I have been holding off on until now.

Today I'm going to talk about Brightheart.

She's an inspiring and beloved cat in canon alone, and my own experiences in writing for

her have made me love her even more, to the point that she now stands as my third favorite

character in the series.

Brightheart was born to Frostfur along with Thornclaw, Brackenfur, and Cinderpelt.

Although, as is often the case in the first arc, none of them are named and two of her

siblings are made apprentices and go through entire arcs before she and Thornclaw can leave

the nursery.

The first arc really didn't care about kits.

In Forest of Secrets she becomes Brightpaw, apprenticed to Whitestorm, who is quite possibly

the best mentor in the clan, with the possible exception of Bluestar.

She is calm, well-behaved, and kind, but other than playing with Thornpaw and occasionally

Swiftpaw or Cloudpaw, she doesn't have much of a presence, and is pretty generic until…

A Dangerous Path.

Cloudtail was made a warrior without any of the other apprentices, and Swiftpaw decided

they should go after the dogs attacking the territory to prove themselves.

Brightpaw was the only one who decided to tag along and before we get into the results

of that, let's consider why.

She's the most polite, well-behaved, calm, and hesitant apprentice in the clan, used

explicitly as a contrast to Cloudpaw's brash impulsiveness for Fireheart.

If she was really convinced to leave Thornpaw, her closest connection before now, to go with

Swiftpaw on a hare-brained mission alone at night, maybe there is more to her than we

saw on the page.

Maybe, given her small bits of disappointment shown at Cloudpaw's warrior ceremony, she

feels left behind, not even by a denmate, but by *Cloudtail specifically*.

She liked Cloudtail as a friend even at this point, and maybe seeing Cloudtail promoted

where she wasn't left her feeling inferior to him, and more willing to take the sort

of brash actions that she'd always avoided before.

This will be important to keep in mind later on.

Brightpaw and Swiftpaw go after the dogs, and we know from accounts later on that Brightpaw

actually saw Swiftpaw die before her eyes before she lost one of those eyes and was

brutally scarred.

When her clanmates find her, she is unconscious and yelling out exposition in her sleep.

She keeps repeating these words in her nightmares in the medicine den, a no-doubt harrowing

experience.

But through it all, the cat who decides to stay by her and keep her company, even as

she is named Lostface by a Bluestar who is quickly losing touch with reality, is Cloudtail.

Being injured, having cats constantly flinch at the sight of her, being cared for by the

cat she had hoped to emulate, and only being given a warrior name to mark her as broken

in case she died is an enormous blow to an ego that wasn't high to begin with.

With Cinderpelt's help she does get a job with Speckletail who is trying to get over

losing Snowkit but she is aware that she is being used too, and longs to feel like she's

making some sort of good effect on the world.

It doesn't help when she goes to see Cloudtail's mother, who has a startlingly awful reaction,

and finally sees her own reflection in a puddle.

She understands immediately that she is hideous and scary, but Cloudtail is still there to

comfort her and tell her she will always be beautiful to him.

The issue at this point in her story is that every cat who isn't afraid of her is explicitly

caring for her.

She isn't capable of caring for herself, and has still been completely unable to make

a good impact on the clan in the way that she wanted to.

So she instead turns to learning enough so that she can be of assistance.

We know that she learns the basics about herbs so she can help Cinderpelt, and later, once

Firestar is leader and changes her name to Brightheart, she lets Cloudtail train her

in fighting again to learn new moves that she can do with one eye.

As a key part here, it is Cloudtail who pushes for her to learn fighting, Cloudtail who pushes

for her new name, and Cloudtail who continuously shows off how good she's getting in training

when Firestar comes by to check.

Brightheart does become quite skilled, fighting in the Bloodclan battle, but even then she

always has Cloudtail at her side, and from the narrative's perspective, it is usually

Cloudtail who gets the credit and focus, for being such a good mate and helping her get

through this difficult part of her life.

Through the first arc, Brightheart was always a polite, relatively quiet, compassionate,

and well-behaved she-cat who wanted to prove herself at some level, especially in trying

to reach the same level as Cloudtail, but one who kept falling short and needing to

be cared for *by* Cloudtail and the clan at large.

This is the vast majority of the story canon gives her and it is one that a lot of fans

hold dear, but it is not the ending to her arc at all, which is why it's important

to look at later pieces of the narrative as well…and maybe completely throw out some

bits of canon and add in an ending of your own to give this she-cat some justice.

Because she wanted the ability to care for someone else so badly, it makes perfect sense

to me that she not only had Whitewing, but was very close with her.

I spoke about this relationship more in my Whitewing video but Brightheart and Cloudtail

were both loving parents and they ended up as a close-knit family.

Cloudtail, by the way, is still spending almost all of his time with her and making the decisions

about patrols they should go on or lead, and when Firestar chooses Brightheart for a patrol

or guarding duty, he *always* picks Cloudtail to do it with her.

They are a pair.

Even when they are both captured by the twolegs, Cloudtail licks her ear affectionately when

they get out and is glad that she's safe.

Their dynamic is still one where Cloudtail takes care of her even when they're in the

same level of danger, which, while sweet, is a limiting place to be considering her

injuries might have come in the first place because she was jealous that she couldn't

rise to his level and be a peer.

And then we come…to the latter half of The New Prophecy.

Daisy joins the clan, and Cloudtail is immediately protective of her place, since he too was

born a kittypet and doesn't like the claims some cats are making that Daisy doesn't

deserve to be in the clans.

Brightheart even tells Whitepaw at this point that Cloudtail is right to do that.

However, Cloudtail starts leaving her alone more and more as he spends time with and cares

for Daisy as he once did for her.

