AshSquirrel

AshSquirrel is the het ship between Ashfur and Squirrelflight from the Warriors fandom.

Canon
Ashfur was born to Brindleface many moons before Squirrelflight was born to Firestar and Sandstorm. Squirrelflight was apprenticed and at eight moons she set off on a journey to The Sun drown place with Brambleclaw, Feathertail, Crowpaw, Tawnypelt and Stormfur. They don’t have any notable interactions before the group returns.

By the time the clans reach The Lake Territories, Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw are very close, although not officially mates. They soon start to argue over Brambleclaw visiting with his brother Hawkfrost, who Squirrelflight thinks is too ambitious and dangerous. They grow apart and stop speaking to one another except for the occasional aggressive words. During this time, Squirrelflight gets closer to Ashfur and they become good friends. Squirrelflight considers Ashfur romantically, observing how refreshing his kindness was in contrast to Brambleclaw’s agression, but also that she doesn’t like how he babies her and his hatred of kittypets. Brambleclaw begins to get jealous and starts mocking and generally being rude to both Ashfur and Squirrelflight, getting to the point that the two toms almost break into a physical fight. Ashfur wants to protect Squirrelflight from Brambleclaw, but she isn’t too fond of others fighting her battles for her, something he also tries to do when they are attacked by a fox.

Some time later, the camp is attacked by badgers and Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw make up to fight them off. Squirrelflight decided she loved Brambleclaw and breaks up with Ashfur to be with him. Ashfur does not take this well.

Ashfur grows bitter and angry throughout the rest of the arc. Hawkfrost convinces Ashfur to help him kill Firestar, and Ashfur lies to his clan that he had seen Brambleclaw with Hawkfrost, implying Brambleclaw was helping him kill Firestar. Brambleclaw kills Hawkfrost, who before he dies, he mentions he had help but doesn’t reveal it to be Ashfur. Ashfur helped Hawkfrost because Firestar was Squirrelflight’s father and he wanted to make her suffer.

In Power of three, Squirrelflight brings her sister Leafpool’s kits to camp and claims them to be her and Brambleclaw’s; Jaykit, Lionkit and Hollykit. When lightning strikes a tree and the ThunderClan camp is set on fire, the three are trapped in camp and Squirrelflight goes back to save them. She knocks down a tree to reach them, however she is blocked by Ashfur, who monologues about how much she hurt him, making him feel like he was ‘bleeding out onto the stones’, ect. He then tells her that to make her pay, he was going to let the fire kill her kits. To try to get him to stop, Squirrelflight tells him the three were not her kits, and so killing them would not hurt her. This shocks them all, and Ashfur decides telling the clans Squirrelflight lied about the kits heritage would be a better punishment, and threatens to tell everyone her secret at the next gathering.

The three are devastated at this revelation and attempt to convince Ashfur not to tell anyone, but it is in vain. Ashfur is found dead days later. Hollyleaf had killed him to prevent him from spilling the secret of her birth, although she later reveals it herself.

Ashfur originally goes to StarClan, but never gets over Squirrelflight and plots revenge. When Bramblestar loses his first life, Ashfur possesses Bramblestar’s body and keeps Squirrelflight with him in his den most of the time, rarely allowing her out to organize patrols or fetch prey. He eventually banishes Squirrelflight and his health continues to deteriorate, putting on weight and refusing to groom. Squirrelflight helps with the rebellion to take down Ashfur and he is caught in a battle and imprisoned in ShadowClan territory.

Ashfur kidnaps Squirrelflight, dragging her into the Dark forest and tries to convince her to be his mate. She refuses and challenges him to fight and he says no, telling her he still loves her and would never hurt her. She and Bramblestar escape and Ashfur is later killed by Bristlefrost in a confrontation that Squirrelflight is absent for.

