| “ | Keep your eyes open, Fireheart. Keep your ears pricked. Keep looking behind you. Because one day I'll find you, and then you"ll be crow-food. | „ |
| ~ Tigerstar |
Tigerstar, formerly known as Tigerclaw, is a major villain in Erin Hunter's Warriors book series. He is a large, broad-shouldered, dark brown tabby tom cat with amber eyes, unusually long front claws, a V-shaped cut in his ear, and a scar across his muzzle. He is the main antagonist of the first five books of the story arc "The Prophecies Begin".
HISTORY
When he was a kitten, his father, Pinestar left ThunderClan to become a kittypet. The shame of that would haunt Tigerkit forever, and without a father in his life, he was left vulnerable to his future mentor's policies. When he was an apprentice, he was mentored by Thistleclaw, a warrior who was well-known for his courage and loyalty, but was also arrogant, aggressive and secretly training in the Place of No Stars with Mapleshade. Tigerpaw learned from that aggression, and one day on patrol, he violently assaulted an innocent kitten named Tiny and would have killed him had Bluestar (then Bluefur) not stopped him. That little kittypet would later become Scourge, leader of BloodClan, and then somewhat ironically, Tigerstar's murderer.
He was one of the greatest warriors in ThunderClan when then Firepaw (later Fireheart) first joined. He was believed to be unflinchingly loyal and devoted to the Clan's well-being. However, Ravenpaw had seen him murder ThunderClan's former deputy, Redtail, in hopes of becoming deputy himself. Ravenpaw confessed what he saw to Firepaw, and later escaped ThunderClan to stay safe.
Once made deputy, Tigerclaw decided that he had to hasten his promotion to leader, and set a trap for Bluestar, ThunderClan's leader at the time, to be hit on the Thunderpath. Fireheart's apprentice Cinderpaw (later Cinderpelt) was caught in it instead, and was permanently crippled.
After that plan failed, Tigerclaw plotted with Brokenstar to lead a team of rogues into ThunderClan camp so that while the Clan was distracted, he could kill Bluestar and blame it on a rogue instead. Fireheart saved Bluestar just in time, and then Tigerclaw was sentenced to exile, while Fireheart replaced him as deputy.
For the majority of the next book, Tigerclaw was seen as a rogue, sometimes prowling ThunderClan's territory, and slaughtered one of their Warriors, Runningwind.
Soon, opportunity to become leader presented itself. ShadowClan was left leaderless after their leader Nightstar, and their deputy, Cinderfur, died from a sickness eidemic. He was appointed leader in their place, and then given nine lives at the Moonstone; A life for compassion, given by Littlebird; A life for training young cats wisely, given by Badgerfang; A life given by Pinestar to understand what goes on beyond the border; A life for knowing that size isn't everything, and that he should beware small cats (foreshadowing his death at the claws of Scourge); A life for pride and knowing that a Clan can stand alone, given by Sedgestar; A gift for placing faith in StarClan; A gift for trusting your instincts given by Redscar; A life for mercy given by Mossheart; A life for farsightedness, which was given by Cedarstar.
Now known as Tigerstar, he attempted to get revenge against ThunderClan by setting a pack of wild dogs onto ThunderClan territory. This lead to the apprentice Swiftpaw dying and Brightpaw being permanently scarred. He then lay a trail of dead rabbits to ThunderClan camp, that ended with the queen, Brindleface, he slaughtered so that the dogs would get a taste for cat blood. His plan was thwarted when Fireheart broke the trail and then lured the dogs to the gorge. At the gorge, before Fireheart could lead them over, Tigerstar attacked Fireheart to let the dog leader could catch up and kill him.
Bluestar ultimately sacrificed her last life to save Fireheart by cannoning herself into the dog leader's side, thus throwing both herself and the dog over the gorge and into the river. Bluestar was pulled out by the RiverClan warriors Mistyfoot and Stonefur. Tigerstar looked on as Bluestar begged the two RiverClan warriors for forgiveness, revealing that she was their real mother. He watched as Bluestar died, leaving his arch-enemy Fireheart in control of ThunderClan, to become Firestar.
Later, Tigerstar announced his plan to unite the forest under his rule as one Clan, saying that it was "StarClan's will." This was received negatively, except by Leopardstar, leader of RiverClan, who had already allied with him and to create "TigerClan." He led an era of terror, ruthlessly persecuting half-Clan cats. This persecution led to the death of the half RiverClan, half ThunderClan, Stonefur, who was Leopardstar's loyal deputy. He was slaughtered by Tigerstar's deputy, Blackfoot, and Darkstripe, while defending the half-Clan apprentices Stormpaw and Featherpaw. Firestar, Graystripe, and Ravenpaw (Tigerstar's former apprentice), saved the three remaining three prisoners, Stormpaw, Featherpaw and Mistyfoot and allowed them to stay in ThunderClan.