It is important to note that for these last two books, Cloudtail is *only* seen with Daisy,

and he and Brightheart are only in scenes together if Brightheart is looking in on their

relationship and feeling sad or angry.

This isn't just Cloudtail helping a new clanmate with a similar background fit in.

He, after spending every book since A Dangerous Path constantly including and caring for Brightheart,

completely drops her to spend time with Daisy instead, and Brightheart is probably justified

in feeling jealous of that.

Regardless, Brightheart began spending more time in the medicine den and helping Cinderpelt,

even though that drove Leafpaw to feel unnecessary, because her basic knowledge of herbs is the

only thing Brightheart has ever been able to do on her own: the only claim she had to

her worth independent of Cloudtail.

She also spends a fair bit more time with Whitepaw than Cloudtail does.

But by the end of Sunset, Daisy has promised to back away from Cloudtail, Brightheart has

promised to back away from the medicine den, and everything supposedly returns to the old

status quo, with the exception of Brightheart now being allowed to help Leafpool sometimes

with herbs when she asks.

The New Prophecy's plot, despite my distaste for it at points, was actually a great example

of how dependent Brightheart's life became on Cloudtail, how much she relies on him in

comparison to how he can stand a life without her.

Brightheart had a brief flirt with independence, but being that she isn't a real medicine

cat, that is only a side hobby for her rather than something the clan needs that she can

provide.

It is nice that she got a good, close relationship with her daughter and a genuine respect for

Whitewing's journey and independence, both of which Brightheart keeps for the rest of

her life, but it still ends with Brightheart back at Cloudtail's side.

For a first true look at what Brightheart in particular can and does provide the clan,

we need to look at Power of Three, specifically The Sight.

This is quite possibly the most infamous moment of her life outside of the dog attack.

Brightheart finds a kinship in Jaykit as a disabled cat who is fussed over and pitied

by his clanmates and whose place as a warrior is in question.

For this reason, Firestar makes Brightheart Jaypaw's mentor when he decides to be a

warrior apprentice, but Jaypaw is..let's say, less than receptive to her since he sees

the choice as meaning that blind cats are only really fit to train other blind cats.

Lump them together and drop a tree on them, as his phrase goes.

We see on their first patrol together that Brightheart isn't particularly respected

either, despite her status as a warrior, with even Thornclaw, her brother, although the

book definitely doesn't remember that relationship, demeaning her by reminding her to not go over

the border.

They could have honestly had a lot of kinship, but Brightheart training Jaypaw would not

get her the respect of the clan since she's not training a quote unquote “normal”

apprentice.

And it turns out that Jaypaw needed to become a medicine cat instead anyway, so Brightheart

loses her apprentice less than a moon after getting him, and while she is promised another,

that promise was never fulfilled though to her move to the elders' den.

She did make up with Jayfeather eventually though, and began helping him occasionally

with herbs just as she did Leafpool.

Brightheart is seen on her own, without Cloudtail, sometimes through the rest of the series,

and has her own actions, but other than being one of those nice older warriors in the background,

and one scene in The Forgotten Warrior where she gets to teach every cat the moves she

learned to fight with one eye, she doesn't get to do much, and never gets the spotlight

again for the rest of the series.

Knowing that, I'd say it's time to throw out canon entirely and finish her story myself,

or at least give ideas for where it might go.

I've mentioned a few times now that her relationship with Cloudtail, despite how sweet

it is, can be somewhat limiting, as she really needs some independence and recognition outside

of Cloudtail to feel whole and worthwhile in that relationship, something she never

got in canon.

In the second, third, and fourth arcs, we did see her occasionally taking on small leadership

roles like mentoring, briefly, helping out in the medicine cat den, or leading training,

and it's entirely possible that she always had a layer of strength in her given her actions

with Swiftpaw, but that that strength was hidden by her polite streak and hesitance

around risks after the dog attack.

Even so, no one, with the sort-of exception of Cloudtail, ever considered her a particularly

*capable* cat, including her brother and brief apprentice.

Cats would call her nice, a good cat or mother, but she wasn't someone they came to for

talent or opinions on clan politics unless it specifically had to do with lacking sight

and her special battle moves.

I think the best way to truly resolve Brightheart's arc would be to finally let her step beyond

the bounds of her relationship with Cloudtail and grow, in the public eye preferably, into

a stronger and more assertive cat who can use her thoughtfulness and unique skillset

to help the clan.

She wouldn't ever give up on her family; she loves Cloudtail, Whitewing, and their

second litter of kits.

But she could use her skills in being a mother and helping others to find their places in

the world to be a mentor or role model for cats outside her family.

She wouldn't ever want to become a true medicine cat, but her basic knowledge of the

setup and skills required in the medicine den would help her act as a liaison between

the warriors and the medicine cats, as she would know exactly how much she could push

the cats in her care without them getting seriously hurt.

One thing is absolutely non-negotiable though.

This kitty needs an apprentice badly.

And I don't mean Jayfeather.

I mean the apprentice she was promised after he found his own path: either Icecloud or

Foxleap.

For my part, there's a very specific path I had always intended for her to have going

into Paws of Stars, with getting her first permanent apprentice as only the first step,

and that path is the reason that I haven't been willing to discuss her before.

If you have read Fading Light, the most recent book, and know what has been going on with

her, I ask that you don't spoil it without warning in the comments.

But even putting Paws of Stars aside, Brightheart will always be a kind, strong, determined,

and balanced she-cat and one of the most admirable in the series to me and many others.

I'm glad I was finally able to share this moment with her.

Thank you for watching, and always remember to acknowledge your own strengths

even as you rely on others.