WARNING: Unlike the characters I have done up to this point, I actually DO hate Hollyleaf with the burning passion and fire of a thousand suns! Therefore this chapter may or may not be more intense and brutal than the last three and definitely the most fun to write about :D! You have been warned…
Alrightly then, this should be fun…
Chapter 4:
Hollyleaf; Because it's in accordance with the prophecy (sort of…)
Nazis or Rules Freak? You be the Judge!
Hollyleaf: the 'brains' of the Power of Three arc. With that said, is it a wonder that all of them are so twisted?
From the very first chapter in the very first book in the Power of Three arc, we all can pretty much establish one very key thing about Hollykit/paw/leaf's personality which makes her individual in some way: she's a stickler for rules.
Okay, that alone can be accepted socially; there's always one in every crowd and it was only a matter of time before one showed up in the Warriors series. However, as the book progresses, it is increasingly emphasized that Hollypaw really, really loves the warrior code.
Let me emphasize on that more just in case you didn't catch that. She really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really LOVES THE WARRIOR FREAKING CODE!
There, now that that's cleared up, there actually isn't a whole lot more that you need to know about Hollyleaf. Basically, the entire arc is nothing but her loving the freaking warrior code to death and enforcing all cats around her to obey it and basically encroaching on any other beliefs and attempting to eradicate all non believers.
Hmmm… does this remind you of anyone? (*cough* ADOLF *cough*FREAKING *cough* HITLER *cough*)
Out of all of the Power of 'Three' kits, Hollyleaf was actually the only one that I am still dead set convinced must be related to Tigerstar in some way. Seriously! Even compared to Lionblaze and Jayfeather she's probably the most evil and like Tigerstar, there is no freaking way that you can tell me that she isn't related to any of the super 'villains' of the warriors world! She's practically a villain herself! For now, I take comfort in the theory (confirmed, I think…) that Scourge and Firestar are really related (though how you end up with a do-gooder, totally not Mary-Sue and an awesomely epic kick-butt antagonist like Scourge being related in anyway besides rivalry is a mystery) though frankly, Hollyleaf just isn't awesome enough to be related to Scourge.
Don't believe me about Hollyleaf being the number one worst character in the entire Warriors series? Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinions…it's just that mine is better.
Besides, we still have a lot of ground to cover in which any thoughts you had about Hollyleaf being a 'good character' shall be driven from your head or my name isn't Orville Redenbacher! (Wait…What?)
The Code is Law
Alright, see those four words written above in special bold lettering? Read them, reread them, and you might as well burn them into your memory permanently because, believe it or not there actually is a reason that I took all of two seconds out of my life to dedicate and entire subheading to them.
Throughout the entire Power of Three arc, I don't actually think (and frankly I'm too lazy to look it up, and I know most of you won't bother unless you're obsessive Hollyleaf/warrior code fanatics –in which case you will be hunted down and eradicated during Jayfeather's new world order) that Hollyleaf actually said these words out loud once. So why did I post it up there for the world to see. I bet you can guess the answer, but just for you slow ones out there, I'm going to say it anyway.
We all freaking knew that that was HER EVERY OTHER THOUGHT!
This exposed level of obsession leads to a favorite theory of mine, though I doubt that many or you have heard of it since, sadly I have never seen it mentioned on this website. *sigh* how…disappointing.
So, how is it that Hollyleaf can achieve this level of obsession, and handle the mental stress and prejudices of enforcing it on every single living creature in the world of Warriors? Well my dear readers, let me explain this in as simple a way as possible, the truth that the Erin Hunters don't want you to know.
HOLLYLEAF'S A FREAKING ROBOT!
…
…
You there! Stop staring blankly at the computer screen in utter disbelief! You know that deep down you had always had your suspicions…
But, taking a step away from this perfectly logical theory, if Hollyleaf isn't a robot (unlikely but possible considering the level of twistedness that the Erin Hunters have proven to be capable of committing when creating characters) then where in Starclan's name did Hollyleaf inherit this Obsessive Rule Enforcement Oddity (AKA: OREO) from?
Well, in order to unravel this mystery, I've done some detailed research into Hollyleaf's complicated heiratage, and I came up with this conclusion:
Hollyleaf is the daughter of Leafpool (WARNING: spoilers) who is the daughter of Firestar, who is supposedly the extended brother of Scourge, who killed the great and powerful Tigerstar, who was the father of clan deputy Brambleclaw, who is the adopted father of non other than Hollyleaf!
Wait…What?
This rather confusing study leads us to only one logical conclusion since apparently Hollyleaf inherited the OREO syndrome from herself:
OMG HOLLYLEAF'S A ROBOT!
