What DO you think about leopardstar?
gonna cheat a bit and copy paste a post from my old account and rewrite it to fit the question.
So, Leopardstar was dumped with a heavy burden (being a leader) at a rather young age. She thought she was doing the right thing in allying with Shadowclan, but quickly realized it wasn't. Tragic is, she cannot back down because every single member of her family/clan is threatened by her potential backing down.
Then it escalates. Tigerstar demands that Mistyfoot, Stonefur, Featherpaw and Stormpaw be executed. And even if she loves them all dearly, even if Stonefur is her deputy, she still cannot back down. The only way out is forward, otherwise they are all killed, and she cannot afford that.
Then Scourge takes care of Tigerstar and then, what does Leopardstar do?
Well she doesn't start telling other clans ''well I'm sorry but we couldn't do otherwise than follow him'' or ''he did have a point tho'' or ''sorry about Stonefur's death but it was kinda logical'' or ''we won't help you fight bloodclan 'cause it's not our problem anymore''. What she does is she thrusts the last forces of Riverclan into the battle against Bloodclan. She doesn’t try to defend herself or to avoid responsability. She just... puts her whole being and her clan into atoning.
Then she amends her freakin' ways. She didn't like Graystripe for being from another clan/somehow responsible for Whiteclaw's death? But she will be open-minded enough to accept Sasha's kits. She fights her fears by accepting them even if Hawkkit is clearly a tiny Tigerstar. She also knows she faces the worse backlash ever if other clans realize she accepted them. She would be accused of still being on Tigerstar's side or something. But the other clans, each for different reasons, would refuse the kits of Tigerstar, and she cannot let them starve. She cannot fail them the same way she failed Featherpaw and Stormpaw.
And that's where her whole character hinges: she looks for atonement. She wants to repair the damages she did during one book and she strives to do that for the rest of her life.
She names Mistyfoot her deputy after Stonefur's death.
She refuses to unite all clans under Firestar for the great journey, then reluctantly agree, as it is this or facing annihilation. guess who else proposed to unite all clans under one banner before?
She refuses to let Hawkfrost's status as a half-clan/born outside of the clans hinder his chances, so when she thinks he is ready to be a deputy, she names him so, even if only temporarily.
She refuses other clans to meddle with Riverclan's business as often as possible.
She allies with Wind Clan when Thunderclan seems to be getting a bit over their borders.
She humbles herself into asking other clans for help during the flood in (Dark River?). Would a stubborn, proud-but-headstrong leader have done that?
She accepts Stormfur and Brook during the third arc despite her entire clan going against her, because she failed Stormfur once before, and she let Feathertail take on a mountain lion and die by not having proper surveillance of the camp the night they left, and she doesn't want to cast him out the way he was cast out with Featherpaw from Tigerclan.
She reconciles with Graystripe after his catnapping despite the blood feud between them. That shows maturity and real growth. and much, much more.
So that’s where the first post ends (I cut the conclusion because it answered the question “is she a fascist in the end or not” which is not our problem)
So for me, Leopardstar is a fascinating character. A character that didn’t realize she had made a mistake when Tigerclan was dismantled, but as soon as it was created. A character who refuses to forgive herself for a fault others forgave her for (except maybe Mistystar? I can’t remember if she forgave her or not in Mistystar’s Omen, got to reread it, but I’m pretty sure the subject is talked about).
Now, she didn’t have a perfect behaviour during her atonement. She strayed from it thrice.
Once when she refused to put her clan in certain danger in hope of an uncertain prosperity, and refused the great journey to the lake. But she changed her mind, listened to her trusted circle, and knew when to abandon the reducing security of her territory for the greater good of the clans. I suspect her refusal at first was partially due to bad memories of the last time one leader tried to unite all clans under one leadership. Bad memories that must keep haunting her because she was not a witness or a victim of that leader but an accomplice.
The second time was when she allied with Onestar against Thunderclan, and why did she do it? Because it's freaking warrior cats, not peaceful neighbours cats. War is in their blood, they are trained for war. Weakening a clan in an attack is what they do. Attacking in the middle of the night, and allying two against one, was a jerk move. I blame Sol. But fighting against another clan without killing other warriors? we can hardly blame her.
The third time was when, made mad by a disease, she tried to claim all fishes of the lake for her clan. But she was sick, and starving, and anyway the other clans were not capable of fishing. Who could blame her for trying to save her clan?
Leopardstar might have had a bad personnality, or at least not an easy-going one. But she was not a bad leader once she shed out her first season as chief of her clan.
So here we’ve got a character that, despite the whole “regretting and trying to atone” that is enough on its own to make a background character interesting, we also have a still deeply flawed character.
And all of that while still being a long-lived, intense, intimidating, assertive female leader. I generally don’t put too much attention into the gender of a character unless it’s specifically important, but given the lack of 1) female leaders and 2) female leaders whose backstory is known and actually used in their present storytelling,...
Anyway you’ve got an idea of the whole thing, I love her dearly for being actually a flawed character with a compelling although horrifying backstory, being the greatest depiction I’ve seen so far of an aiding-and-abetting-dictatorship who never wanted to be there but acknowledges their wrong and spends their life atoning. She also doesn’t have kits despite living pretty old and not being a medicine cat, which apart from Mousefur I can’t think of many she-cats like that in the books.
Anyway here was my opinion on Leopardstar. Let’s leave each other with a warrior cats meme. Credits to @warriorsbrainrot
