User:RiinRin/Ashfur: An Antagonist in the Making

A lot of opinions I see of Ashfur sometimes are how his attack on Squirrelflight in Long Shadows was "random" and just used as a plot point to prove that he was a bad guy for getting rejected, and that it only happened so Squirrelflight could reveal that Jay/Lion/Holly weren't her kits. I love Ashfur, but not because he's a good character. In fact, I love him for the opposite reason. All throughout Power of Three, he and Squirrelflight's outburst was hinted at and foreshadowed, and Ashfur's true nature was revealed very early on in the books. This also might tie in to the fact I believe wholeheartedly that Ashfur should have been put in the Dark Forest over StarClan due to his aggressive and antagonistic personality.

I'll cite every quote I type, and I would love to hear your own arguments or comments on this! Ashfur's character is probably one of the best storylines to me in Warriors and I love talking about him. I'm going to separate each topic I'm talking about, mostly so I can keep everything in order. I will also be talking in chronological order!

The Rejection
Ashfur's rejection was painfully obvious from the get go. I don't really want to analyze his character from The New Prophecy and I'd rather just get into Power of Three. (Partly because I'm currently reading Power of Three and I'm noticing a lot of buildup that I hadn't prior. Power of Three is a really good series by the way, and as much as I disliked Omen of the Stars, Power of Three was the perfect prequel to it. BUT I digress.) The one thing I do want to point out and for you to keep in mind is that Ashfur knowingly teamed with Hawkfrost in an attempt to kill Firestar, and that Ashfur's reason for doing this would be to get back at Squirrelflight. He knowingly helped attempt murder on his Clan leader to get back at his romantic interest. But, Power of Three goes on and in turn pretends that Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight and Ashfur have more or less come to ammends, or at the very least learned how to be civil with each other.

Ashfur's betrayal is never told to the Clan, and there's a mention of it at the beginning of The Sight, where Lionkit overhears Spiderleg and Stormfur asking what happened to Hawkfrost. It is revealed that the situation with Ashfur and Hawkfrost was kept quiet from the rest of the Clan, as Spiderleg says "Firestar found [Hawkfrost's] body while he was on patrol with Brambleclaw and Ashfur." (The Sight, 57) This is the only information about the Hawkfrost incident that our protagonists are given, as it is quickly swept under the rug.

Aftermath
From this point on, Ashfur and Brambleclaw are built up to have a rivalry almost. It is made clear that there is something between the two (along with Squirrelflight) but our protagonists don't do much besides notice it. A lot of these moments are brushed over, like when Ashfur respectfully questions Brambleclaw's word as deputy and Brambleclaw "[looks] sharply at the gray warrior, but Ashfur's eyes showed no disrespect, only concern." (TS, page 84) Ashfur is often one questioning Brambleclaw's decisions at deputy; specifically when Brambleclaw acts without Firestar's input or when he questions Firestar's orders. Ashfur is quickly made out to be a character that is ready to call out Brambleclaw when needed, rather than someone who knowingly pokes at Brambleclaw.

When ShadowClan aggressively marks borders, Graystripe gets defensive, saying that the Clan should fight back. Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight try to calmly remind Graystripe that things are different than they once were because of the Great Journey. Ashfur retaliates against them, saying "Not so different that we should trust ShadowClan! Some cats will always try to take what another cat has." Jaypaw senses Squirrelflight flinching to this comment, wondering what Ashfur really meant. (TS, 174-175) This is a big indicator that not only is Ashfur not over Squirrelflight choosing Brambleclaw, but also that he still resents not just Squirrelflight, but Brambleclaw as well. The comment was made intentionally in an attempt to hurt Squirrelflight, but the idea that "some cats will always try to take what another cat has," clearly alludes to how Brambleclaw 'stole' Squirrelflight from Ashfur. Up until this point, he has been respectful toward Brambleclaw, and usually completely ignored Squirrelflight entirely, so throwing this jab seems entirely out of character for him, but it's very well intended. However, he quickly seems to regain his posture from this, as later on he is seen as one of the first cheering for Brambleclaw when he is chosen to remain as deputy along with Squirrelflight. Lionpaw notices Squirrelflight's surprise at this, and wonders why she seems shocked in reaction to Ashfur joining her cheering.

Ashfur's Apprentice
Lionpaw being apprenticed to Ashfur is nothing short of irony. It is an intentional choice made by the writers to further lead up to Ashfur's breaking point. Lionpaw is constantly trying to get Ashfur's attention throughout his apprenticeship, especially toward the end. In the beginning, Ashfur and Lionpaw have a good relationship as apprentice and mentor. Ashfur is often encouraging Lionpaw to be his best, but in Dark River, their relationship falters. Arguably, it isn't entirely because of Ashfur's resentment for his parents, rather it is Lionpaw's inattentiveness to his training that puts Ashfur off.

