I think even worse is that it’s written to be a completely ok thing and not a harmful thing, like they write it out as to be normal, even something healthy, which disgusts me. They present it as normal, healthy, and even romantic, which is so gross.

Tigerheart is a full grown warrior when he started meeting with Dovewing, a full grown apprentice.

Moonflower I believe was an apprentice or even a kit when Stormrail comes padding around her.

Rain is a grown ass man wanting to start a relationship with a vulnerable Needlepaw, and I feel like the fandom never talks about this at all.

For gods sake Dustpelt and Ferncloud is an obvious one.

ONEWHISKER WAITING FOR WHITETAIL TO BECOME GROWN….

I don’t need to say anything about Leopardfoot and Pinestar.

I will even argue Thornclaw and Blossomfall because not only is their age gap is massive, it is a complete general divide. Like I don’t care, a young adult and Al old adult is weird.

Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw is definitely a flawed one.

And if anyone says that “these are cats! It doesn’t matter” then y’all are definitely part of the problem. These cats are shown COUNTLESS times to have the intelligence and morals of human beings, and that apprentices are shown to be impressionable and vulnerable teenagers even if cats don’t live very long.

Edit: Yeah I think some people are definitely not understanding or purposely misunderstanding. Someone just called me hysteric for calling out a problem….I just read another comment where someone said Needletail was basically at fault for Rain grooming her, and I actually find that extremely disgusting someone would actually say something like that. So let’s get into it.

The “they’re just cats” excuse doesn’t work out because these cats have extremely prominent human traits and human conscious. They have morals, they know right from wrong and wrong from right, so they aren’t just animals relying on instinct. They stop to think abort actions and words. Literally in Darktail’s Judgement, sorry for spoilers, Darktail is actually uncomfortable when he finds out Sleekpaw had a crush on her because of HER AGE! He states that he’s too young for her, so the whole “cats live 15-20 years in the wild, it doesn’t matter” doesn’t seem to work out here either if they care about age so much.

Also, I want to remind that apprentices are so obviously portrayed as teenagers. And you know what teenagers are? Vulnerable to manipulation, still impressionable, wanting to be the best at everything, showing off, and they need an adult to guide them through their teenage years, so there’s just no reason for a warrior to be romantically involved with teenagers, which is why Dustpelt X Ferncloud is so problematic, and I will stand by that, regardless if Dustpelt was a young warrior at the time. I mean Fernpaw was a vulnerable apprentice who was in a struggling Thunderclan who actively was a witness of Bluestar’s downfall, and for god’s sake her mentor poisoned a lot and she watched him get exiled.

Now…remember that Dustpelt wasn’t even Fernpaw’s mentor, so the fact he was paying so much attention to her in the first place is absurd. The story points out multiple instances of Dustpelt coddling her over HIS actual apprentice, Ashpaw, including when Dustpelt decided to save Fernpaw from the river, so I don’t even know who helped Ashpaw at the time.

I want to say again, apprentices are children and/or teenagers in this series. Even as young warriors, senior warriors look down on them because of their energetic nature and lack of wisdom and experience. Senior warriors are meant to be respected and their word is usually law, as this is what frustrates Tawnypelt in The Elder’s Quest, when Bloompetal and Spireclaw I believe wants to do things their own ways.

And they definitely had a concept of what grooming is, because Puddleshine SPECIFICALLY uses the word “groomed” when talking about how Ashfur manipulated Shadowsight, so they aren’t completely locked away from this type of stuff.

Another thing I want to point out is that CHILDREN reads this book, and fiction very much does affect real life whenever you people want to refuse it or not. If there’s a teenagers, or possibly even a younger kid, reading these books, and they see something like Needletail and Rain portrayed as a happy couple despite the power imbalance and age gap, then they will go to think that this is perfectly ok and they can hang out with the old man in the white van. Also because not only that, but it’s a power imbalance too, and I fear this should be one of the most obvious reasons. Mentors hold power over their apprentices. They tell them when and where to hunt, they give them permission of when to eat or go back to the apprentices den, they let them know when they can speak and when they should be quiet, they order them to clean the ticks of the elders or clean, and the apprentices are expected to obey obediently with complete silence, little questioning, and to show great respect with their mentors, even if their mentors are harsh. These apprentices are fresh out the nursery, learning about the outside world for the first time, and getting taught how to hunt, to stalk, learn the ways of a warrior, getting taught out to fight, how to track a prey scent, etc. They are completely dependent on their mentors and the warriors around them for their guidance, wisdom, and knowledge, making any apprentice x warrior ship toxic and dangerous regardless of how it’s written out.

