AshScourge

AshScourge is the slash ship between Ashfur and Scourge from the Warriors fandom.

Canon
Although they’ve never interacted, Ashfur was an apprentice when the battle with BloodClan for the forest happened. He participated in the battle. While Scourge most definitely did not know about Ashpaw, Ashpaw knew of him and helped kill Scourge’s deputy, Bone.

Ashpaw’s mother, Brindleface, had previously been killed by Tigerstar to give the dogs a taste for cat blood. Firestar had a plan to lead the dogs over the edge of the gorge. The plan was for the fastest cats to get the dogs to chase them until the reach the gorge, and the dogs fall. Ashpaw had joined the patrol to lead the dogs away, after begging Firestar with Fernpaw to let him avenge his mother. Scourge also wanted revenge against Tigerclaw; Scourge was formerly a kittypet named Tiny. His sister Ruby and frightened him out of his home by telling him that the Twolegs would throw him in the river, since he wasn’t cute enough. He decided to try to go out into the forest to join the Wild cats, and he is found by a ThunderClan patrol with Thistleclaw, Bluefur and Tigerpaw. At Thistleclaw, his mentor’s encouragement, Tigerpaw attacked Tiny scratching his chest and leaving a large wound. Tigerpaw would’ve killed him, but he was stopped by Bluefur. Tiny runs away into the city, were he eventually creates BloodClan, an unofficial rogue Clan.

When Ashpaw was a warrior in The New Prophecy, he began to fall in love with Squirrelflight. He was was heartbroken when she chose Brambleclaw over him. Over the course of the books he grows bitter and angry until Long Shadows, were he attempts to kill Squrrielflight and Brambleclaw’s kits. He then relented when Squilf revealed the secret of the kit’s heritage; Squilf and Brambleclaw were not the kit’s parents. Ashfur is shocked by this, as well as the three, and he leaves threatening to expose this secret at the next gathering. Before the next gathering, however, he is killed by Hollyleaf so he doesn’t spill the secret.

Scourge was obsessed with getting revenge on Tigerstar, who was also Ashfur’s enemy, and succeeded. Ashfur on the other hand(paw?) didn’t achieve his goal of making Squirrelflight suffer and later died. While Ashfur went to StarClan, it’s unknown where Scourge went. Rogues don’t go to StarClan, or the Dark forest.

Ashfur eventually makes a return in The Broken Code as the main villain. He leaves StarClan to try to posses Bramblestar and exact revenge on Squrrielflight again, and force her to be his mate. He becomes a Dark forest cat for a while until he is double-killed by Bristlefrost. It is unknown where cats go after they double-die; they could just disappear completely.

Fanon
An iconic staple in the Warriors fandom, it was popular in the early Warriors fandom days (about 2003-2015). It’s unclear where the ship began, though it’s possible it started with this video. Both Ashfur and Scourge were infamous for being extremely popular during this time, as well as slash ships, so it was only a matter of time for them to begin being shipped together. It unknown where rogues or spirits go when they die, although many theories have been made. Some believe that they are reborn; usually Squrrielflight is made out to be a reincarnation of Scourge, since they both have one white paw. This would also mean that Ashfur technically did love Scourge.

Both Ashfur and Scourge wanted revenge against Tigerstar, and that as well as Ashfur’s attempts to punish Squrrielflight for breaking up with him earned this ship the title “revengeshipping”. (Although it is most commonly just called Ashfur x Scourge or AshScourge). Usually their mutual hatred of Tigerstar isn’t brought up much, as it’s easy to forget since Ashpaw wasn’t an important character.

In the modern fandom, AshScourge is seen as a nostalgic relic of old warriors fandom culture, and it’s still very easy to find fanart and other content of the ship, although almost never unironically. Even back when it was popular it was referred to as a crack pairing.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Ashfur/Scourge on Ao3
 * Ashfur/Scourge on Ao3

TUMBLR

QUOTEV
 * Ashfur x Scourge on Quotev