A Defense of Dovewing and Why I Don’t Like Ivypool by Stormtail

Stormtail shares their opinion on Whitewing’s two daughters, Dovewing and Ivypool.

Art by PureSpiritFlower

*Spoiler warning for “Omen of the Stars” and series beyond that, and for “Spottedleaf’s Heart” and “Tigerheart’s Shadow”.*

Hi everybody! Stormsong here. This article is going to be about Dovewing and Ivypool and my opinions on them both.
Personally, I feel like Dovewing is underrated and Ivypool is overrated. As hard as I try to like her, I have some problems with Ivypool. Of course, this is an article and it isn’t meant to be opinionated, so here are the facts, and why I think these facts make Ivypool out to be a bit of a jerk and why Dovewing is better than people think, all based on this point of view of these characters of the series:

People call Dovewing a “Mary-Sue”, which is someone who is perfect in every way. Either that, or they call her annoying.
Dovewing is not a Mary-Sue because she DID make mistakes. She broke the warrior code, fell in love with a cat from ShadowClan, had kits with that cat from ShadowClan, and left ThunderClan to join him. Twice. Also, she was very upset when she lost her powers, and someone who is a Mary-Sue would have little to no problem losing their powers (unrealistic as that would be).
People say Dovewing is annoying for freaking out about losing her powers; they especially talk about that scene when she went into the cave and kept on saying “Hello?” (Now, I am going to defend her in a way Brightkit did in the article “Dovewing is my Favorite Character—Here’s Why”, so you should totally go read that article as well and see what Brightkit said.) If you think about it in real life, it’s like she suddenly lost a lot of her sight and hearing and much of what she has always known and from a young age has gotten used to… Slowly but surely her hyper-senses (that were her normal senses for her) just vanished!!! Imagine if you were used to being able to survey large areas and then all of a sudden you couldn’t anymore. Wouldn’t that suck?! I think I would be freaking out ten times worse than she did.
I think the Tigerheart/star & Dovewing ship is completely justifiable. I’ve always been a rebel about the warrior code so I might be biased, but the facts are that Dovewing was trying to stay loyal to ThunderClan. Really, she was. She didn’t join Tigerheart when he left ThunderClan after Darktail’s reign. She visited him sometimes, but it was an improvement from seeing him every second of every day. But then they accidentally had kits together. She had to leave so her kits wouldn’t die (read “Tigerheart’s Shadow”), and I think this journey away from the Clans made her even more close to Tigerheart, since she was with him almost all of the time once again. Yes, she was with other cats, too, but those cats were not exactly the same to her as Clanmates, so Tigerheart was the main cat she had for support. See, with Clanmates, you grow bonds with them since birth (usually), and for these cats, Tigerheart and Dovewing just kind of met them. Eventually they did grow to become like Clanmates to the couple (probably), but living away from the warrior code meant Tigerheart and Dovewing were allowed to be together! And they had no intentions of going back at the time! So of course they’d take this opportunity that could last a lifetime to become closer. They had to raise a family together!!!
Dovewing had tried before not to become too attached to Tigerheart; as said prior, he had to stay in her Clan during Darktail’s reign and when he left, she kept going to see him, but she didn’t turn her back on her Clan. But this did it; “Tigerheart’s Shadow” broke her last chance of staying in ThunderClan. She was too attached to Tigerheart. I think she made the responsible decision in owning up to the fact that she’d broken the warrior code and going to join her new family in their Clan.

Still not certain Dovewing had justifiable actions? Think about this: If you had kits with someone from another Clan, what would you do?
A.)Join your mate and your kits so that they have all of their parents in one place?
B.)Separate your kits?
C.)Ignore your kits and pretend you’re not their mother; pretend they don’t exist or something?
If you said “A”, that really is the only good option!!!

Another reason why it’s justifiable that Dovewing left ThunderClan is that Tigerheart had just become Tigerstar, and he would probably need all the support he could get as a leader. Dovewing needed to join ShadowClan, for her kits’ sakes and for ShadowClan’s sake as well! Now the kits would have a true mother and father, together as a couple, in the same Clan, and the kits wouldn’t be uncertain of where they belonged, like would happen if Dovewing had stayed in ThunderClan and they’d known she was their blood mother. And, to reiterate, as a bonus, Tigerstar has his mate’s support as leader now, too.
Dovewing is my favorite character. This part of the article was why she isn’t a Mary-Sue or annoying, and why falling in love with Tigerheart and eventually joining him in ShadowClan is justifiable.