Love Thy Code
Alright, by now, you have probably figured out that in each chapter, I try to dedicate one subheading to the popular pairings based off of each Warriors character. However, fortunately for society as we know it, there really aren't any popular pairings that involve Hollyleaf because, frankly, besides the 'oh so clever 'HollyXBreeze (NO! JUST NO! WHERE THE HECK DID THIS LOAD OF CRAP ORIGINATE FROM? WHEN WAS IT ONCE IMPLIED IN THE SERIES? SICK! THEY ARE RELATRED! NO! THIS LACKS ALL FORMS OF COMMEN SENSE!) which, in my extremely scrutinizing eyes does not and will never qualify as an actual pairing!
So, you may be asking, why doesn't she have a real pairings on this wide world of Fanfiction? Starclan knows that there are certainly fangirls out there who live with no other purpose than to invent pairings simply to avoid this sort of awkward gap in the FORBIDDEN LOVE epidemic going around, and she's certainly one of the only Warriors characters without a love story of some kind. Well, I'm going to wrap this entire lack-of-pairings phenomenon in one simple statement that, in case you haven't grasped the concept of any of what has been said so far, should clear things up quite nicely:
FOOLS! Hollyleaf has one love in life and one love only: THE WARRIOR FREAKING CODE!
There. Plain and simple. Well, I hope that you all have learned something today.
Rules Are Rules
So, besides being the most annoying creature in the history of all things Warriors, what role does Hollyleaf play in the plotline?
Well, despite being an annoying pain in the… um, posterior… Hollyleaf doesn't really have a role. Seriously! Throughout the entire arc, she has no purpose except telling her brothers what to do and preaching about the precious warrior code even though no one cares! Sheesh!
Basically, the only thing that held readers' attentions when it came to Hollyleaf was the ever growing anticipation of what is her super power? After all, she is part of the Power of Three isn't she? As much as she was despised and the most annoying characters of all time, there had to be something special about her, right?
However, as the books dragged on, Hollyleaf never got any more interesting, and so eventually the majority simply figured that her super power was the ability to annoy people to death. Lame.
But, Hollyleaf didn't give up, and refused to fall into her brothers' ever growing shadows of epic awesomeness, even though it would have been much more beneficial for everyone's sanity if she had.
Now, it's not to say that Hollyleaf/paw, never did anything interesting. In fact, it was quite entertaining, and ironic to witness her schizophrenia (an inherited trait for her father) as she struggled with the choice of almost becoming a medicine cat at the beginning of her training (OK, what?) in The Sight, and the quite ironic and hypocritical moment in Dark River when she (gasp) broke the warrior code and got caught spying on Riverclan because she wanted to help them. Now, that last scenario can be viewed in two separate ways. Because we can, let's take a look at both:
1: Hollypaw has inherited her grandfather Firestar's need to help everybody/ not Mary-Sueness
2: Hollypaw is really evil deep down and decides to gather information on Riverclan that will lead to their potential downfall, thus causing mass chaos in all clans with the absence of both an ally and a rival, leading to an epic battle that spirals the world of Warriors into utter turmoil. Once the dust and chaos begins to settle, Hollypaw shall rise from the ashes and be there to pick up the pieces of their shattered world, and rule it with an iron fist (do cats have fists?) and enforce the warrior code with every fiber of her being! (*Cough* ADOLF *cough* FREAKING *cough* HITLER)
Well, I don't know about you, but that's a hard decision. Both are equally likely, considering the facts, so I'll leave that up to you to decide. (Option TWO is the only way!)
Anyway, after the commotion in Dark River, we don't really get a whole bunch from Hollypaw/leaf. Except for in Eclipse, when Sol comes in.
Now, Hollyleaf's attitude toward Sol is confusing, inconsistent, and even borderline bipolar. We think that she sort of trusts him at first since he claims he knows about the prophecy. Then she hates him for making ShadowClan atheist, which is against the warrior code. Then she likes him again because he offers to teach them how to be awesome. Then she hates him again for no apparent reason. Then she decides to threaten him into telling them who their own parents are.
Why Hollyleaf, are you turning out to be a violent person?
This complicated relationship is so confusing that it is sometimes confused as yet another attempted case of FORBIDDEN LOVE. Do not be fooled though. Sol would never be that stupid!
Oh yeah, and somewhere along the way in this complicated plotline, Hollyleaf decides that she wants to be clan leader. Wow. Did we really not see that coming?
StarClan help us! When did ThunderClan become so twisted?
But yeah, other than that, we don't get a whole bunch from Hollyleaf (THANK GOODNESS!)
That is, until Sunrise.
Hypocrisy and REVENGE!
Alright, Sunrise is the semi-epic book that completely revolutionized the Power of Three arc. It is in this book that we see a completely new side of Hollyleaf. A side that reveals her PURE EVIL!
