If you are familiar with the animated animal series genre on YouTube then you may or probably have never heard of this lion series called my pride. It was basically a show about a disabled lioness called “nothing” like literally the word, and she is thrown into the cruel reality of the world and the consequences surrounding pride law. I could rant about all the issues this show has but that would be incredibly wrong. One of the biggest issues with this show is its fandom, even though it’s not as big anymore. There are many people that would passionately defend the abuse and toxicity of the characters to the end. There was multiple issues that went down in the discord server but what I’m about to show you occurred recently.
I will post more screenshots in the next post since there’s a limit on tumblr.
It's a late night, and there are many things in my head that I'd like to speak about as a longtime fan whose special interest has been WC. With that being said, I really do hope this post gets the traction it needs because there are multiple different issues I've seen in the fandom that I don't like, and I will speak on every one of them, whether it's about the fandom or in book context.
Here are some potential warnings for anyone who might need them.
CW:// talks of rape, sexual assault, abuse, grooming, pedophilia, self-harm, and suicidal ideations.
read more beneath the picture
I would also like to preface and state that I am a long-term survivor of rape and CSA and have struggled for many years with suicide and self-harm. So these topics and how fandom people handle them especially bother and irk me.
The first issue in fandom I'd like to talk about is the unwillingness to acknowledge the sexual themes that take place in Warrior Cats, whether it is consensual or not. I get they’re feral cats, and speaking of them in that manner is uncomfortable, but frankly that is a poor excuse for you to ignore the things that take place in these books. They may be feral, but they are heavily anthropomorphic with their own clans, religious systems and beliefs, and way of life. The books being so humanized also leaves room for many concepts, such as sex (again, whether it is consensual or not), to exist. Sex, in fact, does exist; it has in these books. Just because it’s not on screen doesn't mean it’s not there.
There are plenty of references to this act when the queens state, “I am expecting kits" and “I’m having your kits.” “These kits were gathered by [blank]"; sentencing along these lines all implies that sexual acts exist within these books. Crowfeather outright states, “I should’ve never mated her!” When talking about Nightcloud. (Which, yikes, a deadbeat and a womanizing ass.) That being said, rape and the poor representation of it are rampant issues within the books and even within the fandom. There are many instances of canonical allusions to rape and allegories of it, and I’ll be going over them.
And with many people in the fandom being young now, it is also likely to explain the different forms of rape before we actually get into the topics themselves. This is very important to me, and I’d like to be as thorough as I can.
The act of rape isn’t always the act of forcible penetration, or forcing oral sex, or any other kind of act. Rape manifests in many ways, such as coercion, date rape, marital rape, stealthing, substance rape, acquaintance rape, incest, and those that occur when a partner takes back consent and the other continues anyway.
> Cocieron otherwise known as pressured rape is a form of rape that takes place when the victim is manipulated or threatened into giving up consent in a non physical or violent manor.
> Date rape is when rape occurs between two people that could’ve potentially had a romantic or sexual relationship.
> acquaintance rape is rape that takes place between two people that know eachother but who weren’t envolved romanically or sexually.
> martial rape is rape that happens between a married couple where one spouse rejects intercourse or is otherwise unable to give proper consent or is unable to enforce proper boundaries
> stealthing is when someone removes their condom during intercourse or damages the protection before sex. (While in this topic baby trapping is a form of rape where the person stops taking birth control or removes their protection in order to trap the person.)
> substance rape is rape that happens when one person is under the influence whether it’s hard drugs or alcohol.
> incest is a form of rape and sexual abuse. It is not taboo like many of you think. No sane person engages in incest. To say that they do is disheartening. Cases of Csa aside there are many reasons that may lead to why some people develop incestuous thoughts or get into incestuous relationships. The cause for why this happens isn’t always outright rape done by adults. Sometimes it manifest as Cocsa (child on child sexual abuse/assault) sometimes it can exist when parents and caregivers strip us our of bodily anatomy and don’t give us privacy. Stating that our bodies belong to them because they birthed us or because we are the same sex. I am speaking form this on experience as someone who free up a particularly strange environment and incestuous thoughts as a fleeting moment of intrusive thoughts for me.