When Lionpaw starts meeting with Heatherpaw frequently, Lionpaw's training falls apart. He is constantly waking up late and distracted from his duties, often causing the characters around him to snap at him. As the book progresses, Ashfur's patience with his apprentice wanes quickly, as he quickly starts snapping and scolding Lionpaw for his mistakes. Lionpaw even gets frustrated at this, wishing that "Ashfur [would] give him advice instead of point out his mistakes," (Dark River, 163-164) The condescending comments pile up to the point where Lionpaw expects a comment when he messes up, and right as Lionpaw gets used to the treatment, Ashfur starts giving him the silent treatment. Lionpaw quickly feels ashamed and worried about this turn in their relationship, questioning if Ashfur had given up on him and if he saw Lionpaw as a waste of time.

As time goes on, their relationship keeps going south, and it becomes clear that Ashfur is taking his anger out on Lionpaw. When Lionpaw and Ashfur have a fight due to Lionpaw messing up a battle move, Brambleclaw quickly intervenes, scolding Lionpaw for blaming Ashfur on his lack of training and his mistake. Ashfur bristles with anger as Brambleclaw orders that they have a talk, apprentice to mentor, and Ashfur snaps at Lionpaw saying "I have tried to make you the best apprentice in your den, but lately it's been like training a slug." (DR, 169) Lionpaw gets anxious, and the book pointedly mentions that he's not scared of Ashfur, but of failure. Dissolving the argument, Ashfur starts to push Lionpaw to practicing a hard move, forcing him to try it over and over until Brambleclaw calls him for help. During this time, Tigerstar starts to become a mentor figure for Lionpaw, helping Lionpaw learn the move just right.

This scene in particularly makes it pointedly obvious that Ashfur is getting harsher on his apprentice, but it is not told why. Lionpaw quickly starts looking to Tigerstar for advice and praise, putting all his effort into being a better warrior. This doesn't stop him from seeking Ashfur's approval, which Ashfur has become reluctant to give. While often giving Lionpaw praise in his training, Ashfur's words are empty, as Jaypaw notices in Outcast. "In spite of the words of praise, Ashfur didn't sound enthusiastic. Jaypaw thought that his brother and Ashfur had never gotten on as well as a mentor and apprentice should. There was something there that puzzled him, and something in Ashfur that he couldn't read." (Outcast, 13) Jaypaw quickly dismissesthese thoughts as unimportant and moves on, but this quote has a lot of meaning hidden in it, even if Jaypaw can't understand what's going on. Jaypaw has clearly noticed the disturbance in the two, specifically on how Ashfur treats Lionpaw. He briefly alludes to the idea that Ashfur is taking his frustrations out on his apprentice, as Lionpaw is seen to be Squirrelflight's son, but there is no clear representation of that since Jaypaw is unaware of Ashfur's past romance with his foster mother.

Aggression
As Lionpaw continues to try and get Ashfur's approval, Tigerstar continues to train Lionpaw and give him the praise and attention that Lionpaw is lacking in his apprenticeship. Ashfur's neglect and resentment of apprentice turns Lionpaw to the Dark Forest in seek of approval, which is honestly, an entire different topic I could go on about if I were trying to focus on Lionblaze and his complexes. But it's good to note that these two tie together, especially as the series progresses. Their relationship takes a horrid turn in Outcast specifically, where Ashfur does all but attempt to murder Lionpaw during a training session. Hollypaw, our point of view is clearly disturbed by this, pointedly noting Ashfur's aggressiveness. She begs her mentor to split up the fight, which Brackenfur ends up having to do. Ashfur is described with a blaze in his eyes, glaring at Brackenfur when he forces the two to stop fighting. Both of them end up bleeding with wounds, while the other apprentices are reasonably terrified of the battle they had just watched. However, Ashfur brushes it off, giving Lionpaw praise and telling him that he can have the first pick on the fresh kill pile.

I'm gonna stop my rambling of book quotes to talk about this scene in particular. How this so easily gets skipped over utterly blows me away, because at the end of the day, Ashfur and Lionpaw were fighting as if they were warriors in battle, which is not only implied but openly stated by Hollypaw in her point of view. Poppypaw and Cinderpaw are noticeably frightened, to the point where Poppypaw asks Cloudtail if he would make them fight like Ashfur and Lionpaw did. (Outcast, 82) Hollypaw expresses her fears of Ashfur to her foster father, and Brambleclaw completely writes it off. This scene is hardly touched on by anyone except Hollypaw, who seems to be the only one scared of Ashfur's aggression. Even Jaypaw doesn't make any comments about it except noticing Lionpaw's stiffness from his wounds. Reading this as an adult had me a bit worried and made a ton of pieces in my head sort of click together. Of course, I had always known that Ashfur didn't really like his apprentice, and it always frustrated me that they stuck together in this unhealthy position when Lionpaw could have easily asked for a new apprentice or hell - Firestar shouldn't have even given Lionpaw to Ashfur. But plot progression I guess.