Tigerstar tried to get WindClan to join him under TigerClan, and so he launched an attack on the WindClan camp to instill fear, and left a message to meet him at Fourtrees the next day.
Tigerstar met with Firestar and Tallstar, WindClan's leader, to hear their answer on whether or not they would join TigerClan, which they both refused. He then offered a position especially to Bramblepaw, his son, and Firestar's apprentice. Even though Bramblepaw's sister, Tawnypaw, left ThunderClan to join TigerClan on her free own will, Bramblepaw declared that he would rather die than join his father. In response, Tigerstar revealed BloodClan, a gang of rogues from Twolegplace who are led by the small black tom Scourge. Firestar attempted to convince all the Cats present that of Tigerstar treachery, telling them of Tigerstar's bloodthirsty history and warns Scourge that he cannot be trusted to divide power. Tigerstar told them to disregard this and ordered an attack, but as BloodClan only took orders from Scourge, they refused to attack. Scourge decided that there will be no battle that day. Enraged, Tigerstar accused Scourge of being a traitor and launched himself at him in an attempt to kill him. But Scourge outmanoeuvred him easily and ripped Tigerstar open from throat, through his belly, and to the edge of his tail. Tigerstar lost all nine lives at once, putting what seemed to be the end of the most dangerous cat in the whole forest.
Tigerstar's hatred lived beyond death, though. In the next arc, he waked in the Place of No Stars, also known as the Dark Forest, plotting revenge against Firestar. He discovered that he could dwell in the dreams of others, and began training his sons Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost in their sleep. Later on, Hawkfrost set a trap to kill Firestar, but Brambleclaw saved his leader and killed his brother instead. Once dead, Hawkfrost resumed training with his father, eventually training more Dark Forest cats to one day wage war against the Clans.
Tigerstar then began to influence Lionblaze, whom he believed was Brambleclaw's son. Lionblaze turned on Tigerstar when he learned that Tigerstar only wanted revenge against ThunderClan, instead of making Lionblaze a better warrior like he promised.
In the final book of Omen of the Stars, the Last Hope, Tigerstar unleashed the Dark Forest Cats he had been training to attack the Clans. Near the end of the war, Tigerstar faced off against Firestar. They consecutively killed each other, sending Firestar to StarClan, and destroying Tigerstar's spirit for good.
Personality and traits
In his youth, Tigerstar, then known as Tigerkit, was an eager and energetic, albeit aggressive and competitive kitten who loved to play. However, he had an unpleasant tendency to play rough, occasionally hurting those he played with. He was deeply shocked and angered by his father, Pinestar's decision to leave their Clan to take refuge in the life of a kittypet. The shame of this abandonment would stay with Tigerkit for the rest of his life and he became determined to prove his own loyalty. His father's abandonment, combined with the brutal training under his mentor Thistleclaw, hardened Tigerclaw into a brutal warrior who was willing to do whatever it took achieve victory. His aggression was to the point where he attacked, wounded and nearly killed an innocent kittypet kit. He showed pride about it afterwards and justified himself as simply defending his Clan's territory, even though there was no honour in "fighting" a helpless kit.
Perhaps because of his father's decision to be a kittpet, Tigerclaw had a strong hatred for kittypets all other non-forest born cats, such as rogues and loners. However, he also hated half-Clan cats.
However, for all his faults, Tigerclaw was still a courageous, proud and strong warrior.
As stated by Firestar and later Longtail (who ironically was once a strong supporter of Tigerstar), Tigerstar's ultimate goal in life was power and he was willing to do absolutely anything to achieve it. He murdered the ThunderClan deputy Redtail (who was not only a Clanmate, but Tigerclaw's uncle) and blamed it on an enemy warrior, in the hope that he would be made in Redtail's place. Despite eventually achieving his ambition, Tigerclaw was not willing to wait until Bluestar died in order to become leader, and plotted her death as well. After his first attempt to indirectly kill her via a car failed, he tried to murder her with his own claws and blame it on a rogue. His plan was foiled by Fireheart and he was banished.
Trivia
- Tigerstar's death is extremely similar to that of Claudandus. Both are cats who have their stomachs ripped open in a fight, the only difference being Tigerstar was slain by a villain.