Spoiler alert for Mapleshade's Vengeance, Crookedstar's promise and Prophecies Begin.
These two cats have so much in common, it is like they're alternate versions of each other. And yet the blue and red contrast each other so much like heaven and hell, Mapleshade could've had a better destiny if things had happened differently.
Similarities:
- ThunderClan cat with RiverClan mate
- 3 kits, kit death when trying to bring them to RiverClan
- Clanmates thought the father was a ThunderClan tom
- Severe mental health issues at some point; hallucinations
- Both serve significant roles to living cats from the afterlife by giving prophecies/curses
Now how did Bluestar not turn out to be Mapleshade 2.0? She kept things discreet and didn't take literal kits to the river to go swimming. She had a good support network with Thrushpelt and his paternity was somewhat believable. Mapleshade got very unlucky when cats were convinced they were the leader's sons' kits and ran with it. I honestly don't think everyone was truly convinced Thrushpelt was the father of Bluefur's kits but no one dared question it and perhaps Mapleshade was still a legend told by elders at that time to scare people not to break the code like that. Also, Bluefur was willing to make a sacrifice and give up having kits and a mate for her ambitions. Mapleshade wanted a family life and spiraled when she discovered her mate had already moved on.
Mapleshade ended up getting exiled by Oakstar and tragically lost her kits. She had nowhere to go at this point and deteriorated. I don't remember any other cat getting exiled for a half-clan relationship so either this was Oakstars personal matter because he thought his son was the kits' father or everyone learned not to exile mothers for this and stopped asking questions. Hence the "a queen doesn't have to say who the father is" in The Prophecies begin.
Even Graystripe/Silverstream is connected. Yet another forbidden ThunderClan and RiverClan pairing with kits. Bluestar gives Graystripe a lot of grace by not fighting RiverClan for the kits and letting him back in when he gets exiled from RiverClan later on. Unlike Oakstar she has empathy for Graystripes situation. Meanwhile Silverstream dies giving birth, obviously from Mapleshade's curse on Crookedstar's kin but in addition to that, I bet she feels some sense of wretched justice to see another cat with a situation like hers die, so now the curse on that lineage can end. (I know Feathertail died early but it was heroic so I don't think it counts).
What do you think, was Mapleshade just unlucky or did a situation like hers not happen again because of her?