[Second warning for MAJOR spoilers from StormClan’s Folly!]

• They meet as ’paws during a Gathering. This can hardly be held against them, can it? Gatherings are made up of cats from all Clans so, of course cats are going to encounter each other. And it’s not like either one of them is deliberately seeking to forge bonds with cats from outside their own Clans — let’s not forget that, at this stage, Galepaw has decided (or assumed) that she is destined to take her Clanmate, Pebblepaw, as her future mate. This initial meeting is a chance encounter over which neither kit has control or influence.
• By the time the pair have grown and matured, becoming the leaders of their respective Clans, battles over hunting territories have gotten out of control and, in a terrible outcome, Fogdrift (Stripestar’s then mate) dies during a skirmish with Galestar. Both she and Stripestar are left with feelings of intense guilt and regret in the wake of this unfortunate incident. One could take the view that Galestar is solely responsible for Fogdrift’s death, but battles over territory happen all the time, and there was not much that Galestar could do to prevent Fogdrift from hitting her head on a rock.
• It speaks well of Galestar’s character that the guilt over Fogdrift’s fate gnawed at her so insistently she decided to seek out Stripestar (against the wishes of her deputy and former mate, Pebblenose) to apologize — but this guilt also clouds her judgement when the ThunderClan leader informs her of his plan to take Sunningrocks from RiverClan. If she had not agreed to aid Stripestar, it is possible that their ultimate tragic fates could have been avoided.
• Both leaders make a pivotal decision to informally ally their two Clans, in a break from Clan convention. Their original motivations might be laudable — to collaborate and look out for each other during tough times; to keep each other as strong as possible — but the decision is ultimately short-sighted, the decision of a pair of tragic fools unable to see that they will be making enemies of RiverClan and ShadowClan, fostering distrust and hostility that could linger for a generation.
• Arguably, though, the more fateful decision, their most significant mistake, is to pursue a romantic relationship that is a direct violation of the Warrior Code, even after their stated original goal of getting Stripestar’s Clan back to full strength has been achieved. This mistake will put them at odds with StarClan, who expressly forbid them from pursuing a formal union of WindClan and ThunderClan. When the two leaders ignore this warning, StarClan punishes them by removing their nine lives. All the great things they might have done with a leader’s extended lifespan are now lost to them, and they are lost as a result of a decision they took; a result of their own short-sighted hubris, albeit motivated by a genuine love for each other.
• After earlier meeting and falling in love in secret, Galestar and Stripestar try to live openly, announcing their alliance and union to the other Clans, and not backing down when those Clans express hostility. It is tough to maintain a sense of order in their new, far larger “StormClan”, and prey is already scarce when a fire damages Clan territory, making it even scarcer. While Galestar and Stripestar cannot be blamed for the arrival of the fire, their earlier decisions to unite their Clans, and squeeze double the amount of cats into a single territory, definitely made their situation more difficult than it needed to be.

