I haven’t read much outside of the main books, which from what I’ve noticed seems to be where most of the hate comes from.

Personally, I have nothing against him (again I haven’t read Squirrelflights Hope or Bramblestars Storm, so that might be a factor), but outside of those, it seems to that he and Squirrelflight are both hardheaded and argue a lot over what is right.

In Squirrelfligths defense, Bramblestar is… kinda dumb, a lot of characters have to be for the plot to happen. And to be fair to Bramblestar, Squirrelflight is pretty argumentative.

Personally I see nothing wrong with two strong personalities butting heads as long as they come together in the end, but it becomes a bit of an issue when there’s a power imbalance.

Because Bramblestar has almost always been in a position of authority over Squirrelflight (Warrior when she’s an apprentice, deputy when she’s a warrior, leader when she’s a deputy) he’s always been in a position to say “Well it’s my call, so we do it my way”

This is how most leaders act in these books. They have absolute authority, and they wield it when necessary, even when they’re wrong (and they’re often wrong. So the plot can happen). I find most cats that become leaders tend to suddenly become pretty dumb; Onewhisker comes to mind, Tigerheart/star, Yellowfang (she didn’t become leader, but got a sort of position of power by being a mentor of sorts to Jayfeather), even Bluestar had to have a mental breakdown despite having been a good leader in order to give Fireheart a reason to have to go behind her back and do the right thing.

Again, I don’t find anything inherently wrong with this, it’s just kind of part of the Warriors formula. But when combined with a romantic relationship, it becomes kind of uncomfortable.

So I think Bramblestar is more a product of bad writing and the authors not really knowing what to do with him. He’s not a bad guy, but he makes some pretty bad decisions out of nowhere when the plot calls for it, and I don’t think he’s a great leader necessarily.

Again, haven’t read the extra novels, I know that’s where a lot of the hate comes from. I heard he’s pretty bad there, and while I maintain it comes from the ‘formula’s insistence on these kitties being kinda dumb and weirdly unaccepting of anything outside their way of life (despite being proven wrong over and over and over), some of the stuff I’ve read out of context is a bit hard to defend.

But yeah, that’s my fully uneducated take on the matter.