Hello! This is my first (sorta) article, so... welcome fellow readers. (Spoilers for Mapleshade's Vengeance) (this is for BlogClan mods to see)
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She's angry, and she has a right to be angry at Mapleshade for using her brother's name in this way, and while she lashes out toward tiny children, we need to recognize she's reacting to moons of being misled and lied to, and she shouldn't be sent to the Dark Forest for being sad.
The next time we hear of her is after Mapleshade has lost her kits to the river. She's found by Nettlepaw, who gives her herbs to eat. People accuse Frecklewish for watching kits die, cackling, "DROWN KITTENS, DROWN!" because of this scene, but this is how their conversation actually goes:
NP: I was collecting these for Ravenwing, but I think you need them more. I'm sorry about your kits. Frecklewish saw what happened at the river, but I hoped you made it to the other side.
MS: Frecklewish was watching?
NP: Yes. She followed you to make sure that you had left. She said you fell off the stepping stones.
MS: And yet she did nothing? Those kits were helpless! How could she watch them drown?
NP: I don't know. She must've thought they were okay. She said there were RiverClan cats on the far shore.
MS: They were not okay!
There is no mention of Frecklewish actually seeing the kits by Nettlepaw in this passage, and the only reason Mapleshade attacks Frecklewish for this supposed action is because she invented a narrative in her head where Frecklewish is directly responsible for her kits' deaths, just as she does with Appledusk. This is further supported when Mapleshade is about to kill her at Snakerocks:
MS: You let my kits die!
FW: Mapleshade! What are you doing here? Leave, or I'll call the rest of my patrol.
MS: Too scared to fight me yourself Frecklewish? You prefer watching helpless kits drown, don't you?
FW: I thought your kits would be saved. I never meant for them to die.
MS: Liar! You're a fox-hearted coward! I bet you're glad they're dead!
FW: I wish you were dead! You betrayed my brother's name! (Proceeds to die to snek)
Frecklewish seems genuinely shocked and upset when Mapleshade tells her the kits had died, and only attacks Mapleshade after she antagonizes her by claiming she wanted the kits to die. With so little information, it seems like the most plausible thing to think is that Frecklewish saw Mapleshade fall but didn't see the kits, and saw a RiverClan patrol coming to save Mapleshade.
Some people ask, "Why didn't she try to help, or call for help?" and the reason is simple. It's because she would drown. If she were to try to jump into the river and save the kits, which she might've not even be able to see, then she would die, or be saved by the RiverClan patrol, taking less time away from them saving the kits. If she were to call for help, not only would calling the patrol possibly distract them from the drowning Mapleshade and kits, there was no way in a million years, in a book where it's been established that it was hard to see or hear a cat close to you in the storm, would she be heard by the RiverClan patrol. Sure she saw them and Mapleshade, but that was because they stood out from the rain, whereas tiny kittens wouldn't. Even if she could see the kittens, how is that not different from Appledusk watching Birchface and Flowerpaw drown? Violetshine and Juniperclaw? Russetfur watching Berrykit slowly bleeding to death when his tail was caught by a trap?
And if we were to send Frecklewish to the Dark Forest, that would be ignoring basically everything else in Warrior Cats. We see cats like Rainflower, who neglected her son his entire life and renamed him for his disability, cats like Ashfur, who tried to kill four cats prior to being actually killed by one of said cats, and cats like Mudclaw, who lead a coup against his leader, all go to StarClan. Even cats inside the book, like her own father Oakstar, were sent to StarClan, even though he had the biggest say in what would happen to the kits. How is he in StarClan, yet his own daughter isn't?
At the end of the day, all I'm saying is that Frecklewish doesn't deserve eternal damnation for not drowning herself. Thank you for reading this rant. See you next time.
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