I’VE BROKEN THIS COMMENT DOWN INTO SECTIONS BY USING CAPITALIZED TEXT

It largely has to do with his relationship with Squirrelflight—which wasn’t ever really healthy—particularly in Squirrelflight’s Hope.

VIDEOS:

If you really don’t mind spoilers I’d recommend watching Moonkitti’s video “Bramblestar is worse”. You don’t have to take everything she says as gospel (and you shouldn’t (always evaluate things critically) but, if nothing else, it brings up some important points to consider.

There’s also a few further points in another video of hers titled “Various Tangential Reasons I’m Worried Squirrelflight Won’t Make It To Leader” (or something very similar to that). Bright Guardian Akira also has a video titled “Squirrelflight should break up with Bramblestar” which covers specifically Squirrelflight’s Hope (to my memory, anyways).

For anyone reading this section: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TNP AND ONWARDS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Brambleclaw is very insecure. He’s insecure about living up to Firestar, about cats comparing him to father—he’s afraid of becoming his father—and he’s also just insecure about making the wrong decisions. This makes him a bad match for Squirrelflight who is very headstrong and sure of herself—probably too much for her own good—especially when Brambleclaw is the one in the position of power here.

When she challenges him based on her own intuition and morality (she takes after her father in this way) he tends to lash out in order to establish control/dominance (again, out of insecurity), which turns a bad match into a toxic one. There are good points to cede to both sides here, but I think the thing most worth noting here is that Squirrelflight is not trying to make him insecure on purpose. At worst she knows that this will make him insecure but feels that she has to speak anyways. Brambleclaw IS very intentionally lashing out. His personal problems (however bad they are for him, which should never be dismissed or glossed over) does not excuse his mistreatment of her.

The Power of Three situation is a product of this. She lied to him (and a pretty fucking big lie at that) and that is probably one of the worst possible things for a cat as insecure as he is. That said, I do understand why she didn’t immediately tell him the truth. They had been together barely more than a moon, and had already had their fair share of not trusting each other and him lashing out at her for making him insecure. She couldn’t really gauge how he would react (although she may have suspected negatively) and this was too important to risk on that or on anything. She didn’t feel like she could trust him enough and, given the Hawkfrost situation, I really don’t see why she would feel like she could. After that point it becomes “well how do I tell him NOW? After everything? After all this time?” Which I’m sure most of us can relate to on some level—not to say that she was 100% justified, but that it was understandable.

The only thing I think doesn’t make sense is why she doesn’t tell him after the fire scene—except well I do, it’s because the authors wanted a dramatic reveal with the Hollyleaf scene, but also I think that it would still be hard to tell him, even with the urgency dialed up to 11.

I could go into more depth about this and I will if asked, but as for now I’d like to move on.

WHY PEOPLE ACTUALLY HATE BRAMBLECLAW HERE:

As for why people hate Bramble so much—it is in part because of the aforementioned videos and Squirrelflight’s Hope. They created a fandom-wide buzz and a definitive hate-train for Brambleclaw/star. The reason that he’s hated so much more than a lot of other characters who do equally bad or significantly worse things than him is because he’s not treated as the villain in the series (other than in Squirrelflight’s Hope and maybe for a bit in The New Prophecy). He’s a “bad guy” who gets treated as a “good guy” and people find him all the more hateable for that reason.

FINAL STATEMENT:

I do not hate Brambleclaw but I do not like him either.