I’m physically disabled, in a similar situation as Briarlight (I was born with it instead). Her experience, especially with Millie, Greystripe, and Blossomfall, is painfully actuate to my own experiences. Your parents being overbearing or distancing themselves, siblings feeling a painfully jealousy. Not to mention the constant feeling of uselessness that hangs over you. I used to reread Briar’s paragraphs over and over as a kid, since I never knew anyone else who went through what I did. Watching this video, all those memories begin flooding back to me. Thank you.
I really think Mothflight needs to be talked about. The fact she's basically a teen mom with ADHD and she's set up to fail by the story. Her parents don't support her that much (especially her mom) and she's widowed so soon into her relationship and so young. It's interesting that she was the founder of her role. I really hate how she was turned into just the "creator of the medicine cats having babies" rule and nothing else.
I'd like to see you talk about Mousefur, she's one of the original warriors, and we get to see her become a elder and make friends with Longtail and Purdy (Two characters I also enjoy). She's known to be a bit sassy and gets more of a personality later on. She also loses Longtail and dies in the battle of the dark forest which seems like a fitting ending for a character we see develop but is never the main focus.
I’d also like to see a video about Deadfoot. I find it really interesting how he is one of the few disabled cats in the series (alongside Brightheart and Crookedstar) who aren’t medicine cats, and also, he was Windclan’s deputy, which I think is super cool!
The points you make about graystripe are... really salient, actually. It's bizarre to me that he has so little interaction with his kids with Millie, whereas for his last litter with Silverstream it was seen as incredibly UNUSUAL how involved in his childrens' lives he was. Where did his parental instinct go? Did... did they just forget that he's supposed to be a good dad?
Oh, maybe Sunfall/Sunstar for a future video? The circumstances around his leadership were really interested, and for a background character, he's actually got a decent amount going for him, especially in Bluestar's book!
I found it so messed up back in the day when people said that Honeyfern's sacrifice was wasted by Briarlight becoming paralyzed. Similarly to elder characters, a lot of people seemed to want her killed off and I hated that.
I think the fact that both Jayfeather, another disabled character, and Briarlight were able to form such a close bond showed great solidarity between the two. Probably influenced how great Jayfeather was in helping her see her self-worth as something other than usefulness. Though I agree Blossomfall is obviously in the wrong with her blaming Briarlight, the whole jealousy over siblings' things is extremely common as parents tend to neglect the other kids. As someone whose sister had a disability that required frequent checkups as a kid, I was always really jealous of the attention my mom spent with her so I could understand Blossomfall feel a similar way. Even if it isn't rational, she probably would rather Milie give her attention even if it's doting and overbearing because she resents not having that.
I do understand, from a CHARACTER'S view saying they want to be useful. I am physically disabled, and I struggled with the idea of being of use/being a burden. idk if the authors intended that though, from Briarlight's perspective, but it is something I can connect with. its AWFUL but its something drilled into me from family, doctors, therapists. Briarlight tho, I love. and I think they handled her, specifically, not her family or other characters interacting with her, pretty well. She's a fantastic character who is loved.
disabled person here! not paralyzed, but my disability heavily affects my legs to the point they are near-useless. i think briarlight is my favorite character in the series simply because of how well she's portrayed, especially as a newly disabled child who used to be abled and very active. my disability progressed in very much the same way it felt like. i could run and keep up with my friends and do what i wanted, and suddenly i couldn't.
I think the reason Blossomfall blames the (technically other) victim (Briarlight) and not the abuser (Millie) is because.. That's actually something that happens in real families. The one getting most of the attention can be unfairly seen as the cause of the problems. Blossomfall just thinks that if Briarlight weren't disabled, then Millie would pay more attention to both of them instead of just one of them. It's also similar to how older siblings get jealous of all the attention the younger sibling gets. A sort of "why them and not me?" mindset, because siblings are, in nature, competition for one another and can have a lot of conflict when one feels like they're being neglected. Not all situations like this end up with the resentful, jealous sibling realizing the parents are also to blame for the neglect. Shifting blame is a thing that hurt and neglected kids 1000% do. They might be jealous of a sibling, or even a classmate who seems to be better off. All simply because they are jealous of what they can't/don't have and angrily hold grudges against anyone who makes them jealous in this way.
