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ok i said this in a reply to somebody but mapleshade's vengence's themes would've been way more clear if oakstar hadn't exiled the kits with their mother.
mapleshade, who has gotten herself tangled up in her lies (that disrespect the name of a dead man, his family, and the clan as a whole), is banished without second thought, but the kits are kept in the clan because of the code.
feeling like she had been wronged, she sneaks into camp and steals away the kits. she drags them to the river, desperate to get across the rushing water to appledusk. these kits could still do good for riverclan, and her relationship with the brown tom.
but because she's so used to getting away with (mostly) everything, she takes the kits across the rushing water (b4 this point she had been warned by milkfur, a riverclan cat, to not take her young kids out in the river because even normal water levels were dangerous.)
of course, the kits drown. appledusk is pissed, because he was there when mapleshade was told to keep the kits safe. she should've found a place for the kiddos instead of disregarding their safety, but she simply did n ot process their needs b4 hers.
this way, readers could easily pick up on maples bs and realize that she was the sole factor in her children's death. then when she goes on her killing spree, her rationalizing seems less believable.
