Firestar is not the best family man, and other musings on the favorite ginger hero

In terms of Firestar, his legacy, and overall how he is as a character, I think that if you want to see one of his greatest flaws, all you have to do is look at the cats he directly (and most likely indirectly) influenced.

Cloudtail, Squirrelflight, Leafpool and the rest of his descendants basically cut off all contact with him after they no longer needed him. Which kind of implies that while he can absolutely lead by example, he's not the best teacher and his kin and apprentices have suffered for it. They don't feel comfortable enough leaning on him for advice. Even his kits, and especially when they know that they've done something wrong.

I think that's the whole reason Leafpool only told Squirrelflight. She didn't trust her parents enough to be willing to be her parents. Trusted them to lead ThunderClan and provide a good home for her kits, sure, but not to be her mother and father, cats she can share things with. Brackenfur turned out alright through sheer willpower. Brambleclaw wasn't all that capable of leading ThunderClan, and to be quite honest, he still isn't. Cloudtail was always something of a loner and he's a good warrior, but goodness did he inherit Firestar's inability to be a regular cat or what?! Firestar was the cat everyone loved because his actions gave him strength but when it came to having his family... he wasn't all that great at it.

To be fair, Firestar makes his share of mistakes and not all of his deaths were due to playing savior. He certainly didn't follow the rules in his warrior days. But he lost one of his lives in a petty battle with ShadowClan over territory that he originally gave away.

I think what's interesting about Firestar is that while he never lets his emotions compromise what he knows to be right, he still does act out in dangerous ways. I feel that he probably hesitated to see any good in Brambleclaw as a kid, and it took a long time to get around that. I actually was like "go on, Goldenflower, you set that boy right!" Because looking like my father doesn't mean I'm destined to walk his path. But he legit had to stop and think "okay who should I save" while the fire was happening. That was a moral crisis he had.

But his morality would have never let him leave the kit to die. Even though he heavily considered it.

Also, in Fire and Ice we see that he doesn't very much like sharing his friends, especially when they're wandering off to do something stupid and he knows it. He was about ready to rip Greystripe a new one because his friend was being hardheaded.

In Firestar's Quest, he fails to convince Sandstorm that he loves her. It takes them the whole trip for her to get over the feeling of being second-best. And then the Erins were stupid and killed off Spottedleaf again because "he shouldn't have to choose" which undermines all of the work the couple did to get there in the first place.

So yes he's overall a Gary Stu, but he's not that cliche of a hero.

I have a theory for how godlike he became. We all know that he came in as an outsider and aside from Greystripe, nobody took an immediate liking to him. So when he grew up and gained power, he decided to fix that. Indefinitely. And leader's word is the Code so guess what? Peace in ThunderClan whether you like it or not, kids! And I'm letting kittypets in so BAM!

Also, he never truly exiled anyone and I believe the reason for that is that he remembered what happened with the last cat to be exiled. THEY BECAME THE LEADER OF SHADOWCLAN! So I also characterize him as something of a control freak.

Like he's doing things his way whether you like it or not, and he just so happens to be right most if the time. If you want to see Firestar's greatest failure, look at the cats he had major influence over. Cloudtail, Squirrelflight, Leafpool and the rest of his descendants basically cut off all contact with him after they no longer needed him. Which kind of implies that while he can absolutely lead by example, he's not the best teacher and his kin and apprentices have suffered for it.