> revovoking of consent. That Rape is what happens when someone takes back consent is when a partner states that they’d like to stop and trh other continues. This one was pretty self explanatory.
With all of this being said and explained, I ask that you please don't use any of what's being explained for your shitty ass antiship vs. proshipper discourse. I am exhausted of constantly seeing victims' trauma being used as bargaining chips to prove which side is worse.
Now to actually move onto the topics that need to be discussed. Starting with DOTC (Dawn of the Clans), the first allusions of rape are when Turtle Tail returns back to the forest; she is pregnant and expecting kits with Tom after she went to live with him and Bumble. Turtle Tail explains how her relationship with Tom started off nice and that he was friendly but refused to make plans with her for the sake of their kits' future. Turtle Tail also explained how uncomfortable Bumble was around him, and Bumble later revealed how Tom explicitly told her to not tell Turtle Tail that the twolegs would take her kits. At face value there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with their relationship. If you understand the many ways of allusions and allegories for rape, then you can see past the lines.
To explain the passage as if they were humans, Tom is a man who befriended a woman for the sake of using her body for his own sexual pleasures and gratification. To befriend women for motives and desires behind developing a meaningful bond or relationship is a form of nonviolent date rape. You are essentially leading the woman (or person) through a process of desensitization, manipulation, and coercion. You desensitize the woman by pretending to be a stand-up human being, someone who’s caring and looks out for others while slowly introducing your toxic and abusive traits. You snap once, and the woman believes you're simply having a bad day, that she upset you, or that something else upset you and that you need space.
You snap again, and the woman again blames herself because you didn’t always start out that way. You snap again a third time with more anger and violence because you know she will blame herself again because she doesn’t believe that you'd purposely perpetuate harmful behaviours because that isn’t how she met you. That isn’t what you used to do. Things are all things that Tom does, so it is essentially date rape, it is also marital rape, and it is a premeditated rape. Tom misled Turtletail under the false pretence that he was a caring tomcat, only to change his facade when he finally got sex out of her and was able to trap her with kittens.
The book itself later confirms the details of what I’m saying: Turtle Tail is firm on excluding that Tom is a parent to her kittens. And firmly states that she will be the only one present in their lives when speaking to Tall Shadow. After Turtle Tail leaves the twolegs, Bumble later comes into the forest and says that Tom has been pushing her around and hurting her, and when Tall Shadow asks why he’d do that, Grey Wing disgustingly assumes that Bumble is victim-blaming Turtle Tail when the only thing that Bumble responds with is that Tom was upset that Turtle Tail left. When Tom later arrives in the forest, he states that he missed Turtle Tail and how he missed their “play fights," to which Turtle Tail responds that Tom was the only one who was playing. While Bumble outright says that Tom has been hurting her, Turtle Tail is more hesitant to actually say that, this text alludes to physical abuse and assault. Tom later goes on to describe their children as being his, his belongings, and his property. His matter-of-fact statement that these children belong to him would also be an allusion to rape, and given the fact that Turtle Tail states that she had to make plans for their future while he refused and slacked in doing so. They obviously don’t have birth control to prevent pregnancy, but it sounds as if this was an unplanned reality for Turtletail.
Tom held power over both Bumble and Turtle Tail with physical stature, manipulation, and physical and emotional abuse, as well as planning to use their children as ways to control Turtle Tail and prevent her from having autonomy over herself.
Turtle Tail soon acknowledges that Tom is abusive and a bully who physically assaults her. When Thunder meets Tom, Tom speaks of her as if she means little, bashing her for taking away their kittens and claiming that she "stole them." He thinks little of his children as only pawns in his possession and control over his wife.
