Just a fair warning before I start ranting my head off, this contains major spoilers for Crookedstar's Promise (and also spoilers for Firestar's Quest)! You've been warned! So yeah, I've almost finished reading Crookedstar's Promise (I'm not quite done with it yet, though, so no spoilers!), and I have something to rant about. Rainflower. In my opinion, one of the worst mothers in Warriors. If you don't remember why she's so terrible, let me refresh your memory: When her son, Stormkit, broke his jaw, she refused to even look at him for a while, and even went so far as to have his name changed to Crookedkit. She loved him just as much as his brother, Oakkit, before his accident, but afterwards she was awful to him. She even forced him to sleep in his own nest in the nursery because she couldn't bear to sleep with her own kit just because of how he looked. So yeah... She's a pretty terrible mother. But that's actually not the main thing I'm here to rant about today. Crookedstar's leader ceremony. So far, I've read three leader ceremony scenes in the books: Firestar's, Leafstar's, and Crookedstar's. The first two made me cry the first time I read them... But Crooked's didn't. Why? Because in my opinion, it just wasn't that good. First of all, half the cats he received lives from he'd never met, cats who'd had no significant impact on his life whatsoever. Yes, I can understand why Leafstar's ceremony had Cloudstar and the other ancient Clan leaders. Those actually made /sense./ But Duskwater? Lilyflower? Mossleaf? Lightningpaw? Sparrowfeather? Just why? It makes no sense. But anyway, you're probably wondering what this has to do with Rainflower. Well, Rainflower was NOT among the cats who gave Crookedstar a life. And honestly? I think she should have been. Yes, I know she's an awful cat, but she /got away/ with being awful. She was never made to apologize or face her actions. And honestly? I think she could have had a chance at redemption. I'm imagining a scene where Rainflower comes forward and apologizes to Crookedstar, explaining that she saw the error of her ways and realized how awful she'd been. Then she gives Crookedstar a life for acceptance and forgiveness. A scene like this would have made the leadership ceremony FAR more emotional, and it also would have given Rainflower the redemption I think she needed. Welp, that's all for my rant about Rainflower. Let me know what you think!
