"It suddenly struck me just what level of cash flow The Sharing controls. Serious cash. Not the kind of money you make selling Furbies on the black market." <- Do they ever do anything productive with this?
Did they ever do anything productive with anything?
1. I found it at least as awkward and uncomfortable as Tobias did. I do not think Rachel would try and get him trapped, but this whole scene was very odd. Rachel's emotions, and their relationship, is very unusual, and the way it was laid out here, just didn't like it.
2. Speaking of things I don't like: Why are we just meeting Taylor now?! The only people we ever see under the Visser is Chapman and Tom, and clearly she out ranks them both- this is the enemy that should have been introduced way back around book 10. /rant- with mention that V3 won't kill his second in command absent mindedly.
Taylor herself crazy, yes, but not abhorrent.The girl was pitiable, the Yeerk intriguing. Surprised an arrogant master of the galaxy got swept up in the life of a teenage girl. Yeerk psychology must be something, but then I've never been the popular girl, maybe it's just addicting.
I also found the comparisons of Rachel and Taylor uncomfortable. I doubt Rachel's the sadist Taylor is but I see a lot of potential for what could have been had things gone different. Mostly though it was that Tobias, who is supposed to be so close to her, kept making the comparison, and his efforts to disavow them seemed weak.
3. I was not a fan of this stuff. Helplessness doesn't bode well with me, but something else here always puts me off, but I'm not sure what exactly. It took me a while to see that it had effects on Tobias, and when I did I strongly disliked them. I can't say he should just get over it, but still-half his life has been some form of mental or emotional torture, I'd have thought if anyone should be more resilient, it's him. The contrast method I think, as implementing agony, goes is brilliant. But-and without being dirty- that there is very little in terms of physical gratification to contrast with the physical torment is intriguing: most of his happy memories depended on emotion more than action, but the bad was emotional and physical damage.
4. This is some cold bull right here. I do not believe for a second that an animal would except this kind of pain as just a part of life.There's a difference between a chronic injury and dealing with being stabbed in the thigh repeatedly. I think people can be indifferent to an animal's agony because they don't express pain in ways we recognize or sympathize with, but of all people the Animorphs should see past that.
5. I never liked this scene. One because lines in it contradict TAC. And two: it was ghost Elfangor mind-melding with Tobias. The message was fine, but the execution annoys the hell out of me.
6. This I like though. My first thought is that Andalites must weigh a hell of a lot, and I question endurance as well as agility. Still, Andalites seem like a very cool race from this perspective, enviable in many physical respects-tail, stalk eyes-would have been neat to see some other forms of sport for a race like this. The big mental thing for optimism is very interesting, and seeing how most Andalites behave surprising. From an adaptive view, I could see it being handy, confidence boost perhaps, but how, and it's role in modern times, well I'll leave that to the theme of hope.
7. They never seem as close as they were at the start, but I guess they were declared BFF's at that point anyway. They have the weirdest things on the planet thing going, and Ax might be slightly more causal with Tobias than he is with the others. Almost like he can be deliberately funny with Tobias, were as it's always misunderstanding that make him and Marco work. I'm not sure how Andalites do family but it doesn't seem all mushy, dinner at the table everynight. Obviously Tobias's family life is atypical, so in that respect they got lucky in expectations of each other. I do find it shameful they they just let it fall of at the end. I mean the very end, but even in the build up-by 49 Ax and Tobias just seem to be working together, without the understanding they once had.
8. Oh, how I'd like to say I'd be brave and bold. But I wouldn't. I imagine I'd crack very quickly. I don't like pain, I don't like fear, and few things invoke fear like the threat of pain. If I did manage to put in a good effort, it'd probably involve screaming or singing (torture me, I torture back), or mental mantras of songs, swears, incoherent raging, or (and I hope not) pray (still more about convention than belief.)