I understand that the authors do a poor job at properly representing issues of rape and sexual assault, especially, but I feel that these hints were too on the nose about what was happening in their relationship. It is not a stretch to say that rape happens in this book series. Another common argument I see to dismiss these topics is that “it makes this series too dark” and that "it's for kids," which firstly
The series is already dark enough as it with its murder plots, genocide, torture, and maiming of cats and the amount of child death and child murder.
Calling it a kids series to dismiss this is also disingenuous to the point considering there are multiple canon pedophiles,predators and both sexual and nonsexual groomers in these books. With Thistleclaw, Sharpeclaw(?) Nettle, Rain, and Dustpelt all being cats who either hit on kits or young apprentices/ newly made warriors. The canon (nonsexual) groomers in the series would be Mapleshade(v: crookedpaw, tigerpaw), Tigerstar(v: breezepelt, his own sons), Hawkfrost(v: Ivy paw), Darktail(v: violetpaw,needlepaw,sleekpaw) and Ashfur (v: Shadowsight, bristlefrost). And slash being a predator. Slash is a pedophile as well because he harasses fern who I believe is around the age of an apprentice. Slash is described as being a tom sagging with age which means he is significantly older. (V: = abbreviation of victim(s) )
I also find it disingenuous to brush off the topics of rape using the excuse of “this is a kids series” considering that many children (including myself) have suffered through sexual abuse and rape. As badly as they are written I personally take comfort in reading these stories and seeing canon survivors while also projecting onto characters I take even mild interest in.
Speaking of Slash, moving on, Slash, a past member of One Eye's group, arrives in the forest in search of Star Flower, who is One Eye's daughter, and Star Flower was promised to Slash as a mate. When he approached Clear Sky and Star Flower, he physically restrained her on her back and physically assaulted her, threatening to harm her kits as well. He then grossly sexually assaults her when he lickes her cheeks and left his tongue to linger on her. All while Clear Sky sits and does nothing, by the way.
Another allusion to rape is when Yarrowleaf mentions that she’s having Nettles' kits. Yarrowleaf was the equivalent of a teenager when she joined the kin. This leaves room to speculate that she was being groomed by Nettle, which left the opportunity open for statutory rape to come into place. And again here is a man using a woman’s children and a way to control them.
Another example of speculated but slightly implied rape is when the imposter withholds Squirrelflight in this den for many days. With the texting noting that the imposter (Ashfur) is overly affectionate with Squirrelflight. These are all of the allusions to rape that I can remember. If you have anything you’d like to share that you felt was implied, then feel free to comment or reblog this with your analysis.
Moving onto the next topic I’d like to discuss is that I’m not very fond of the treatment of Spottedleaf regarding her CSA trauma. Grooming trauma is a far better term, considering it’s not outright implied or alluded to that direct sexual abuse took place between the two, but with the many allusions that have previously happened in the books, I truly do believe that somewhere off-screen, Thistleclaw might’ve raped or sexually assaulted Spottedpaw. However, that's not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about was the fandom’s treatment of her abuse and, by extension, how many of you are treating victims. A lot of you have a very puritan mindset where you want victims to behave or cope in a manner you deem comfortable or acceptable, and that is not okay. How they choose to cope and come to terms with their abuse isn’t your business unless the coping mechanism is directly harming someone. I have seen a Spottedleaf artist being dogpiled on after someone on WC Twitter leaked their Tumblr username because the person was making vent art of Spottedleaf engaging in self-harming behaviour like self-inflicted body wounds. Which is disgusting. Again, they are not hurting anyone; Tumblr has a filtering system where you can filter out mature and explicit posts. It is rare to find those types of posts unless you are actively searching through the recent tab every day. That being said, it’s also weird to think that Spottedleaf should never be portrayed in this manner; to only portray her in a light you deem positive is isolating and alienating survivors who deal with their trauma in unhealthy ways. Self-harming, substance abuse, and drinking are all typical things that victims who don’t have strong support systems or resources can and will turn to if it’s to mask their suffering.
