User:RiinRin/Morals & Firestar: Why He Was a Well-Crafted Character

Introduction
Firestar is a big subject for a lot of people. A lot of the community vastly hates him due to how involved he is in the series, how "perfect" his character seems to be, or because of his love-triangle with Spottedleaf and Sandstorm. There's a lot of controversy on his character, and today in my TED talk I will be discussing Firestar's morals, and why I believe he's arguably the best leader the series has produced.

Kantian Morals
Immanuel Kant's "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals" states “the only thing that is unconditionally good is a good will.” Kant's entire belief on morals is that good intentions are required to do good things. Firestar falls under this theory.

Firestar is always incredibly eager to do what his heart thinks is right. Sometimes, what was right was not always in the Warrior Code, but he listened to his own heart and sought to do what was right with general good intentions that would benefit everyone. When Bluestar accuses WindClan of stealing prey and issues an attack, Fire[heart] specifically went out of his way, and acted on what he believed was right in order to quell the battle and prevent unnecessary deaths from happening. By doing this, he specifically goes against a law in the Warrior Code: When he tells ThunderClan of what he's doing, they are obvious outraged, seeing as he is going against their equivalent of law. But in the end, it aligns with Kant's moral theory. Fireheart had the good intention to stop war, and to keep his Clan safe, and acted upon that, saving both ThunderClan and WindClan a battle that could've resulted in lost lives.
 * The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code.[13]

Another example of Firestar breaking the Code based off his own morals, is when he, as an apprentice, feeds Yellowfang secretly when she lives on ThunderClan territory during her exile. Elders, kits and queens are supposed to be fed above all else. Hunting patrols are forbidden from eating their catch unless food has been supplied to the weaker cats first. Fire[paw] neglects the Code, in order to take care of an exiled cat from ShadowClan, because in his mind, he believed it was the right thing. Firepaw spent moons taking care of Yellowfang, both illegally and legally (after he got caught) because his heart told him to do the right thing, and to not neglect Yellowfang when she was weak.
 * Elders, queens, and kits must be fed before apprentices and warriors.[3]

Morally Good =/= Boring
Morally right characters are often times described as boring, since they generally do the right thing. Sure, morally grey characters are usually much more interesting since their intent and their actions don't always align. (Kinda like how Alderheart fed Puddleshine deathberries with the intent of doing the right thing.) Chaotically aligned characters are always favoured over the generally good characters due to how their perspective is, which is arguably a good reason on why Jayfeather is so popular. Jayfeather's morals do not strictly follow a "I think this is the right choice, so I will do it," he usually just does whatever he pleases based on what he wants to do.

But this doesn't make him any less of an interesting read. People often agree that the original series is one of the best out of all the arcs, and it holds a lot of nostalgia to our hearts. Firestar may not have been the most wild with his morals, but he was an incredible narrator for the first series, and like the authors have said, the series started with him. (I personally believed it should've ended with him as well but shrugs.)

"Gary-Stu" Trope
I don't necessarily believe Firestar is qualified to be a "Gary-Stu" by any means just because of his moralities.


 * [Mary Sue's] can usually perform better at tasks than should be possible given the amount of training or experience, and usually are able through some means to upstage the main protagonist of the story, such as by saving the hero. Wikipedia

By this definition, the trope of Mary Sue does not apply to Firestar. A lot of people argue that Firestar's morals leads him to be a "goodie-two-shoes" or a "perfect" character. He is in no way perfect, as his morals frequently lead him to break the Warrior Code as an apprentice and a warrior, often. Being a genuinely good character is in no way bad, and his pure heart does not make him perfect by any standards. He acts on what he believes, and he has an incredibly genuine heart that definitely gets him into a lot of trouble. By going on Kant's theories from before, he is a morally good character, and his actions are unconditionally good due to him having the pure good intent.

Conclusion
To spare making this a complete 30 page essay analysis about Firestar, I will cut myself off here. I will forever hold Firestar in my heart due to his pure heart, and his strong friendly leadership.

Feel free to comment! Or tell me I'm wrong, but I will be ready to debate this to my grave since I love my fire boy. 03:28, November 25, 2018 (UTC)