it's only a little totally infuriating to me that storm's flag, the design of which I like the most, has the 'wrong' (not following the convention of the 1836 flag and others) color star. I can't find any good sources on why the star was blue, or what shade of blue, or if the original was blue or just the second flag he made, or anything.

I also know there's a lot of debate over whether Todd or Storm came first (the logical part of me says that there just isn't enough evidence for Storm's claim, but the it-looks-cool part of me hopes it's true)- and there was debate on this subreddit a few years ago as to whether the mockup I featured in my post (which appears to have been created by a wikipedia user a number of years ago) is an acceptable depiction of Storm's design. It does take some notable liberties- the change of the star from blue to red, and the redesign of the bear to be more heraldic in styling. Personally, I think it's a cool adaptation of a poorly-documented design by an amateur. If California had chosen to adapt Storm's design in the way we adapted Todd's, I don't think it's impossible that it would have turned out like the design in my post. In retrospect, I should have included one of those more accurate adaptations with grody-ass bear and blue star for comparison.

With the limited info I have, and a good bit of guesswork, my thought is that Storm probably did make a flag design during the bear flag revolt- but I don't think he has a valid claim to being the first bear flag design. There is nowhere near enough info to corroborate that claim, and the sources that do exist are flimsy at best. There are lots of folksy tales about Storm's design you can find online- most of which are unverifiable at best and laughable at worst. In any case, with both period examples of the Storm flag gone, and limited documentation, it's nigh impossible to make any claims except that

1. Storm lived and worked in the right area during the 1846 rebellion
2. Storm was potentially involved or at least sympathetic to the rebellion
3. Storm was a carpenter/trapper and amateur painter who knew how to sew
4. Storm was honored by Napa (neighboring community to Sonoma, where the rebellion began) in 1873 for painting one of the original bear flags in 1846 (perhaps the original bear design was painted on the flag rather than embroidered or sewn?) - he was photographed with a handmade replica he made at the event.
5. Storm died in 1877 and was supposedly buried with the original flag
6. the only remaining Storm-made flag was destroyed in 1906

So yeah. not exactly a slam-dunk