Most days it's too easy to realize just how much people truly hate Spottedleaf when it comes to the aspect of her being a CSA survivor.
In regard to people hating that aspect about her, I've seen way too many people who, as far as I know, aren't even victims of grooming and CSA attempt to shame those who portray Spottedleaf as a miserable and depressed old woman who engaged in unhealthy and harmful coping mechanisms such as self-harm and substance abuse. I've seen this on two separate occasions where many people bullied those who portrayed her like this, and the thing is, both the people creating these works make it obvious that the art is also comfort projections. Regardless, if it wasn't there, there isn't anything wrong with portraying her that way. And the excuse that the fandom is "filled with minors" for why they shouldn't be posting that stuff is utter bullshit. The fandom being filled with minors doesn't stop the fact that there are grown adults running around leasing witch hunts on minors on twt for having differing opinions on fictional cats.
That fact doesn't stop adults from being creeps. And in general it's just a terrible and half-assed excuse because there are many underage people in the fandom who have been in this situation, such as myself. To use minors as an excuse for why someone cannot explore those themes with Spottedleaf is disingenuous of actual victims and shows you don't care. Even people being mad at Spottedleaf being portrayed as a creep is iffy to me. It virtually depends on how you're going about it, but to say it's unrealistic is annoying and also disrespectful of victims and the reality of what can happen if someone’s trauma spirals to the point they’re repeating a cycle. I am sorry to tell you this, but people who specifically have unchecked trauma in regard to sexual abuse and rape and who don't have access to the help they need are at risk of either perpetrating the cycle again or ending up in situations as adults that leave them vulnerable for them to be sexually assaulted or raped as adults. Or it will lead to engaging in self-destructive behaviours that will cause further harm in the long run.
I developed POCD, which is basically the fear of becoming a pedophile or repeating the cycle of abuse. It's also important to note that people with this disorder are the least likely to offend against any child or any person, for that matter. I'm sorry, but I love Spottedleaf in every portrayal of her when it comes to iffy and uncomfortable subjects. Seeing depictions where the abused become the abuser is an amazing representation if done correctly because it can be used as a way to help others prevent themselves from going down that same pipeline. I have seen people admit that sometimes they create art of characters where the character becomes an abuse, using it as an extension to deal with their own trauma. So, they don't fall down that same path of abuse. And I found that concept amazing.
I don't think she's canonically a predator. However, she is a little creepy; they've (the Erins) done that on purpose for reasons I will never understand. I really hate how people treat most depictions of Spottedleaf. I enjoy them all; they touch me on a deeper level as someone who has struggled for years with this trauma and is only now receiving help for it. Not all art is supposed to be comforting. If you are a victim who is disturbed, then you need to curate your own space. Nobody will do that for you. So do not go out of your way to shake and harass other victims. Don’t even harass those who aren’t victims because even then, when you aren’t a victim, sexual assault and rape are hard topics to discuss or acknowledge. It’s cruel and unjust. It’s suffering to endure it.
Another point (and my last) I would like to make is how a lot of you are so unwilling to listen to victims when they give their explicit opinions and analysis on why they believe a character is abusive or harbours abusive tendencies, and no, this isn’t a welcome invitation to come start discourse in my comments or reblogs. Shut the fuck up. If you have any issues, you can personally come to my DMs and complain, and I’ll put you in your place. I primarily see these arguments where people are overly cruel to victims, either directly calling them stupid to their face or making fun of them on different social media platforms where WC's is popular. I’ve primarily seen these discourses when people who explain that their victims talk about why Bramblestar, Mapleshade, Palebird, Raggedstar, Sharpclaw, and Lizardstripe are abusive either in their relationships or in raising their children. Whether the analysis on the abuse mentions if the abuse is intentional or not.