• In the wake of these tough times, they make the wrenching choice to leave the forest territories in search of somewhere new, leaving behind some Clanmates and kin who opt not to make the journey with them. This journey is beset by adverse conditions that are definitely not in the two leaders’ control, but Galestar and Stripestar are given numerous opportunities to abandon their misguided quest, to return to the forest where they belong. They lose several cats (to the thunderpath; in a mountain fall; others abandon the quest) along this journey, but never accept that they should turn back.
• Some respite comes when they are able to set up camp in an abandoned Twoleg den, which feels like it can be their permanent home, until the season changes and the den’s Twoleg owners show up, forcing the nomadic Clan to flee once again. This is the paw of fate, out of their control — something that the readers know was always going to happen, but that the two cats could not possibly have accounted for.
• Despite more cats abandoning their quest, Galestar and Stripestar, with varying degrees of reluctance and determination, persist. One could argue that this decision makes them somewhat liable for the death of Rainkit, at the talons of a fierce bird in the mountains, prompting heartbroken parents Fernwhisper and Huntheart to become the next cats to abandon StormClan.
  • Even when they do make the better choice — to return to the forest in the wake of this tragedy — fate intervenes in the form of a second pregnancy for Galestar, which makes the epic return journey even more dangerous than it otherwise would be, and is one of several factors that contribute to their deciding to settle by the sun-drown-place. One could view this decision as being one of necessity, following all the choices that had led them to this point, but there was one other factor that had a paw in their decision here: Goldenleaf’s dream in which Kestrelwing showed her a vision of StormClan kits playing in the sand. It is worth considering StarClan’s motivations in sending this vision: Were they testing StormClan’s resolve? Or were they nudging the cats (who had turned their back on their ancestors, rejecting their wisdom) towards the sun-drown-place precisely because they know it would be their undoing, and deliver them a terrible fate that would serve as punishment for all the mistakes they’d made? This would appear to be a case of forces beyond their control, dictating their destiny — but let’s not forget, Galestar and Stripestar had previously encountered the Tribe cats, and received a warning from the Stoneteller to avoid the “lake with no end”… a warning that they ignored.
  • At the sun-drown-place, the leaders of StormClan meet their ultimate fate: Their separation in the wake of the storm that rages through the mountains one fateful day, that leads to the “disappearance” of Galestar and the kits, and of StormClan itself.
• Now separated, the two leaders’ final choice is a variation on the choices that they had faced before: The choice of whether or not to persist — only, this time, it’s persisting with the effort to get back to each other. Stripestar makes the choice to not persist, and instead return to the forest, chastened and humiliated, to resume his life as a Clan cat called Stripebark. Gale Rise (as she comes to be known) might not choose to persist with her efforts to reunite with her mate, but in every other way that matters, she does persist: With raising her litter of kits, and with the new life she makes for herself among the surprising strangers she encounters when her life is in the balance.

While fate definitely has a paw in the ultimate outcome of the two leaders’ lives, a review of their narrative would suggest that their tragic ends are mostly brought about by their own bad choices, and their inability to admit when they had chosen wrongly.

Galestar and Stripestar aren’t the only ones who made choices during this period. Also making a significant choice was StarClan, who turn their backs on the two leaders, willingly letting the memory of Galestar and Stripestar, of StormClan, fade from the Clans’ shared history. This, too, is a choice with monumental consequences, as seen in Ivypool’s Heart…  

There is a reason this book was titled StormClan’s Folly — for every example of fate nudging the star-cross’d leaders off their traditional path, readers can point to two or more decisions that Galestar or Stripestar did not have to take. Decisions motivated by their love for each other, their determination to keep their combined Clan safe and strong; the desire to have a family of their own, and raise that family in a secure territory they can call “home”. None of these motivations, by themselves, are inherently “bad” or “wrong” — one could argue it’s not all that fair to judge them too harshly for making the choices they did.

But it is also true that the Galestar and Stripestar were presented not only with a very clear warning from StarClan, but also numerous incidents along their journey that would have undone the resolve of most cats in their position. Their ultimate folly was in not admitting — or, not realizing until it was too late — that their mission to find a new territory away from the forest, and the other Clans, was always doomed to fail. Being too proud to admit that they might have been wrong to leave the Clans in the first place…

And what of StarClan’s decision to let the memory of these two cats disappear from the Clans’ shared history? While one can understand that they might have wanted to avoid any risk of future generations of cats getting the same idea, to merge two or more Clans into a new Clan, the knowledge of this history might have served as a useful reminder to all the Clans of the forest — and, later, the lake. A reminder that collaboration and cooperation is always a better choice than conflict or poorly-thought-out (if well-intentioned) alliances.        

Now that our last two super editions have opened up a brand new era in the Warriors backstory and timeline, this raises the question: Will we be visiting that era again? After all, towards the end of her super edition, Ivypool ponders the possibility that StormClan’s “wisdom… [will] be needed soon”. Is this an indication that cats from StormClan might have a part to play in the over-arching narrative going forward?

That sounds rather like the Story Team is trying to tease readers by hinting at having some schemes up our proverbial sleeves. And we’d never do that…

Would we?