Warriors: What If?

Mapleshade

This will contain spoilers for the Warriors short story Mapleshade's Vengeance. If you don't want that short story to be spoiled, don't read this!

I have read basically every book, super edition, short story, and manga that this series has to offer. And I have come to this strange conclusion: Mapleshade is the reason for most cats becoming evil.

Hear me out for one second! Yes, The Dark Forest existed before her. MV ended with Mapleshade getting embraced into the fold. But had that one ThunderClan tom Appledusk not cheated on her and then renounced her, Mapleshade would have been a loving Clan cat. She only became evil from her grief which turned her insane (Pebblescar's Insanity, anyone?). But once she was evil, she was everywhere.

So this is my What If: What if Mapleshade hadn't been evil?

She had a much more wide-scale affect then Tigerclaw. I mean sure, Tigerclaw is evil. But he is just the bane of Firestar's existence, and honestly Mapleshade's murder count is higher then Tigerclaw's and she's a background character.

There is a list of cats that she affected- Crookedstar and Tigerclaw being the most prominent. In the Super Edition Crookedstar's Promise, Mapleshade trained Crookedjaw, working her hardest to... make him evil? Convert him? Perhaps he is descended from Appledusk in some way so she was haunting him? She mentioned wanting to make RiverClan have stronger Warriors... Well in any case, had she not shown him strength, I think Crookedpaw would never have gone back to the Clans to become Crookedstar. He might have stayed with his own self pity and never amount to anything. That would mean no Silverstream, no cats from Silverstream's line like Feathertail. No one! Not to mention Crookedstar wouldn't have influenced Bluestar the way that he did (I still ship them, sue me).

If Mapleshade wasn't evil, then Tigerclaw might not have been as evil as he turned out. Mapleshade had a paw in turning Thistleclaw, Tigerclaw's mentor and the person who influenced him to be evil from a young age (see The Rise of Scourge). If Mapleshade hadn't helped Thistleclaw turn Tigerclaw evil, then, well, we did this already in another What If. It's that serious!

If Mapleshade wasn't evil, then other cats that I am much too lazy to name would not have been trained in the ways of the Dark Forest. She is even dipping her paws into Alderpaw's fate, if I'm not mistaken. Her influence is seriously important, and she is the cause of so many evil cats to spring up. Perhaps the Clans should try to be more concerned about her rather than some other Dark Forest cats...