She has Fallen Leaves, the one closest to being considered canon

but also Cinderheart, Willowshine, Hazeltail, Heathertail, Ivypool, and Sol.

And on the further crack-ship reaches of the internet,

there were and probably still are even people shipping her with Breezepelt and Ashfur.

For a comparison, here's a list of the other point of view protagonists from the main series

and the ships they have other than their canonical mate.

To make it fair, only 1 cat was taken off each list,

and only if they either became official mates in their story,

or, in the case of Bristlefrost and Rootspring,

if it is heavily implied that they will become mates by the end of the current-running story.

Obviously there may be and likely are some popular ships I've left out, but that's still a stark difference.

The only others that come close are Squirrelflight and Jayfeather,

the former primarily because people don't like her actual mate,

and the latter because Jayfeather doesn't show interest in being friends, let alone lovers, which much of anyone.

This makes him very appealing to some people as a mate, since he comes with a built in story of getting to his softer hearted center.

But Hollyleaf doesn't have an obvious reason to have so many mates. So why does she?

As I see it there are two main reasons. 1. Hollyleaf doesn't have a mate, but could, and 2. Hollyleaf has friends!

Let's start with the first one.

Hollyleaf doesn't have a mate by the time she dies.

The only other cats on the protagonist list who can say that are some of the medicine cats:

Jayfeather, Alderheart, and Shadowsight, who shouldn't be able to have any romantic connection according to their laws.

As much as certain websites would lead you to believe it, Fallen Leaves and Hollyleaf were never mates.

It is technically possible that one day, when they're in Starclan together, they could be,

but they were not mates in the tunnels.

Moreover, Hollyleaf is the only protagonist to specifically question whether having kits and/or being a mate is something she would want at all.

She has a strong ambition, and cares about becoming a Clan leader,

something she thinks won't happen if she was forced into the status quo of being a nursing queen.

Of course, when she asks her mother about this, she laughs it off, and gives her platitude answers that she's planning her life out too much.

Hollyleaf is annoyed and frustrated by this, and ends up having to form an answer herself when she sees her mother get an apprentice that day.

It doesn't stay around very long, but this sentiment, along with Hollyleaf never getting a canon mate,

was enough for many fans to latch onto when considering ships.

This could be a sign that she would prefer a female mate with whom they wouldn't need kits,

or where the other female could take over the responsibilities of nursing.

Or it could even be a sign that she'd enjoy someone like Fallen Leaves who, we would assume, couldn't give her kits anyway.

The possibilities are thrown wide open, especially in comparison to most other protagonists,

who, like Squirrelflight, take having a mate of the opposite gender and kits as a given part of life.

And now that the floodgates are open, what cats will fans turn to when picking out possible mates for her?

Well that has to do with the second point.

The best relationships not just in Warriors but fiction in general have a friendship at their core.

The parties involved spend time together, and like doing so.

This doesn't happen a lot in Warriors, at least not as much as it should,

which is why any time a cat consistently seeks out another's company, a new ship is likely to be born.

Why do you think Jay x Stick is so popular, despite one of the parties not being a cat?

He spends a lot of time with it, and shows he cares about it.

And thankfully, Hollyleaf has a lot of friends to choose from.

Part of this comes back to the Power of Three just having a great background cast,

with a bunch of fleshed out characters in Thunderclan beyond our three point-of-view characters.

But Hollyleaf is also the most extraverted of the Power of Three protagonists.

Jayfeather not only isolated from but isolates himself from his clanmates and other cats with his attitude and his profession.

There's a reason his ships are with his patients, a stick, and a long-dead cat he only got to meet by using that stick.

And Lionblaze, for whatever reason, never got along with his clanmates that well.

Other than his direct family, the only noteworthy relationships I can think of are with his rival,

a Windclan she-cat, his dark forest mentors, his living mentor and future guy-who-will-try-to-murder-him,

and eventually Cinderheart, the cat who actually becomes his mate.

Hollyleaf meanwhile has lots of friends.

In the maybe one moon she had as a medicine cat,

she made a good friend in Willowshine that she was willing to disobey the code to help when she was worried about Riverclan.

She had Fallen Leaves in the tunnels, who she came to enjoy the company of in their quiet life together.

She has Ivypool after coming back, who she never got a real relationship with but really should have, considering how similar their stories are to each other.

And in between she just had so many genuine, consistent interactions with cats like Cinderheart,

our first representation of a best friend since the original arc, and sometimes Hazeltail or Icecloud.

On top of all her friendships, she has a pretty great villain bond with Sol,

who, despite being an ineffective antagonist, consistently sought out her in particular to manipulate on her own.

They really could have had great development as foils of each other, had the story been better written.

All of these relationships present plenty of opportunities for shippers to tell their stories,

and get a hold on what Hollyleaf's relationship with someone else would be like.

It's much easier to tell a story about two characters falling in love when you have some idea of what their dynamic would be.

At this point you might ask “Hey Sunnyfall, which Hollyleaf ship is your favorite?”

Well first, thank you for asking, kind anonymous citizen.

Hollyleaf is in fact my favorite character, so I take her shipping very seriously.

And my favorite is (drumroll)...

None of them!

Cult of Asexual Hollyleaf for life!

Ugh, I really just said that didn't I?

Well, I hate myself now.

I do really like her having many friends, and even imagining that some of them had one-sided crushes on her at some point,

but I prefer to think that, even given a long life, Hollyleaf would never have gotten a mate.

You are, of course, free to disagree, and I welcome every shipping debate you can muster in the comments.

Thank you for watching, and always remember to make your lovers into friends.