We are now halfway through the series, seeing as Ashfur's involvement in Outcast is limited since Lionpaw runs off to the mountains for awhile. We have witnessed Ashfur pointedly getting harsher with Lionpaw as a result from his resentment towards Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw. As the series goes on, Lionpaw continues to be frustrated with Ashfur's neglect towards him, and even openly states that he sees Tigerstar as his mentor just as much as Ashfur is. Slowly, characters are becoming more aware of Ashfur's harshness, as Brackenfur even intervenes between a spat they have. As Ashfur's apprenticeship comes to a close, his relationship with Lionpaw has boiled down to practically nothing. He shows no emotion when saying that Lionpaw is ready to be a warrior, in fact he barely makes a comment during Lionblaze's warrior ceremony at all.

I sort of sped through the dissection of Eclipse, seeing as there isn't too much to go off of there since most of the book is just fighting between the Clans and Ashfur isn't terribly relevant during those chapters. Also, it is the book I'm currently rereading so I do not have too much insight on it, the same with Long Shadows most likely, so warning, I might not be too harsh in dissecting this last book leading up to The Fire.

Long Shadows: Further Aggression
Early on, Lionblaze comes up to Ashfur asking for advice and guidance on his battle training. Lionblaze feels a bit unprepared with his fighting skills, and Ashfur quickly reassures him that he's a warrior now, and one of the best fighters at that. The praise warms Lionblaze, pointedly thinking that "when he was an apprentice, he had despaired of ever pleasing the gray warrior." (Long Shadows, 43) Ashfur eventually gives in, and the two start to fight again before Firestar intervenes, appalled at the viciousness between the two. "What I saw was far more vicious than a practice bout," (LS, 46) he comments.

Lionblaze is too caught up in his own bloodthirst to make any connection to Ashfur's equal bloodthirst. As time goes on, Ashfur gets more and more aggressive with everything going on. He snaps at Tawnypelt when she seeks refuge in ThunderClan, and continues to berate her despite being told off by CLoudtail that they should help the queen and her kits. (LS, 77) There could be an argument that Ashfur is pointedly harsh with Tawnypelt due to her relationship with Brambleclaw, as Ashfur openly speaks out against her in front of Brambleclaw, which in turn causes Brambleclaw to get mad. (LS, 89) Things slowly take a turning point between Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw and Ashfur. The tension between all of them is enough to make Jeayfeather get frustrated with how they're acting. He laments that Ashfur should "get over it" when Brambleclaw makes a mistake in assigning Ashfur to two patrols and Squirrelflight yells at Ashfur for being inattentive to the problem. Jayfeather "couldn't help wondering whether there was more to the quarrel than he realized. So much fury from Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw so quick to make amends, Ashfur clearly not forgiving him... had Jayfeather missed something really obvious between these three cats?" (LS, 260)

Jayfeather is probably the most observant of our protagonist cast, and not without reason. The powers he's given make him incredibly aware of other cats feelings and emotions. However, this is the second time he has pointedly noticed an interaction between these three that struck him and he's brushed it off. As curious as he is, he makes no move to further investigate the problem between his parents and Ashfur, and rather he lets it go and moves on, assuming that they can deal with it themselves and that it has nothing to do with him. (Oh Jayfeather, you poor innocent soul.)

This is the last big interaction before the fire. Up until this point, Ashfur has only had two outwardly violent outbursts, both towards Lionblaze in particular since he apprenticed him. These could easily be written off as their strained relationship that derived from Lionpaw's meetings with Heatherpaw that caused his training to fall back. However, Ashfur's aggression is pointedly due to the fact that Lionblaze is Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight's son, as far as everyone knows. It's kind of like how in Harry Potter Snape was harsh and cruel with Harry because Harry was Lily's son and looked exactly like James. Ashfur was knowingly cruel to Lionblaze because he was Squirrelflight's son. He had built up resentment for both Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw and took that out on their son because he was available to him and in a situation where Ashfur was his authority. (These two things are pointedly similar now that I'm talking about it... but I digress.)

The turning point for Ashfur was the outburst with Squirrelflight. Although Ashfur took her lecture, he was still furious at the end of the argument and made enough of a display to make our protagonist comment on it. All this build up over the past few books leave Ashfur with a lot of anger and in Ashfur's typical fashion, he seeks out revenge.