Ivypool can be a jerk sometimes. Okay, so I am a bit confused about why Spottedpaw in “Spottedleaf’s Heart” instantly knew that Thistleclaw was fighting in the Dark Forest, but Ivypool and a lot of other cats (who were older than when Spottedpaw saw it) went there in a future generation and thought it was StarClan, just because of the way the spirit-cats were acting at first… I believe this is the first reason Ivypool can be seen as slightly annoying sometimes. But this could have just been messed-up writing, so I’m putting this in the introduction of this section to just throw it out there.
First of all, it’s true that Ivypool never completely broke the warrior code. She was fighting in the Dark Forest to become a better warrior, then to spy for the good guys. Great, right? Well… kind of? The thing is, she never once seemed sympathetic for Dovewing for breaking the warrior code. That she was in love with Tigerheart. Ivypool, instead of supporting her and trying to talk her out of her feelings calmly, was always snappy about it! Never once that I recall did Ivypool sit down beside Dovewing (or even Tigerheart) and say peacefully, “I understand how you feel. But you have to stop. I just want to help you. I feel you, I really do. But, trust me, not falling in love with each other would be better for everyone.” Instead, Ivypool would say to Tigerheart, “YOU’RE A TERRIBLE MATE TO DOVEWING!” She said, “You need to stop seeing her, EVER.” Then she said, when Dovewing disappeared, “You should be out there with Dovewing! You’re better than her having nothing!” I feel like this contradicts what she said before, because she basically said before that no matter what, Tigerheart should stop seeing Dovewing and caring about her. Now she’s like, “Actually, go to her.” This is one reason why Ivypool can be a jerk. She is seemingly not sympathetic about cats making mistakes in the form of breaking the warrior code, so much so that she grows distant with Dovewing and angry with Tigerheart because of their mistake…
Another reason Ivypool can be a jerk is because she was so envious of Dovewing. This paragraph is going to be short, because you’ll all be screaming at me that if it were real life and my own sibling surpassed me in everything, I’d be upset, too. Yes, I would. But Ivypool screamed at Dovewing, asked her what her secret was in a harsh way! Okay, so that’s just one mistake, right? Ivypool lost it once? …Kind of? Ivypool was almost always envious of Dovewing, though. She didn’t seem to be happy for Dovewing for her successes enough to me…
Yet another reason Ivypool can be a jerk: Her kits. She wants her mate, Fernsong, to take care of their kits all the time. Yes, it’s ABSOLUTELY fine if it swaps and the father is the main parent and the mother does the (commonly, I’m not saying it has to be whatsoever!) “fatherly” things. But… It seems to me based on what she’s said, as far as I’ve read, at least, that Ivypool doesn’t want to spend much time with the kits. Won’t the kits feel like she’s basically neglecting them, once they get old enough to speak and understand parent relationships? Shouldn’t they have two supportive parents, their mother and father, instead of just their father and a mother who only is there to support them about half of the time? Because, yes, I’m sure Ivypool loves and cares for her kits, and is proud of them (I haven’t read far enough to see their relationship), however if she’s always off doing other things, she isn’t really helping her kits. I know, another not-very-well-put-together-paragraph. I might be completely wrong anyway. This is why this paragraph is in the middle.
The last reason why Ivypool can be a jerk is that she hardly ever told Lionblaze, Jayfeather, Dovewing, Bramblestar, etc. about what was going on in the Dark Forest. She was supposed to be the spy, and she almost always just didn’t tell them anything! Yes, of course she told them when the Great Battle was going to be, as she should, and as was the whole point of it all… But Lionblaze and Jayfeather (in particular) were specifically asking her what was going on in the Dark Forest, almost every other day! And what Ivypool said, almost every single time they asked, was “It’s not important; I’ll tell you if it’s important!” And she said it in a snappy way, as well. Aren’t you supposed to be more helpful as a spy?

Thank you all so much for reading! This was my first-ever article, so sorry that it’s extremely long and if it drags. And sorry if my points are falsely stated or unclear. I feel like all of this is true, but ah well.
Once again, that was a defense for Dovewing and how Ivypool can be a jerk sometimes (why I like Dovewing and dislike Ivypool). These reasons are why I personally consider Dovewing to be my favorite character and why I dislike Ivypool extremely. But I cannot force you to change your opinion, only ask you to read this article, consider my points, and decide what all of the evidence (that could go in any direction) from the books means to you.
Remember: This is just what I took from the books and how I feel about these characters; if you don’t think Ivypool can be a jerk at times and if you believe Dovewing can be very annoying, that is all up to you to decide, and PLEASE don’t take offense from this!
What is your opinion? Go ahead, tell me in the comments or with your own article! Only if you want to, of course.