Palebird is particularly one I’m iffy about; a lot of times people are unintentionally misogynistic about her, though I definitely can understand why people wouldn’t like her given her actions. Two opinions can coexist: it’s okay to sympathize with Palebird having postpartum, and the opinion that Palebird is a bad mother can also coexist. A lot of you forget that there are many neglected children who have mothers that unthinkably neglected or failed to care for them while having PPD. They cannot help how they feel. And to shame them for that is gross. This is only an issue because the person is being misogynistic and completely misunderstanding what postpartum can do to you.
Overall my point is that you people need to be more sensitive with how you treat victims and these topics as well as how you choose to represent them in your media, whether it’s writing or drawings or animatics and maps.
Reblogs are off for this specific post but here’s my thoughts on this
💬 5 🔁 12 ❤️ 55 · There’s an epidemic of Bramblestar apologists on Tiktok and it all traces back to one person on there who made a couple v
cw:// Rape, Abuse mention
I still don't necessarily think that your taste in fictional characters defined who you are as a person, and I don't think fiction affects or portrays reality on a 1:1 basis, but I understand now why people are so ready to label diehard Bramblestar fans as being abusers or abuse apologists because the person who was making these "Squirrelflight is worse” videos and that "Squirrelflight is worse" document was actually my ex-boyfriend, who groomed, abused, and outed my rape/abuse traumas and private vents to Warrior Cats TikTok, and he did this because I told him I wanted nothing to do with him after I got mad that he cheated on me. All this happened when I was 15 and he was 18. Lmao, and then a bunch of Bramblestar defenders who were his friends simply dumbed the situation down to me being the groomer (again, I was 15) or me being the abuser (again, 15; I was horrifically abused and still love my abuser and have quiet BPD.) Then they somehow turned this on me again and said, "Both of us were bad and deserved to be forgiven." This fandom is a damn joke.
Ngl, if your defence for Frecklewish in regard to her xenophobia is that it's okay because every cat is xenophobic, then I'm going to assume you're a racist or part of a racial group that has never been oppressed or targeted and hasn't been called slurs or terms like "creatures."
Not all of the cats are xenophobic; there are plenty of cats who are iffy about that stuff shown in the old and newer books, and Frecklewish is one of the many examples of outwardly cruel xenophobia that kills someone and/or causes harm.
If we're going with this logic, then misogyny in Warrior Cats isn't and shouldn't be a big deal because all of the cats are misogynists. And it's just fiction.
But really, if you can get mad at fictional misogyny, then you need to keep that same energy for fictional xenophobia because quite literally real world misogyny goes hand in hand with racism and xenophobia. This fandom is so predominantly white; you people love to dismiss any person who talks about the xenophobia in the series and how Frecklewish is an asshole for it. But yet whenever someone is misogynist against pixels or if the books are written misogynistic then suddenly it’s an issue. What nonsense
As much as I love Reedshine, I can't say I feel bad for her for being cheated on. If you know your partner was unfaithful and you choose to stay with them, then you have no self-respect for yourself, and clearly you don't care that they cheated. Actually (if cheating was ever even acknowledged in the series to begin with), that scene where Mapleshade arrives in RiverClan reads more to me that Reedshine didn't like that Mapleshade was specifically Appledusk’s mate. She talks to her so cruelly, saying that she caused trouble when she and her mate's kittens just died because of an enemy clan being xenophobic.
(My opinions on Mapleshade are ever shifting because I have functional literacy and nuance, so I no longer think it's her fault that her kits died; she’s still a horribly negligent mother, though, taking them out of camp when they’re too young and allowing her kits to swim in the river and not helping Patchkit when he’s struggling and telling her other kits to go get him. Mind you, she did this because she didn't want to get wet.) It's the same way with Mapleshade not liking that he specifically chose Reedshine as his mate. Which idk, that's not a surprise; she's made it clear she's hated Reedshine before Reedshine even actually did anything that would warrant that hate. And I agree with Mapleshade, like, yeah, man, she stole your idiot of a mate. She's a whole meat rider and cozied up to that man after his kids just died and when he has to go against his wife all so he doesn't get exiled.