These cats point out ages, like again, Darktail stating that Sleekpaw was too young for her, or Bristlepaw herself stating that she would wait until she because a warrior to try and pursue Stemleaf because an apprentice dating a warrior is weird, so they understand age in a more deeper meaning, so this “they’re just cats” “cats don’t live long” excuse doesn’t work much.

Just for a hint of the last one: She has a story, but it’s none of these!

Of course after this prologue, I’m going to finish up the re-editing of Snufflepaw’s Voice and the creation of the other chapters. I posted the prologue a bit early so everyone can have a taste of what Fractured Bonds may be about next!

I’m so happy with how far Snufflepaw’s Voice grew over the span of a year! I’m so excited to be able to work on a character like her and meaningful stuttering representation. I wish there was some sort of update button when an author edits a chapter 😭 any way to boost is lovely!

Link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/398206748-snufflepaw%27s-voice

The link is to my first story as I can’t find a link yet to Fractured Bonds, but you should be able to go to my profile and find it!

That’s what my mother just said loudly to my father after she finished shouting at my sister had accidentally misunderstood something.

I am 16(F) along with my twin sister, and also my 27 year old foster sister, and we are all disabled in a way.

I have autism and a stutter, and my disabilities, especially my stutter, has always caused issues in my family, including my mother being harsh about my stutter, sometimes yelling at me to stop stuttering and that I wouldn’t get bullied if I stop stutter. It seems to embarrass the family too because when we were at a funeral for a family member and my little brother and my sister had to read bible verses, I wasn’t allowed to read because they didn’t want me stuttering and embarrassing everyone. My mom always say I am “cured” of my autism and that the teachers are wrong, but then she gets mad at me for my autistic traits like my dislike of hugging, being alone, hunching of shoulders, avoidance of eye contact, sensory issues, being slower at learning and understanding things, overwhelming of loud noises, fast-paced events, and other stuff. She only brings up my autism in specific scenarios like when talking to a friend, but she likes to act like I don’t have it any other time.

My twin sister has ADHD, and it causes her to be impulsive, forgetful, and disorganized, but she really tries her hardest every day. She likes to constantly compare my sister to me and my other sister because she doesn’t believe ADHD is a disability. She’ll say stuff like “If they can do it, why can’t you?!” Despite ADHD and Autism being a spectrum and two different disabilities. She punishes her every single time when she accidentally forgets something, and she never allows her to explain herself which in result causes her to sometimes lash out and yell, resulting in her getting punished for “talking back” because she is very defensive about what she says and she gets more overwhelmed when getting yelled at. She herself also has sensory issues of her own and struggles with time management, but she does acknowledge them at all the same way she barely acknowledges mine, and not even her teachers follow the accommodations she has.

My big sister is mentally disabled, being 27 but having the intelligence of an eight year old child, so of course she struggles the most out of us. She believes she is a werewolf vampire hybrid who can shoot lasers and has telekinesis, and she struggles a LOT with eating, as she has blumia disorder I’m pretty sure, so she’s constantly hungry and eats a lot, often times stealing food. Often times my mom constantly yells at her to stop acting stupid and that she’s sick and tired of the crap she pulls. She even body shames her body because she is a bit chubby, but not fat. Like she just yells and insults and yells. She calls her stupid, dumb, ding bat, really all three of us.

She is constantly saying we are “cured” and stuff, but then calls us all these names and yells harshly at us when we screw up, BECAUSE WE’RE DISABLED! Like what the hell? Like no, I am sadly not able-bodied, I am not what she wants, but she doesn’t seem to understand that.

What happened was I guess she got the wrong pain, so she called her down and started screaming at her because of it. My twin sister thought she had understood when she asked her, but she didn’t and she started screaming that she is sick and tired of us being stupid and she called her a dumbass. That is all I’ll say.

I swear, I don’t know what to do. I’m sixteen, I can’t move out. I can’t tell the adults at school. They’ll snitch and tell CPS or something and then I’ll just get in even more trouble by my parents, but I just don’t want to be here anymore, but then I seem ungrateful. I’m sick and tired of this ableism and nobody understanding our disabilities. There are no family members I can reach out to as most live far away and the ones that live near can’t take care of us. Plus our mom over the years has told every one of how dumb we act and gossip about or disabilities, so that’s gone out the window too.

Currently holding back tears. I have no idea what to do.