Yeahhhh I will say as someone who is physically disabled (not paralyzed, but still disabled), it kinda irked me when the fandom decided all of a sudden that the way to fix the books ableism was to... make all of the disabled characters into warriors. Characters like Cinderpelt and Briarlight were the ones that mainly got me, cuz I know they WANTED to be warriors, but a reality of being disabled is that you don't always get to do what you want to. I felt very fond of these characters who found other ways to make their own lives brighter in ways that were different.
I'd like to see you talking about Purdy! The old guy doesn't really get the spotlight much, considering just how much he impacts mousefurs life after the death of longtail. He is a great old guy who just wants to tell stories, and I would love if you covered him!
As someone who's physically disabled (in not as severe of a way though) i'm glad you said something about it not being a good idea for her to race around and fight like a warrior.
I’d love to hear you talk about Shrewclaw! I’ve always personally liked him as a character but he’s not talked about much, which is odd because he’s in one of the most liked super editions. He bullied Tallstar as a kit but never had any bad feelings towards him, he was very upset when Talltail wanted to leave and felt bad once he realized what he did hurt Tallstar. Once Tallstar got back he seemed to treat him better and try to mend the relationship.
As a physically disabled person, ambulatory wheelchair, I like how you covered this. It was sad to see she was seen as a character to pity. People with disabilities have the right to live and their lives aren’t anything to pity. In reality, there is an issue of disabled people being seen as worthless. When disabled people are killed by their “caregivers”, society doesn’t care much. I really didn’t like how she was just able to walk again in Starclan. Mainly because people act like death is better than being disabled, or that death is freeing.
hey! i'm physically disabled and i think you covered briarlight wonderfully. you were thorough, thoughtful and called out things that needed to be. you reminded me of stuff i forgot that are important for me to know around my opinion of briarlight.
I’m physically disabled, in a similar situation as Briarlight (I was born with it instead). Her experience, especially with Millie, Greystripe, and Blossomfall, is painfully actuate to my own experiences. Your parents being overbearing or distancing themselves, siblings feeling a painfully jealousy. Not to mention the constant feeling of uselessness that hangs over you. I used to reread Briar’s paragraphs over and over as a kid, since I never knew anyone else who went through what I did. Watching this video, all those memories begin flooding back to me. Thank you.
I really think Mothflight needs to be talked about. The fact she's basically a teen mom with ADHD and she's set up to fail by the story. Her parents don't support her that much (especially her mom) and she's widowed so soon into her relationship and so young. It's interesting that she was the founder of her role. I really hate how she was turned into just the "creator of the medicine cats having babies" rule and nothing else.
I'd like to see you talk about Mousefur, she's one of the original warriors, and we get to see her become a elder and make friends with Longtail and Purdy (Two characters I also enjoy). She's known to be a bit sassy and gets more of a personality later on. She also loses Longtail and dies in the battle of the dark forest which seems like a fitting ending for a character we see develop but is never the main focus.
I’d also like to see a video about Deadfoot. I find it really interesting how he is one of the few disabled cats in the series (alongside Brightheart and Crookedstar) who aren’t medicine cats, and also, he was Windclan’s deputy, which I think is super cool!
"I'm pretty sure I'm worthless if I can't be of service." Fits warrior cats a little too well.
The points you make about graystripe are... really salient, actually. It's bizarre to me that he has so little interaction with his kids with Millie, whereas for his last litter with Silverstream it was seen as incredibly UNUSUAL how involved in his childrens' lives he was. Where did his parental instinct go? Did... did they just forget that he's supposed to be a good dad?
Oh, maybe Sunfall/Sunstar for a future video? The circumstances around his leadership were really interested, and for a background character, he's actually got a decent amount going for him, especially in Bluestar's book!
I found it so messed up back in the day when people said that Honeyfern's sacrifice was wasted by Briarlight becoming paralyzed. Similarly to elder characters, a lot of people seemed to want her killed off and I hated that.