Like, wow, man, way to take advantage of a situation of grief. Go get him back, Maple. 😭😭😭😭 trailing back Obviously, if the relationship is abusive or if you're dependent on that person, then it's understandable why you'd stay with a cheater, and I don't fault you at all (though this is never even once implied to be the case with ReedApple's relationship). I won't even say that Reedshine is "poorly written" in that regard because some people are just like that irl, where they'll stay with cheaters for no reason other than they feel like it. Or maybe there's a deeper reason for that; maybe they have a kink for cheating, or maybe they just specifically didn't like the person their partner cheated with. Who knows? I will say she's poorly written to the point she is an unwavering Appledusk apologist. Like, girl, me too. You're very cringy about it, though, so I don't fw that.
It would've been nice to see her actually think about Mapleshade and Appledusk's actions and the actions of the Thunder and River Clan leaders instead of being cruel and casting a mother out. Honestly, Appleducks is the only one that actually has the right to be upset with her, given his perspective is that she killed their children (albeit accidental). Reedshine and all of those cats are just jumping on the bandwagon of xenophobia.
This was a monthly piece for my Patreon made in April 2025, which I guess I just forgot to ever post over here. Prompt for it was 'Slugpelt and Rainhaze swap AU': here is what I wrote about it.
"I took 'swap' to mean a swap in circumstances, not in personality, so these are all the exact same characters as in canon, just in different situations. Here's how it would go down:
The moment of divergence is that Ranger and Hacksaw find Slugpelt, instead of Rainhaze. She doesn't trust them at all, but she does accept them bringing prey, especially as she can't hunt while nursing. When the time comes to pay up, Slugpelt has no love for BarrenClan and almost just leaves. But out of protection for her brother, she decides to kill Dustfeather. However, she just takes her mother out, kills her, and leaves her for Ranger and Hacksaw to find, disappearing with her two children.
Ranger is surprised but possessive, and tracks down Slugpelt to forcefully drag her into Defiance. She grows to resent him because of this, and as she's already more cynical and distrusting than Rainhaze is, Ranger's attempts at manipulation don't really work on her. She raises her children for awhile, although you can see that Pine was separated from her much earlier, around 3 months old. Ranger does this, noting his unique traits and bringing him to Deepdark, which causes even more bad blood between them. When Daffodil and Asphodel are about 6 months she challenges Ranger to a trial by combat, and ends up murdering him. Though Hacksaw claws her eye out in grief, Ranger's defeat means Slugpelt is able to be renamed and given a measure of respect by Defiance and Deepdark especially, though she refuses to take up Ranger's position as corporal. She abandons her children and ends up becoming a lone, almost mythical figure in Defiance, roaming around quietly."
And notes from my comments:
"I think since the story would kind of go in reverse - start in Defiance, BarrenClan is revealed partway through - it would either end with BarrenClan being destroyed by Defiance, or Defiance falling apart before they can. It'd probably be much darker so I'm leaning toward the angle of 'Defiance destroys BarrenClan, which incites the final rebellion for our Defiance protagonists'."
"corm helped his siblings escape in secret, and he stayed behind to make it less suspicious/so Deepdark wouldn't make them chase them, bc of his connection with pine"
I really want to know why so many people in the fandom claim to be against ableism but will then turn around and minimize the visual damage of Crookedstar and brightheart wounds. I've noticed this particularly happens with Crookedstar designs, animations, and drawings, where he's drawn with a snagged tooth and hanging tongue.
No. His jaw is completely broken; a more accurate depiction would be to draw it constantly hanging and a bit lopsided. Whether you believe so or not, simplifying his disability down to being a visible tooth and tongue is ableist. Don't say you're against ableism if you do this nonsense.
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