[Hexict]

First off, I get why people love to think of villains as heroes in their own story. I too love when we get to see the villains side and love when the hero is actually harsher than who we believed to be evil. But that isn't always the case. There are some people that are good who do bad things. They usually chose to do good but have their darker moments. But then there are people who are just evil. They chose that path by doing horrible actions with little to no reasoning. Not every villain is the hero... some are still just the villain, just with more depth.


My personal opinion is that she was evil.

I'm not saying she was evil her whole life, but rather in the end she did terrible things that cannot be forgiven. I understand that she was not in a great state of mind and that she had been through a lot, but given what she does and how she goes about it you can see that it was her fault. I'm going to explain why she is evil, but also point out somethings that I will not condemn her for:

I am not going to condemn her for falling in love with Appledusk since you cannot choose who you love nor do I fully approve of the rules that is against cross-clan relations (i get why they have it, but i can understand why it's broken a lot - again, you can't choose who you love). I also would never say she "murdered" her kits. Of course, she should have been aware that the current was too much for them and put their safety above all. Mapleshade should have waited until the river calmed down - even spending to night in unknown territory as long as she found cover would have been safer for the kits. I do get that she was perhaps a bit too emotional after getting thrown out of her clan to think things through, but again, she should have been aware for her kit's safety since she was crossing the river because of them. Though this was unintentional and I don't full blame her, she is shown to grieve over them greatly as it was a horrible accident.

Now to why I believe her to be evil. Mapleshade may have been driven by grief, and she may have been hallucinating, but she did still kill three cats and tried to murder a pregnant cat as well just because she was Appledusk's new mate. She kills all of these cats because she blames them for her kits, when it was more her fault than others even though it was an accident - though Frecklewish did do a horrible thing by not bothering to help, but apparently he saw/thought Riverclan cats were helping (?). Mapleshade blamed Frecklewish for killing the kits by being silent, even though they had been kind to her and the kits and would help them when she first had them. She also killed their medicine cat at the moonestone because they informed the clan of her and Appledusk's relationship. She then killed Appledusk after he claimed he didn't love her, in fact, she wasn't even aiming for her but rather his new pregnant mate who was innocent on the whole matter, but he stepped in front of her and was killed instead. Not to mention that fact that she knew what she was doing. This wasn't something spontaneous that couldn't have been stopped, it wasn't an impulsive action that was triggered by her depression. No, it took days for her plan out these deaths. The fact that she planned them out for so long shows that she can be condemned for her actions as they were not something that she couldn't control.

I understand why she was angered with these people, but none of them did anything that deserved to be killed for. As I stated, she had more to do with her kits death than they did, yet she never blamed herself and instead went around and killed others.

Not only did she do this, but as she died she did not regret any of it, but rather enjoyed the fact that she had done all of that. Right away she began to train others in the Dark Forest so that they would be able to torture the clans, despite them not having anything to do with Mapleshade. Perhaps she wanted to torture innocent cats that had done nothing simply because she had lost everything? She messed with Crookedstar and caused him pain simply because he was the descendant of Appledusk and Reedshine - something he had no control over. This doesn't make up for what she had done, she chose to lose whatever she had left when she decided to murder other cats. Mapleshade continued to try to bring harm to others until the say Sandstorm finished her.

Therefore she is evil, for she had chosen to go down this path. She was aware of what she was doing and had complete control over her actions, yet instead of regretting them she was proud of the deaths she had caused and further torture she could inflict upon the still living.

Originally Posted by Trickster~

Well, she did kill a cat (Apple-something), and kinda-sorta ruin Crookedstar's life, but her Clan banished her AND her kits! (Wth?) Her kits died, her mate abandoned her, so I say..both.

Mapleshade actually killed three cats and then attempted to murder a pregnant cat who had done nothing - she was Appledusk's new mate, but should not be punished for that.

The clan banished her because it is against the code to become mates with someone from another clan. And whether or not you and I may agree with that rule, that is the punishment for breaking the code. It is viewed as a betrayal to the clan, therefore the clan would not wish to have them among their ranks any longer.

Though I don't fully blame her for her kits' deaths, I did explain why she does share some blame above. And her mate abandoned her because he was heart-broken that their kits were dead, and blamed her.
(such as if someone you loved left the kids in the tub who then drowned on their watch, it would be extremely difficult to get over that - and relationships have actually ended after the kids are accidentally killed on one's watch)

Originally Posted by Okapi

Not in human society. But in the clans society I think it’s fine- you need to justify yourself. And if you recover then you shoud redeem yourself in any way shape or form.

Given the fact that it is actually against the code to kill someone in battle (unless life or death) I would expect it to be highly frowned upon - and extremely punishable - to kill someone when there's not only life or death, but also no battle and they are not doing anything that deserves it. Mapleshade actually attacked them at random when they were simply walking around their own territory and murdered them.

She would either be driven out and given a death threat if she ever returned, or actually be executed by the leader(s) after doing this had she not been killed before that could happen.