The change begins when we find that, out of the three siblings, Hollyleaf is struggling the most with the new discovery that her life is a lie and her parents aren't really her parents. In fact, she's the only one out of her siblings who even cares.
So, Hollyleaf makes it her second most important lot in life (enforcing the code being the first of course!) to find out their heiratage. But, she's barely beaten to the punch by Jayfeather, proving that she really isn't the smart one in the family.
Okay, so you would think that finding out the BIG SECRET about her parents might make her happy and less depressed, right?
WRONG!
Hollyleaf is distraught by the revelation that she is the daughter of a medicine cat AND an enemy clan warrior, thus making her very existence against the warrior code. TWICE OVER!
Unfortunately, what Hollyleaf fails to realize is the art of loopholes and politics. In the warrior code, it clearly states :
"Thou shall be allowed to have friendships with cats from other clans, but your loyalty must remain to your clan…"
Okay, so that makes sense, but technically, Leafpool and Crowfeather had turned their backs on the clans when the kits were conceived, thus meaning they were outside the code (sort of…) and had no rules to break. So, technically, while the relationship itself was forbidden since it began while they were still in the clans, the kits birth didn't exactly break the code.
Also, never once does it say in the warrior code that Medicine cats can't have kits. Never. It isn't even mentioned in The Code of the Clans, so where did that rule come from anyway?
In closing, if you look at it from a lawyer's perspective, the birth of the three kits breaks no rules. Sorry Hollyleaf, I guess no politics for you.
Anyway, she goes completely insane, reveals the big truth at the next gathering in front of all the clans, and admits to murdering another clanmate, and then attempts to murder her own freaking mother!
Whoa, is it just me, or did Hollyleaf suddenly just get slightly more awesome? Slightly being the key word here.
Wait, wait, wait. Let's back up a second. One count of murder and another count of attempted murder? Isn't that like, the BIGGEST rule in the warrior code?
HOLLYLEAF YOU FREAKING HYPOCRIT!
Well, at least Hollyleaf was punished for her wrong doing like any naughty rule breaker, right?
WRONG!
Well, actually, she was… but not by her clan. That's right folks, StarClan finally took pity on the world of the living and decided to take matters into their own paws!
And thus it was, that as Hollyleaf fled from her own clan, before the eyes of her own brothers, StarClan did smiteth her in their cruel revenge after moons and moons of hypocrisy, and she was anticlimactically crushed to death in the secret tunnels that still NO ONE KNEW ABOUT!
Or was she?
Of Theories and Automatons
Ever since Hollyleaf's anticlimactic 'death' in Sunrise, and the revelation that she isn't part of the Power of Three (which completely defeats the purpose of the entire freaking third arc, except bringing in profits) there have been controversial theories flying around left in right as to what the later plotline might hold for all things Warriors.
The main question: is Hollyleaf really dead?
We can only hope dear readers, we can only hope.
Many have theorized that miraculously Hollyleaf survived the cave in, and will return in later books to reap her horrible revenge on the clans and force all to cower in fear at the presence of the warrior code, and purge all non-believers (H-I-T-L-E-R.) Frankly, I do actually support this theory, if not because the entire ordeal was just a little too anticlimactic. StarClan I hope we are wrong…
Also this theory supports yet another theory that I believe wholeheartedly in.
HOLLYLEAF'S A FREAKING ROBOT!
It's simple really. Robots don't get crushed by mud and earth. If she died, well, then she was just some annoying but still somewhat 'normal' cat (I use this word extremely lightly here; Hollyleaf isn't normal.) And if she lives, well…
ROBOT!
Now, if Hollyleaf did die, that's a whole different ball ground of theories. Did she go to StarClan or the Dark Forest?
Frankly, I say, who really cares? Dead is dead. But, if it must be speculated, I believe that, if she truly is dead, then she didn't go to either. She's too obsessive and naughty for Starclan, and she's not awesome enough for the Dark Forest (where all the cool kids are!) so, instead, she is forced to wonder through time and space all alone, contemplating, life, existence, and, most importantly, THE WARRIOR CODE!
What is This 'Normal' You Speak of?
Well, to wrap things up, Hollyleaf is, quite frankly the most annoying, obsessive, and yes, slightly scary characters in the world of Warriors, and trust me, that's really saying something! There are probably thousands of characters in Warriors. Congratulations Hollyleaf, you have inspired a completely new level of hatred and spite in all of us!
On an awesomeness scale of one to ten, one being the lowest, Hollyleaf originally was about a negative ten. However, after the brutal murder of Ashfur and attempted murder of Leafpool, we've no choice but to bump her up to a negative five!
Better luck next arc Hollyleaf. Who knows, if the Erin Hunters will it and you are still alive (NO! FOR ALL OF OUR SAKES, DON'T LET IT BE SO!) then maybe you'll move up to a zero on the scale for invincibility points.