[sNazzy]

Originally Posted by Slushie

Hollyleaf is an incredibly interesting character. Not one of my favorites, but one of the better ones. She's strong, determined, loyal, but she also follows the warrior code to a terrible fault, which is more than you could say for almost all of the characters in the series nowadays.

She did have a reason to kill Ashfur. He was going to expose her and her siblings for having two mothers who lied to all of ThunderClan. However, this is exactly where I find fault with her character:

Perhaps she wanted to tell her Clan on her own. Perhaps she didn't want someone who tried to kill her family to be the one to reveal the big secret. Even so, she killed Ashfur to protect them and then turned around and did exactly the opposite. She exposed Crowfeather, Squirrelflight, and Leafpool at a Gathering, of all places. Ashfur probably wouldn't have gone that far, most likely only telling Brambleclaw or at the worst ThunderClan. But Hollyleaf exposed her family at a Gathering. I'm not getting "loyal, love my family, trying to protect them" vibes, I'm getting "extreme hypocrisy" vibes. That's the only reason why I don't adore her. I don't hate her, but she isn't one of my favorites, that's for sure.

I think that if you look at her state of mind at the time, her hypocrisy makes more sense. First, she believes as one of the Three, the entire future of the clans depends on her. Second, the one thing she has always believed in her whole life is the warrior code, yet her very existence defies it, in not only one, but two ways. Finally, she was then almost killed by someone, who then threatened to reveal her ancestry to her clan, which she believed would guarantee her exile. This rising stress and trauma erupted, and she killed Ashfur out of fear for her future. Then, her hatred of herself and her parents, as well as Squirrelflight, drove her to expose them all, and then she tried killing Leafpool, before backing off and running away.

The point of her character is that she IS a hypocrite, and does some terrible, nonsensical things. Her world is turned upside down, and while Lion and Jay can handle the things they learn, Hollyleaf can't, and she almost goes insane. She doesn't know what to do and can't think clearly, and so when she returns to calm, she must come to terms for what she's done and make amends with the people she hurts.