Stinger

***Spoiler Warning:** Plot and/or ending details follow.*

**Stinger** was a male baboon, and antagonist who appeared in the first three books of the first arc. He was Pear Goodleaf's mate and Berry Crownleaf's father.

## Appearance

Stinger had red eyes fringed with brown fuzzy fur, a long black snout with a thin white scar above his nostrils, and long yellow fangs. He also had slender brown hands.

## Personality

Stinger appears as both a kind and open-minded character at the beginning of the series. However, as the story progresses, it's revealed that while Stinger is open-minded, he is far from kind, but rather cruel, ruthless, greedy and power-hungry. He's revealed to be sadistic; he took pleasure out of killing his predecessors and his enemies, and seeing them suffer. Stinger is an individual who only cares about power and is willing to kill and swindle to get it; he breaks the Code with no regret. He's also shown to have a high ego as he felt no remorse for his actions. Overall, Stinger is an example of one who's ambitions gone too far leading to his downfall.

## Biography

### Pre-Series

Born as Seed, the arrogant and power-hungry baboon was banished from his original troop and wandered alone until he came to be accepted in Crookedtree Troop in Leopard Forest (then known as Shadow Forest), where he eventually mated with Pear and had Berry with her. At one point, he craved for power so much that he couldn't take it anymore, so he outright murdered the troop's Crownleaf at the time, Marula, without really planning out how his plan would go down or how everyone else in the troop would react to him killing her in plain sight. As a result, he was immediately banished by the new Crownleaf of Crookedtree Troop Tendril, but he forcefully took his infant daughter with him so he would not feel quite alone, further traumatizing Pear.

Eventually, Seed, carrying baby Berry on his back, joined Brightforest Troop in Tall Trees and soon became one of the troop's Highleaf councilors, lying to everyone, including Berry, that the troop he and his daughter came from was evil and that they had killed Berry's mother. Because of Seed's taste in scorpions and his technique of removing their venom before eating them, he gained the nickname Stinger.

### *Broken Pride*

Stinger is first seen rescuing Fearless from an eagle's nest. After Stinger brings Fearless down, he introduces the cub to the troop. He defended Fearless from Grub. One year later Stinger, tells Thorn, Mud and Berry about his taste for scorpions and tells them it's the reason why his nickname should be "Stinger."

Sometime later, Stinger murders Bark by smashing her skull with a rock so he can take her place as Crownleaf and blames it on a hyena she appeared to be fighting. Stinger then runs for Crownleaf against Grub and tells the troop why he should be chosen. Stinger's scheme backfires when Grub wins the vote.

During Thorn's third Feat, Stinger changes his opponent to Mud so Thorn can become a Highleaf. Thorn, however, loses on purpose so Mud can become a Lowleaf. After waiting for the right moment, Stinger kills Grub by intoxicating his food. The plan works, and Stinger blames his crime on Nut, who brought the prey to Grub, and has him exiled. Brightforest Troop then appoints Stinger as Crownleaf; he was the only one that volunteered.

Shortly after Stinger is voted Crownleaf, Thorn finds out about Stinger's betrayal and confronts him. Stinger responds that his crimes were "necessary" so the troop can have "guidance" and threatens to kill Thorn if he tells everyone else, saying that he better not tell Berry.

At one other point, as part of his new plot to rule all of Bravelands as Great Father, Stinger secretly met with the rhino leader of Stronghide's Crash, Stronghide himself, one night, knowing by reputation how the rhino resented Great Mother and believed her to be arrogant for being unable to save the life of his deceased daughter, Brighteyes.

Stinger manipulated Stronghide, convincing him to kill Sun Strider. Stinger told him that even though it seemed like breaking the The Code, he had heard a rumor that killing a Great Parent would make the killer the new Great Parent. To add to this lie, Stinger told Stronghide that he would also be avenging Brighteyes simultaneously. Stronghide agreed, believing Stinger's lies to be true in that he would both avenge Brighteyes and become the next Great Parent by killing Sun Strider. In truth, Stinger knew for a fact that, even though Stronghide would strongly believe that killing Great Mother would make him the first remembered rhino Great Parent, the rhino would inevitably fail at his job and eventually be overthrown by the other animals once the secret of him murdering Great Mother spread. This was all part of Stinger's plan to remove the real current Great Parent and wrongfully take the title for himself, more signs of him not actually believing in the Great Spirit.

### *Code of Honor*

As the newly appointed Crownleaf, Stinger creates a new rank called "Strongbranch," which allows any baboon, regardless of their rank, to have as much political power as a Highleaf, if not more. However, the Strongbranches have to be loyal to their leader above all else, even if that means allowing them to do whatever they want regardless of whether that was right or wrong.

*More coming soon!*

### *Blood and Bone*

Rain leads the rest of her family to the Watering Hole to confront Stinger and avenge their fallen matriarch, Great Mother, who Sky Strider revealed to them was responsible for Great Mother's death. Despite Sky's warnings against underestimating Stinger, they go anyway.

