Post by celestialsquared on Sept 29, 2012 20:55:28 GMT -6
For some reason, I am in the mood for writing about the single character that made me stop reading the Warrior series: Hollyleaf. She was once one of The Three until she was killed off and replaced with Dovewing, then brought back and then killed again at the end of The Last Hope. Note, the next few moments is going to be largely biased because of my general dislike of this character. Also, I only have books 1-3 of the Power Of Three series, so forgive the lack of sources.
First, lets start off with her name. The holly plant is known to produce white flowers and then around the winter months it produces bright red berries. So why, oh why, is Hollyleaf, a black cat, named after the holly plant? Because of her name I was generally confused about what she looked like. When I found out she was a regular old black cat with green eyes, I was floored.
Next is the suffix -leaf. Why? Is it because she wanted to become a medicine cat? That's a pretty mean thing to do, naming her after something she failed to become. Or maybe it's Erin Hunter's impeccable use of foreshadowing again; it is found out later that Leafpool is the mother of The Three later in the series and maybe she was named because of this. Or perhaps it is yet another example of Firestar's misunderstanding of how naming works in the clans. Either way you slice it, Hollyleaf simply doesn't fit her or her place in the clan.
Thinking about her as a whole, perhaps her name was a perfect metaphor of who Hollyleaf was. She was a confused individual who didn't know who she was. At first she thought she was a medicine cat (and maybe it was Leafpool's fault for pushing her) but when this didn't work out, she ended up trading places with her blind brother.
After hearing about the prophecy proclaimed by Jayfeather (Then Jaypaw) at the end of Outcast, she begins on another bout of confusion. As part of The Three, she tries desperately to find out what her powers were. Eventually, she made up her own power: Being the cat version of an extremely religious person. Hollyleaf's fixation on the warrior code not only annoyed the crap out of me but it also annoyed the crap out of the canon characters. She always bothered her brothers about what they were doing not being according to the warrior code, never mind all the rules Firestar broke as an adolescent. At some point in Eclipse, Jawpaw became annoyed because she was repeatedly muttering the warrior code under her breath like some crazed individual.
Oh, my sick satisfaction when she finds out that Squirrelflight not her real mother, but Leafpool, the clan's medicine cat. At this point, she begins breaking many of the codes she upheld so highly, going so far as to kill Ashfur and announcing Leafpool's lie to the entire gathering to everyone's disapproval. I mean heck, she even tried to kill Leafpool. Her obsession with the warrior code became her undoing and at the end of the series, she was "killed off".
I don't know how Hollyleaf was during the Omen of the Stars series because I stopped reading after book two. Especially after I heard rumors by her fans on the Warriors fourm that she was coming back. I seriously couldn't do it. I really don't understand why she was brought back at all. Maybe it was to cause more soap opera drama between the cats or maybe she was there to serve as a plot device. All I know is, Hollyleaf was crazy obsessed cat who never understood what her place in the world was. In retrospect, she is probably the most unique character in the Warriors series so far, although the reason why she was unique is the reason why I can't stand her.
First, lets start off with her name. The holly plant is known to produce white flowers and then around the winter months it produces bright red berries. So why, oh why, is Hollyleaf, a black cat, named after the holly plant? Because of her name I was generally confused about what she looked like. When I found out she was a regular old black cat with green eyes, I was floored.
Next is the suffix -leaf. Why? Is it because she wanted to become a medicine cat? That's a pretty mean thing to do, naming her after something she failed to become. Or maybe it's Erin Hunter's impeccable use of foreshadowing again; it is found out later that Leafpool is the mother of The Three later in the series and maybe she was named because of this. Or perhaps it is yet another example of Firestar's misunderstanding of how naming works in the clans. Either way you slice it, Hollyleaf simply doesn't fit her or her place in the clan.
Thinking about her as a whole, perhaps her name was a perfect metaphor of who Hollyleaf was. She was a confused individual who didn't know who she was. At first she thought she was a medicine cat (and maybe it was Leafpool's fault for pushing her) but when this didn't work out, she ended up trading places with her blind brother.
After hearing about the prophecy proclaimed by Jayfeather (Then Jaypaw) at the end of Outcast, she begins on another bout of confusion. As part of The Three, she tries desperately to find out what her powers were. Eventually, she made up her own power: Being the cat version of an extremely religious person. Hollyleaf's fixation on the warrior code not only annoyed the crap out of me but it also annoyed the crap out of the canon characters. She always bothered her brothers about what they were doing not being according to the warrior code, never mind all the rules Firestar broke as an adolescent. At some point in Eclipse, Jawpaw became annoyed because she was repeatedly muttering the warrior code under her breath like some crazed individual.
Oh, my sick satisfaction when she finds out that Squirrelflight not her real mother, but Leafpool, the clan's medicine cat. At this point, she begins breaking many of the codes she upheld so highly, going so far as to kill Ashfur and announcing Leafpool's lie to the entire gathering to everyone's disapproval. I mean heck, she even tried to kill Leafpool. Her obsession with the warrior code became her undoing and at the end of the series, she was "killed off".
I don't know how Hollyleaf was during the Omen of the Stars series because I stopped reading after book two. Especially after I heard rumors by her fans on the Warriors fourm that she was coming back. I seriously couldn't do it. I really don't understand why she was brought back at all. Maybe it was to cause more soap opera drama between the cats or maybe she was there to serve as a plot device. All I know is, Hollyleaf was crazy obsessed cat who never understood what her place in the world was. In retrospect, she is probably the most unique character in the Warriors series so far, although the reason why she was unique is the reason why I can't stand her.