I think the fact that both Jayfeather, another disabled character, and Briarlight were able to form such a close bond showed great solidarity between the two. Probably influenced how great Jayfeather was in helping her see her self-worth as something other than usefulness. Though I agree Blossomfall is obviously in the wrong with her blaming Briarlight, the whole jealousy over siblings' things is extremely common as parents tend to neglect the other kids. As someone whose sister had a disability that required frequent checkups as a kid, I was always really jealous of the attention my mom spent with her so I could understand Blossomfall feel a similar way. Even if it isn't rational, she probably would rather Milie give her attention even if it's doting and overbearing because she resents not having that.
I do understand, from a CHARACTER'S view saying they want to be useful. I am physically disabled, and I struggled with the idea of being of use/being a burden. idk if the authors intended that though, from Briarlight's perspective, but it is something I can connect with. its AWFUL but its something drilled into me from family, doctors, therapists. Briarlight tho, I love. and I think they handled her, specifically, not her family or other characters interacting with her, pretty well. She's a fantastic character who is loved.
disabled person here! not paralyzed, but my disability heavily affects my legs to the point they are near-useless. i think briarlight is my favorite character in the series simply because of how well she's portrayed, especially as a newly disabled child who used to be abled and very active. my disability progressed in very much the same way it felt like. i could run and keep up with my friends and do what i wanted, and suddenly i couldn't.
I think the reason Blossomfall blames the (technically other) victim (Briarlight) and not the abuser (Millie) is because.. That's actually something that happens in real families. The one getting most of the attention can be unfairly seen as the cause of the problems. Blossomfall just thinks that if Briarlight weren't disabled, then Millie would pay more attention to both of them instead of just one of them. It's also similar to how older siblings get jealous of all the attention the younger sibling gets. A sort of "why them and not me?" mindset, because siblings are, in nature, competition for one another and can have a lot of conflict when one feels like they're being neglected. Not all situations like this end up with the resentful, jealous sibling realizing the parents are also to blame for the neglect. Shifting blame is a thing that hurt and neglected kids 1000% do. They might be jealous of a sibling, or even a classmate who seems to be better off. All simply because they are jealous of what they can't/don't have and angrily hold grudges against anyone who makes them jealous in this way.
Yeahhhh I will say as someone who is physically disabled (not paralyzed, but still disabled), it kinda irked me when the fandom decided all of a sudden that the way to fix the books ableism was to... make all of the disabled characters into warriors. Characters like Cinderpelt and Briarlight were the ones that mainly got me, cuz I know they WANTED to be warriors, but a reality of being disabled is that you don't always get to do what you want to. I felt very fond of these characters who found other ways to make their own lives brighter in ways that were different.
I'd like to see you talking about Purdy! The old guy doesn't really get the spotlight much, considering just how much he impacts mousefurs life after the death of longtail. He is a great old guy who just wants to tell stories, and I would love if you covered him!
As someone who's physically disabled (in not as severe of a way though) i'm glad you said something about it not being a good idea for her to race around and fight like a warrior.
I’d love to hear you talk about Shrewclaw! I’ve always personally liked him as a character but he’s not talked about much, which is odd because he’s in one of the most liked super editions. He bullied Tallstar as a kit but never had any bad feelings towards him, he was very upset when Talltail wanted to leave and felt bad once he realized what he did hurt Tallstar. Once Tallstar got back he seemed to treat him better and try to mend the relationship.
This video is insightful and touching. And let me just say that the image at
As a physically disabled person, ambulatory wheelchair, I like how you covered this. It was sad to see she was seen as a character to pity. People with disabilities have the right to live and their lives aren’t anything to pity. In reality, there is an issue of disabled people being seen as worthless. When disabled people are killed by their “caregivers”, society doesn’t care much. I really didn’t like how she was just able to walk again in Starclan. Mainly because people act like death is better than being disabled, or that death is freeing.
hey! i'm physically disabled and i think you covered briarlight wonderfully. you were thorough, thoughtful and called out things that needed to be. you reminded me of stuff i forgot that are important for me to know around my opinion of briarlight.
I think Birchfall would be a good option! He has a whole lot of stuff to talk about! Especially his childhood.