Fan Articles


  • I don’t agree with this. I only agree with the part where you’re defending Dove, but you don’t have to attack Ivy. Why is it so impossible for people to like them both?

  • Ivypool WAS sympathetic for Dovewing. Remember, Ivypool was like “It must be so hard to here every single thinng” (in her head) and DOVEWING wasnt sympathetic for Ivypool either. Dopepaw wanted to tell Ivyamazingpaw abiut the propchecy so that DOVEPAW could keep her friend, not because she was considering how Ivypaw felt when Dopepaw got special attention or went on special quests without her. Im 99% sure that Dovepaw was LESS sympathectic to Ivypaw then Ivypaw was to her. Name ONE time Dovepaw really CARED about how her SISTER felt. Dovepaw thought she was protecting Ivypaw, but really, she just made Ivypaw and me hate her MORE.

  • I also want to point out that if Dovewing was snappy it was because she was breaking the code to be with tigerjeart, and thus getting no sleep. Ivypool, on the other hand, was WORKING HER BUTT OFF so she could save the clans by prepareing them for the dark forest attack via spying.

  • Great article! You made me change my opinion on Dovewing. Don’t listen to anyone saying the article is bad. Okay? (Not that anyone WAS saying it was bad, but it’s really heartfelt, and i loved reading it, even if it wasn’t my opinion.) ❤❤❤

  • This is a great article! It really changed my opinion on Dovewing. Don’t listen to anyone who says it’s bad. (Not that anyone DID say that, but it’s just really heartfelt, and you must have worked super hard on it!)❤❤❤

  • I’m the person who doesn’t say Dovewing is annoying, but I don’t defend her either. I am just AFRAID. Ivy seems like she’d protect, while Dovewing would wear them down. Dove seems to poke and prod at some cats. I feel like she doesn’t consider that some don’t express their feelings outwardly, like me. I sometimes think Dovewing thinks of every cat as someone who expresses things openly, just like herself! I disagree with this a lot, especially Dovewing being a good mother. She could’ve set things right by giving the kits to a queen that had lost her entire litter, and stayed loyal to ThunderClan.

  • I love dovewing so much! I’ve don’t hate ivypool but she just really isn’t my favorite :/ she kind of sucks in my opinion.

  • I strongly disagree. Ivypool shows empathy to dovewing. Dovewing shows empathy to her. And dovewing is highly overrated and ivypool is pretty underrated but also overrated. Now you see at least ivypool cared so much about her kits. And I found this by ivypool on the wiki “You know, I was so angry when Dovewing left, and I missed her so much. I felt betrayed. But now, seeing my own kits”. Dovewing is a jerk and ivy Is good!

  • Great article! I disagree with the Ivypool thing, and I don’t like Dovewing, but I dislike her for other reason. It don’t think she’s a Mary Sue, and it made perfect sense for her to be upset about her powers. I don’t like her because she just kept acting like she loved Bumblestripe and then letting him down. Bumblestripe wasn’t the problem, there was a point in the story when Bumblestripe said he understood Dovewing didn’t like him in that way and stopped trying to be with her. But then Dovewing acted like she loved him, and even became his mate, just to leave him. Completely randomly. And even after Dovewing had been in the spotlight her whole life, when Ivypool was called to the leader’s den, Dovewing yelled at her for getting more attention than her. And Dovewing also got Ivypool captured by ShadowClan, but I’m not going to get into that, because I haven’t defended Ivypool yet. So when Ivypool told Tigerstar to stay away from Dovewing, I think I’d have done something similar. She just didn’t want Dovewing to get in any trouble for breaking the warrior code. It also made sense when Ivypool told Tigerstar to follow Dovewing. For all Ivypool knew, Dovewing could be somewhere starving to death or freezing or something else terrible, and Tigerstar was the only one with any idea where she could be. And I think that it also made sense that Ivypool was angry at Dovewing for breaking the code. In Ivypool’s eyes, she was risking her life every night in the Dark Forest while her sister who was supposed to be more important was out there playing Romeo and Juliet with Tigerstar every night. And Ivypool didn’t usually tell Jayfeather and Lionblaze anything because it was usually just the same thing in the Dark Forest over and over. But I completely agree with you on Dovewing not being a Mary Sue or at fault for whining about her powers. Again, great article!