Darkstripe

Darkstripe is a villain in Erin Hunter's Warriors book series. He is a large, sleek, black and grey tabby tom cat with yellow eyes, and a rude, nasty, unpleasant attitude. He is a supporting antagonist of the story arc "The Prophercies Begin".

history
Darkstripe was a warrior of ThunderClan and a former apprentice of Tigerclaw, one of the senior warriors. He was Tigerclaw's closest friend and biggest supporter, and as such had a highly negative opinion of Fireheart, Tigerclaw's chief rival. Darkstripes refused to trust Fireheart due to his kittypet origins and openly mocked any cat who thought otherwise. He was also selfish, secret taking actions that benefited himself and not the Clan whenever possible.

When Tigerclaw was exiled from ThunderClan in Forest of Secrets for trying to seize power from Bluestar, Darkstripe voiced his disappointment that Tigerclaw did not tell him he was potting with Brokenstar (it is interesting to note that he did not appear to have a problem with Tigerclaw's plan itself, but rather that he was not allowed to be a part of it). Darkstripe's lonely path of a devoted follower continues to reduce his popularity in the Clan, and in A Dangerous Path he begins secretly plotting with Tigerstar, now leader of ShadowClan, across the border in order to bring a pack of dogs upon the camp and save only Tigerstar's children, Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw, from the ensuing chaos, but not Tigerstar's mate, Goldenflower. After this fails, uring The Darkest Hour, he attempts to murder his half-sister, Sorrelkit (later Sorreltail), with deathberries when she discovers his meetings with Blackfoot Tigerstar's deputy, and he is exiled from the Clan. Darkstripe immediately runs to Tigerstar's side and kills one of Bluestar's children, Stonefur, but when Tigerstar is murdered by Scourge, Darkstripe is left completely alone. His resulting madness culminates in the battle with BloodClan; he forsakes all loyalty to his Clan and tries to murder Firestar in "revenge" for Tigerstar's death. He is stopped and killed by his half-brother, Greystripe during the battle.

Because of his cruel and selfish actions, Darkstripe's spirit, along with Tigerstar and Brokenstar's, was denied entry to StarClan and instead sent to the Dark Foret, much to his confusion and dismay, showing that even in death, he saw nothing wrong about what he had done.

Personality and traits
Darkstripe is an arrogant and self-centered individual. He is shown to be very rude and disrespectful, criticizing even the littlest mistakes made by others, openly mocking any cat who disagreed with him, and refusing to listen to any cricisim directed at him. He is also incredibly selfish, and would secretly take actions that benefitted himself and not the Clan whenever possible. This was shown when his companion, Longtail caught a plump squirrel and Darkstripe encouraged them to eat it since prey was scarce at the time. After eating it and returning to camp with a smaller catch, Poppydawn, who needed food, died of a case of greencough. While Longtail felt guilty about this, Darkstripe did not care, seeing nothing wrong with what they did, and coldly ordered Longtail not to tell anyone. In the end, Darkstripe would ultimately betray his Clan entirely for the sake of his own ambitions.

Darkstripe is the biggest supporter of Tigerstar, whom he regarded as the greatest cat ever. However, when it was revealed that Tigerstar had tried to murder Bluestar in order to become leader, Darkstripe refused to follow him into xile, not because he was loyal to ThunderClan, but rather because he was disappointed that he wasn't allowed to be a part of Tigerstar's plans. Despite this, he continued to distrust Fireheart and insulted him at every oppotunity.

When Tigerstar became leader of ShadowClan, Darkstripe immediately rekindled his alligiance to him and began plotting with him to destroy ThunderClan. He even tried to murder Sorrelkit, a defenceless kitten, to keep her quiet about his betrayal.

Darkstripe was shown to be incredibly deluded, believing himself and Tigerstar to be the strong and worthy ones, and Firestar and ThunderClan to be the weak, despite there being strong evidence to the contrary. He did not considere himself or his actions to be wrong in any way, and thus was shocked and confused when his spirit was sent to the Dark Forest instead of StarClan after his death.