was also this... allure with Silverstream, who -- unlike Lightningfur, who had to fight and bite and kick and scream for her attention -- only had to sit pretty and get stuff handed to her thanks to her loving and doting overprotective father Crookedstar. Silverstream's attention felt extra good to Lightningfur, because Silverstream held this air of I'm Better Than You that Lightningfur desperately wanted to have as elegantly as her. Needless to say, Lightningfur's aroace lesbian *ss crushed hard on Silverstream but buried that part of her feelings far far deep down.

Silverstream's death f*cked Lightningfur up. They were untouchable, and yet, there Silverstream was, clearly Touched. (Though Lightningfur doesn't know it, somewhere in StarClan, Silverstream is thinking the same bitter thoughts.) Lightningfur couldn't imagine a life without Silverstream, and now she became a lot more... aggressive in her behavior. Genuinely cold. Before there was a since of "we do this together," there was something grounded Lightningfur, something for her to love and remember how to be compassionate in her own Lightningfur-y way. Now, it's gone, and Lightningfur doesn't have any remorse left in her to regret the actions she commits.

This Lightningfur, our current Lightningfur, has grown a coldness in her heart. It numbs her to feeling anything but rage and sadistic pleasure. That isn't to say she never expresses some kind of fondness (ex.: Featherpaw is Silverstream's look-a-like daughter and Lightningfur will do everything she can to protect "what's left of her"), but that any kindness that might go along with those inner feelings is gone.

But cutting off emotions and refusing to acknowledge them leaves one blind, and oh, Lightningfur will be blinded.

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LightningFur to several ThunderClan cats: Who are you again?

LightningFur to SedgeCreek: ew get away stop being in love with me SilverStream shall be my one love

LightningFur to literally every cat she sees in battle: die!

precisely!

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Sedgecreek! Why do you still try so hard to be Lightningfur's friend when she's so mean to you?

"I saw it when she talked to Silverstream. I see it now when she looks at Featherpaw."

@localfoxthief

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is she! sedgecreekflower!

a minor character with semi-importance thats still irrelevant in the scheme of things. sadge

Alder and I never actually looked at her canon history before we made her the character she is in BT now bcus we thought she was just a Background Character (which she is!) but it turns out she has Some Importance in canon side books

to start off, she’s in the same generation as Leopardfur! Older by a few moons or so, I believe. I read Leopardstar’s Honor so I should know but c’mon who remembers that stuff lmao. apparently Leopardfur thought she was bossy. tbf i think all the kits except Sunfish? and maybe Frogleap? were mean to Leopardfur in some way. but i still classified them as friends! kithood friends. they all stood together when Skypaw was held back and waited to become warriors with her. how nice :)

she’s also Crookedjaw’s first apprentice! she appears to be a little rambunctious and over-energetic. y’know, one of your typical apprentice personalities. she also apparently thinks Rippleclaw is really cool! this ties in nicely with the “admirance” part of her personality - i think she can get a little ‘obsessed’ over certain people and idolize them as a ‘can do no wrong’ kind of thing.

onto her personality! our Sedgecreek is kind of a well-meaning but self-serving kind of cat. she wants good for her friends and clanmates, but she’s also a bit oblivious, or, well “bossy.” despite Lightningfur constantly clearly pushing her away or calling her annoying/disgusting, Sedgecreek is just “aw! so cute :) she’s playing hard to get teehee.” she is very straight-forward herself though! she doesn’t hide her crush on Lightningfur and is unphased by any teasing.

as for why Sedgecreek has a crush on Lightningfur? it was completely randomly selected, in the moment sort of author decision. but, upon reflection, the reason would be simply that Sedgecreek was impressed by Lightningfur after the flood. previously she just kind of thought Lightningfur was There and ThunderClan and Out of Place and ignored her. but after the flood, where Lightningfur saved the kits and helped keep the clan calm/safe, Sedgecreek thought Lightningfur was noble and selfless. she began to believe that underneath that rough, prickly exterior, there was a kind and shy soul wanting to be loved, and Sedgecreek continues to blindly believe it to this day

but why does Lightningfur hate Sedgecreek?

at first, when Sedge first started being pushy and invading her personal space, Lightning truly and utterly hated her - she was the bane of her existence! she was annoying, pushy, didn’t leave Lightning alone like she wanted, had this disgusting “crush” on her (Lightning hates romance! the idea sickened her to her core!), and she wasn’t even a strong or smart warrior (in Lightning’s opinion)! Sedge doesn’t have the best understanding of boundaries, so its honestly understandable why Lightning is annoyed by her.

but after Silverstream’s death, there was a slight change over time. Sedge thought Lightning needed even more support and love after such a tragic event (Sedge was not so blind that she didn’t see that Lightning had a crush on Silver). at first Lightning hated this, desperately wanting space. but being alone while filled with hatred is a bitter existence and Sedge’s persistent attempts broke Lightning a little. though Lightning still hates her, now it’s because Sedge isn’t Silverstream. no one will ever be as perfect a best friend as Silverstream, so she is outright refusing to truly stop hating Sedge, and keeps herself in the cycle of despising Sedge. but all the while, Sedge has sort of become her new best friend, because at the very least Lightning acknowledges that she’s very very loyal and she begrudgingly/unconsciously keeps Sedge in her ‘inner circle.’

besides, Lightning would rather be "besties” with Sedge than creepy cultish old man Rippleclaw

(also things of note are: Thistlestar killed her dad, Timberfur. he poisoned the prey that killed Timberfur the deputy, which lead to Oakheart becoming deputy and so forth. Thistlestar also killed her mentor Crookedstar, obviously.

her brother Reedtail left in exile with Leopardfur. so did her kithood friend Skyheart.)