Sky's warnings about underestimating Stinger are later proven to be correct when the Strider's rash thinking results in the death of their new matriarch, Rain Strider, allowing Comet to succeed her.

Later, Fearless regains consciousness and apologizes to Stinger for failing to kill Thorn. Stinger then reassures Fearless, saying that his failure was not his doing and shouldn't be so hard on himself. Stinger reveals how the Striders confronted him and accused him for participating in Great Mother's death. Stinger then lies and convinces Fearless that the Strider's accusations were false and driven mad by losing their fallen matriarch. Stinger then tells Fearless to form his own pride. Stinger claims that he wants Fearless to become a pride leader to have a of his own to support him. In reality, Stinger intends to betray Fearless. Fearless than agrees to form his own pride under.

*More coming soon!*

Fearless returns to Baboon Island to complain to Stinger about Snarl's insubordination and asks Stinger for advice. Stinger tells Fearless that to solve Fearless's Snarl problem, Fearless should send Snarl a sole patrol. Stinger doesn't explain how it takes care of Snarl but claims it'll prevent Snarl from causing problems. Unbeknownst to Fearless, Stinger's plans to "take care of" Snarl is by killing him. Stinger is successful in his scheme. However, the aftermath of Snarl's death doesn't provide the results Stinger expected. Since Snarl's refusal to accept Fearless as his leader halted Stinger's plans to betray Fearlesspride, the monkey expected Fearless and co. to move on as soon as possible and not be halted by grief. Stinger also left Brightforest Troop now and then to negotiate with Titan.

Though not formerly seen, he is mentioned when Thorn and Nut get captured by Crookedtree Troop. There, they learn that Stinger used to be a member of that Troop as Seed, and was also Pear Goodleaf's mate before he was caught red-handed assassinating Marula Crownleaf. Before Crookedtree could deal with him, he kidnapped his daughter and fled. Thorn realizes that this Seed is Stinger. He then gathers a few baboons from the Troop to try to defeat Stinger.

Stinger hosts another Great Gathering to "reason" with Sky, who he sees as another threat to his schemes. Sky agrees to meet with Stinger out of hope that she'd be able to talk some sense into the other animals attending the Great Gathering. Unfortunately for Sky, however, none of the other attendants listen to her reason and Stinger threatens the Strider. Unbeknownst to Stinger, Mud, who had ended his friendship with Thorn due to the former believing Stinger's deceptions, realized that Sky wasn't wrong or lying about Stinger's schemes and confesses how he even turned on Thorn due to Stinger's lies.

*More coming soon!*

### *Shifting Shadows*

When Sky goes to drink from the watering hole during her herd's stay at Baboon Island, she finds Stinger's skull and has another vision. He is mentioned again by Berry when she teaches Dawntrees Troop how to hunt scorpions. After Sky reunites with Boulder, she reveals how Stinger killed their grandmother and her role in the monkey's downfall.

### *The Spirit-Eaters*

Stinger is mentioned several times. He is first mentioned in this book by a pelican named Gulper when he mentally notes how he killed Stronghide to become a false Great Parent. He is then mentioned again during a conversation between Keen and Fearless, where the latter reveals that Stinger was like a father to him which is why Fearless trusted him to a fault. While tracking down Titan, Keen compares Fearless to Stinger when discussing what to do with Menace. When Tendril is found dead with Seedling, missing, Thorn half-expects Stinger to reveal himself nearby with a malicious expression. When Thorn and Berry confront the Crownguard on this matter, they cite Stinger's actions in their defense by acknowledging his formation of the Driftleaves and Strongbranches while downplaying his tyranny. He's finally mentioned by his daughter Berry when she acknowledges Stinger as her father when she pretends to be the next Great Parent to spare Thorn from the jaws of the Bloodheart Pack.

## Victims

* Marula Crownleaf
* Bark Crownleaf
* Grub Crownleaf
* Great Mother (indirectly)
* Stronghide (indirectly)
* Starleaf (indirectly)
* Frog (indirectly)
* Thud
* Snarl Fearlesspride
* Rain Strider (indirectly)

## Gallery

Stinger taking Fearless to Brightforest Troop
## Trivia

* He got his nickname for his love of eating scorpions.
* Stinger also uses scorpion poison and a rock to kill his predecessors: Marula, Bark, and Grub.
* Stinger is the first baboon introduced into the series.
* His original name was Seed. It's unknown if Stinger requested this name change or not.
* He is Gillian Philip's favorite character in Bravelands.
* Gillian Phillip doesn't think Stinger has always been greedy or selfish, but acknowledges that he'd always been single-minded and ruthless.
* Gillian Phillip thinks he had been in several troops before he became a member of Crookedtree Troop.

## Mistakes

* In *Blood and Bone*, Stinger is referred to using the pronoun *her* in the memories Sky Strider reads.

## References

1. ↑ *Broken Pride*, page 25
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gillian\_Philip/status/1051240828717404160
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gillian\_Philip/status/1056546599235710978
4. ↑ *Blood and Bone*, page 276