Revenge Complex: The Fire
You know, Ashfur always immediately goes for a revenge tactic when it comes to Squirrelflight. He aides Hawkfrost in the attempted murder of Firestar in an attempt to hurt Squirrelflight by killing her father. He does the same thing during the fire when he attempts to kill Squirrelflight's kits. Ashfur has ... a horrible revenge complex. He wants to go out of his way to harm Squirrelflight's family, attempting to go down to murder just to see her upset. He compares the grief she would experience to the grief he felt when she rejected him. "Who do you think sent Firestar the message to go down to the lake, where the fox trap was? I wanted him to die, to take your father away so you'd know the real meaning of pain." (LS, 274)

I really don't know how to analyze this without just simply repeating myself over and over, because he has clear murderous intent when it comes to Squirrelflight and her family. "This is the only way to make you feel the same pain that you caused me.You tore my heart out when you chose Brambleclaw over me. Anything I did to you would never hurt as much. But your kits... If you watch them die, then you’ll know the pain I felt." (LS, 275) He knowingly confronted Squirrelflight and her kits in a moment where he would decide their life or death. In this moment, he betrays Squirrelflight's trust by openly admitting he has an intent to murder her kits while they're in this weak moment because she rejected him for Brambleclaw.

Even when Squirrelflight throws him off by telling him they aren't her kits, his immediate reaction after the shock is to find another way to hurt her. "You’ll tell them?" Squirrelflight’s voice was sharp with pain. "Do you really think I won’t? I can still make you lose what you love most. Brambleclaw will want nothing to do with you. You were a fool to think I would keep your secret. But you have always been a fool, Squirrelflight. I’ll let these cats— whomever they belong to— live. But your suffering has only just begun." (LS, 278) With this threat, he lets them all go, leaving Squirrelflight and her family more broken than ever.

Dark Forest vs StarClan
If you have stuck with me this far, thank you I appreciate you. But all that talk was to mainly boil down to this point. I think Ashfur is a villain. I wholeheartedly believe he is a villain with antagonistic intents and that he should have gone to the Dark Forest. He openly admits to attempting to murder not only his Clanmates (one of which was once his apprentice) but also his Clan leader, and he has no shame in admitting that he did this purely to try and get revenge on Squirrelflight.

Vicky Holmes admits that her decision to put Ashfur in Starclan was due to him being "a loyal and well-meaning warrior" and that he was just driven a bit crazy by the unrequited love. (Cite) I personally don't believe this to be true. Yes, he was driven a bit mad by his rejection, but I do not believe that he was a loyal and well meaning warrior when he aided in murder to his Clan leader, and attempted murder on Lionblaze more than once, and Hollyleaf and Jayfeather. He certainly is not the only cat to go a bit haywire with emotional turmoil, as Hollyleaf herself was and that's what caused her to murder Ashfur in the first place, and Mapleshade also went insane due to grief. I question Hollyleaf being in StarClan as well, seeing as she did go out with murderous intent but there's a lot of morals at play here.

Hollyleaf's murder on Ashfur was an attempt at her own revenge. At this point in the series, Ashfur had tried to destroy the hierarchy inside of ThunderClan due to the fact Squirrelflight rejected him. He completely ruined Squirrelflight and Leafpool's reputation, along with Crowfeather's and Brambleclaw's. Leafpool resigned as medicine cat and Jayfeather, Lionblaze and Hollyleaf were left with a lot of emotional turmoil that they weren't entirely good at dealing with. (Some more than others.) Hollyleaf has always been an upstanding warrior, desperately trying to live up to the warrior code and she even had aspirations of becoming leader of ThunderClan. Her family crumbling around her caused her to lash out, she became horribly emotionally unstable, and attempted to blame Leafpool (and get her to commit suicide) before taking her anger out on Ashfur, since ultimately, Ashfur caused the root of this destruction. She saw it as she would have rather been kept in the dark about her heritage rather than have it be forced out by Ashfur.

But I'm getting away from the point here. Ashfur deserves to be in the Dark Forest for his attempted murders on Firestar, Lionblaze, Jayfeather and Hollyleaf.

Conclusion
Whew boy, I've spent quite a few hours writing this beast. I hope I made sense in my analytical rambling about Trashfur! I know I sound harsh with him, but truth be told, I absolutely adore his arc. Actually, I love everything about the Power of Three arc because of the events that surround it. I also might have a bit of a bias due to the fact that I got into Warriors as this series was coming out and the wait between Long Shadows and Sunrise was excruciating! Regardless, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk on why Ashfur is an antagonist/villain and he should be treated as such. I hope I formatted everything correctly and please tell me your thoughts!! I love debating about Ashfur and hearing what other people think. Ultimately, his fate was decided for him and there's nothing anyone can do except argue in circles about who he is, but that's still fun to me even after ten years.