Quotes

 * Squirrelflight – “Your quarrel with Brambleclaw has to stop. Too many moons have passed. You have to accept that I'm Brambleclaw's mate, not yours. You can't keep trying to punish Brambleclaw for something that was always meant to be.”
 * Ashfur – “I have no quarrel with Brambleclaw.”
 * Hollyleaf – “That's not how it looks to me.”
 * Ashfur – “I couldn't care less about Brambleclaw. It's not his fault he fell for a faithless she-cat. I know you think I've never forgiven Brambleclaw for stealing you from me, but you're wrong, and so is every cat that thinks so. My quarrel is with you, Squirrelflight. It always has been.”
 * Squirrelflight – “All this was moons ago. Ashfur, I had no idea you were still upset.
 * Ashfur – “Upset? I'm not upset. You have no idea how much pain I'm in. It's like being cut open every day, bleeding onto the stones. I can't understand how any of you failed to see the blood... […] Stay there! I can't believe you didn't know how much you hurt me. You are the blind one, not Jayfeather. Who do you think sent Firestar the message to go down to the lake, where the fox trap was? I wanted him to die, to take your father away so you'd know the real meaning of pain."[..] Brambleclaw saved Firestar then. But he's not here now. He's not here—but your kits are.”
 * Squirrelflight – “Enough, Ashfur. Your quarrel is with me. These young cats have done nothing to hurt you. Do what you like with me, but let them out of the fire.”
 * Ashfur – “You don't understand. This is the only way to make you feel the same pain that you caused me. You tore my heart out when you chose Brambleclaw over me. Anything I did to you would never hurt as much. But your kits...If you watch them die, then you'll know the pain I felt.”
 * Squirrelflight – “Kill them, then. You won't hurt me that way. If you really want to hurt me, you'll have to find a better way than that. They are not my kits.”
 * — Squirrelflight, Ashfur and Hollyleaf during the fire, Long Shadows, pages 272-276.

"And yet Squirrelflight still didn't appreciate how powerful I was. She acted like I was an ordinary warrior. She dismissed me like an apprentice. But I didn't give up. I brought her here. I thought we could be mates at last. I thought we could rule the Dark Forest together. [...] To be with me, of course. But she only wanted Bramblestar."

- Ashfur to Rootspring in A Light in the Mist, page 108-111

"I'll make Squirrelflight suffer. She'll pay for betraying me, along with every cat she's ever cared about. Eventually she'll beg me to stop and become my mate. I wonder how many cats will have to suffer before she—"

- Ashfur, A Light in the Mist, page 108-111

Fanon
AshSquirrel is riddled with controversy. In the early Warriors fandom days (2004–2014), the fandom largely thought of and portrayed Squirrelflight as being in the wrong and Ashfur being an innocent baby, simply driven mad with unrequited love. This was encouraged by the author’s statement on why Ashfur went to StarClan, ‘he simply loved too much’, as well as Yellowfang echoing this statement in Fading Echos. There was also a belief that this ship ruined Ashpaw’s character, turning him from a loyal warrior into a heartbroken maniac.

Later, arguments arose that Ashfur was the villain who had no excuse for his actions, and that demonizing Squirrelflight for rejecting him was sexist and biased. Many in the fandom accepted and held this opinion, though there were still a lot of who defended Ashfur.

Moonkitti is a YouTuber known for their popular Warriors cats comedy skits and rants. They posted an hour-long video detailing how they believed BrambleSquirrel to be an abusive relationship. This caused many people to dislike Bramblestar and his ship with Squirrelflight. Some turned to AshSquirrel saying Ashfur was the better choice and wouldn’t have hurt Squirrelflight if she hadn’t dumped him.

Moonkitti then released a video titled Quick Ashfur Addendum where they state their opinion that Ashfur would not have been a better choice and that he would have treated Squirrelflight badly even if she didn’t reject him. Moonkitti is a very influential voice within the fandom and therefore currently this is a widely held view across the fandom.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

QUOTEV
 * Ashfur x Squirrel on Quotev

Trivia

 * Vicky doesn't believe Ashfur was chosen as the cat who loved Squirrelflight for any specific reason.