Deputy Analysis #1: Russetfur

Russetfur was the deputy of Blackstar for a long time until she passed away during a battle against ThunderClan for territory, killed by Lionblaze. She was originally a rogue cat and was the half sister of Raggedstar (although she didn't know this herself), due to sharing the same kittypet father, Hal. Her rogue name was red, but when she joined ShadowClan she became known as Russetpaw, then Russetfur. 

Russetfur was always an interesting character in my opinion. She was shown to be a tough and efficient warrior who was very loyal to her leader and Clanmates. When she is a young cat living in the Twolegplace, she seems curious and confident, and acts just like any young cat would. She joins the Clan with her friend, Boulder, and it's interesting to watch them learn together in ShadowClan.

Once she is made a warrior, she is extremely enthusiastic and continues to enjoy joining in Clan activities, never even looking back on her past of being an outsider. 

However, she is shown doubting Tawnypelt's loyalty to ShadowClan since she was born in ThunderClan, despite not being Clanborn herself. She calls Tawnypelt disloyal in The New Prophecy series as well when Tawnypelt goes and asks ThunderClan for help from the kittypets who were causing trouble for ShadowClan, even killing one of their apprentices. 

In the second series she also leaves Berrykit to wail helplessly in the fox trap, sitting there watching with a couple of other ShadowClan warriors, and choosing not to help the poor kit.

She even leads a patrol to steal from ThunderClan territory and take their prey. Her patrol loses and is forced back to their own territory. She ends up leading another one later on in the third series.

Once again in the third series, when Tawnypelt wants to go the the mountains, Russetfur calls her disloyal. This time, though, Rowanclaw steps in to defend Tawnypelt. 

Even in StarClan, after she is killed by Lionblaze, Russetfur is shown to be territorial. When each Clan in StarClan separates and decides to pretty much just act like the living Clans, Russetfur and Spottedleaf cross over the ShadowClan/StarClan border to try and find Flametail. Russetfur tries stopping them at first, but is eventually stopped by her Clanmates because Jayfeather is one of the prophecy cats who is meant to save the Clans from the whole Dark Forest mess.

I'm not sure how I feel about Russetfur, to be honest. I liked her in Yellowfang's Secret because she seemed very happy and eager to be a warrior. In the rest of the series, though, she comes off a strict and oftentimes unnecessarily cruel and vicious. She was well-loved by her Clanmates, though, and fought to protect them for many moons until her death, even though she was quite old at the time of her passing.

I don't really like her, though, since she just seemed overly vicious most of the time and constantly called Tawnypelt disloyal. I just don't think she would've made the best leader, and she probably would've gotten her Clan into lots of battles. Although she was fierce for the sake of her Clan, half the time she was just vicious for no reason, and was cruel to Berrykit when he needed help. Along with this, she broke the warrior code by not helping a helpless kit, and she also broke it by attacking ThunderClan multiple times.

So there. That's what I think of Russetfur. Not the worst cat in the series, but not the most sensible cat either.

~xxravenshadexx