1) This is obviously a major turning point in the series. Do you think that the ‘reveal’ of the Animorphs to Marco’s dad was handled appropriately?
2) Do you think that Marco’s dad’s reaction was a pretty accurate representation of what would actually happen? How would YOUR dad react if you told him you had spent the last three years fighting brain-stealing slugs?
3) What do you think would have happened if the Yeerks attempted to capture Marco and his dad rather than kill them? How would the Chee had reacted? What would have been the long-term affects?
4) This is the book where Visser One is finally destroyed and Eva, Marco’s mom, goes free. Do you think that this mission was handled well?
5) What do you think about the reunion between Marco’s parents?
6) Marco notes that it is possible that Nora was never actually in love with his dad, but was actually a Yeerk plant all along. Do you think this is a viable suggestion, or is he just grasping at straws? Do you think Nora was a Controller all along?
7) Anything else?Just... Amazing book. I love it. :D
1) This is obviously a major turning point in the series. Do you think that the ‘reveal’ of the Animorphs to Marco’s dad was handled appropriately?Okay, full disclosure: I didn't actually read the end of the series until this year. So my whole opinion is crusted with 10 years of resentment for how dumb I thought the late 30s-early 40s got, two years worth of laughing at spoilers that I heard, and a sprinkle of self-indulgent smugness.
2) Do you think that Marco’s dad’s reaction was a pretty accurate representation of what would actually happen? How would YOUR dad react if you told him you had spent the last three years fighting brain-stealing slugs?I actually think he took it too lightly, and idk I don't think it was a very...parental reaction:
3) What do you think would have happened if the Yeerks attempted to capture Marco and his dad rather than kill them? How would the Chee had reacted? What would have been the long-term affects?Interesting. I hadn't thought about that. The Chee probably would have incapacitated the Yeerks/freed the hosts, and either taken on the responsibility of masquerading as those Controllers or instruct the newly freed hosts to do it. Probably the former. It would be kind of dumb for them not to have four or five Chees around who aren't integrated into society. I mean, even when the Animorphs need Chee decoys--don't those Chee have other lives they're deliberately ignoring? Or are there a few un-hologramized Chee just hanging out in the park all day?
4) This is the book where Visser One is finally destroyed and Eva, Marco’s mom, goes free. Do you think that this mission was handled well?Again, not really. I just think the pacing of this book is so weird. Like Marco tells his dad really fast, and then they spend like ten pages gaining enough velocity to enter the ocean which is literally the stupidest filler in the ENTIRE SERIES (wouldn't crashing into the ocean at a high velocity be MORE DAMAGING than entering at a low velocity? Did this ghostwriter never fall down before?), and then even Eva's rescue just feels...anticlimact ic, somehow. Visser One was such a well-developed character, I would have at least liked to hear her take on her death.
5) What do you think about the reunion between Marco’s parents?Cute, but again, somehow underwhelming. And I'm kind of with powertrash that by this point in his life, Peter had actually gotten over Eva and loved Nora.
6) Marco notes that it is possible that Nora was never actually in love with his dad, but was actually a Yeerk plant all along. Do you think this is a viable suggestion, or is he just grasping at straws? Do you think Nora was a Controller all along?Going again off powertrash's theory, this could very well be the coldest thing Marco ever does. If Peter really loved Nora and was willing to risk his life to say her, Marco making up this lie (it was a lie, come on) to diffuse his responsibility and essentially condemn Nora to lifelong infestation is just...really bad. And it makes you wonder what happened to her after the war. Nora and like, Loren are the two most poorly handled characters in terms of their fates.
7) The book ended on kind of an odd note. After the Animorphs finally contact the Andalites there is a page break followed by the following words, in bold: "We do know who they are... and we know you, too... What do you think the meaning of this was?I don't know. Nothing really came of it. It was kind of stupid, but it was supposed to be *intense* or whatever to show how big the *stakes* were now. And if the Yeerks did know who they were, why did Jake wait till book 53 to give us his full name? Whatever I thought it was kind of cheap.
1) This is obviously a major turning point in the series. Do you think that the ‘reveal’ of the Animorphs to Marco’s dad was handled appropriately?[/b]
2) Do you think that Marco’s dad’s reaction was a pretty accurate representation of what would actually happen? How would YOUR dad react if you told him you had spent the last three years fighting brain-stealing slugs?I think it was a genuine father reacting to seeing his baby child turning into an anthropod or a crustacean (out of all the morphs, Marco HAD to pick the less pretty ones.
3) What do you think would have happened if the Yeerks attempted to capture Marco and his dad rather than kill them? How would the Chee had reacted? What would have been the long-term affects?I don't think the Yeerks would have been interested in two human rebels at this stage, they'd rather terminate the problem. Plus, the Visser probably would have gotten off on telling the 'currently enprisioned' Visser, that her host had just 'lost' her relatives in a 'trajic accident', for added torture.
4) This is the book where Visser One is finally destroyed and Eva, Marco’s mom, goes free. Do you think that this mission was handled well?[/b]
5) What do you think about the reunion between Marco’s parents?[/b]
...I was sort of disappointed that the reveal wasn't more...integrated into the plot. I mean, making Marco's dad susceptible to infestation because of his work was definitely possible, and it does kind of branch off of that warning that Eva gave him years ago, like, "don't work for the military" or whatever, but idk it just felt so out-of-left-field. I just kind of wish it had been built up to rather than just "yep about that time," you know?...Yep, this is what I am trying to say, too, anijen21.
6) Marco notes that it is possible that Nora was never actually in love with his dad, but was actually a Yeerk plant all along. Do you think this is a viable suggestion, or is he just grasping at straws? Do you think Nora was a Controller all along?[/b]
6) I don't think Nora was a controller all along. In an earlier book Marco's dad even talks about how they were fighting and at one point all of a sudden they were happy and never fought anymore.I recall this, too, actually.
7) The book ended on kind of an odd note. After the Animorphs finally contact the Andalites there is a page break followed by the following words, in bold: "We do know who they are... and we know you, too... What do you think the meaning of this was?[/b]
8 )Anything else?[/b]
...and then they spend like ten pages gaining enough velocity to enter the ocean which is literally the stupidest filler in the ENTIRE SERIES (wouldn't crashing into the ocean at a high velocity be MORE DAMAGING than entering at a low velocity? Did this ghostwriter never fall down before?)...:rofl2:
...and then even Eva's rescue just feels...anticlimact ic, somehow. Visser One was such a well-developed character, I would have at least liked to hear her take on her death.EXACTLY! We are no wiser as to HOW Visser One got to be in the circumstances of Visser Three's captive a second time. We can only assume there was failure in the Anati system, ;)?
1) This is obviously a major turning point in the series. Do you think that the ‘reveal’ of the Animorphs to Marco’s dad was handled appropriately?
2) Do you think that Marco’s dad’s reaction was a pretty accurate representation of what would actually happen? How would YOUR dad react if you told him you had spent the last three years fighting brain-stealing slugs?
3) What do you think would have happened if the Yeerks attempted to capture Marco and his dad rather than kill them? How would the Chee had reacted? What would have been the long-term affects?
4) This is the book where Visser One is finally destroyed and Eva, Marco’s mom, goes free. Do you think that this mission was handled well?
5) What do you think about the reunion between Marco’s parents?
6) Marco notes that it is possible that Nora was never actually in love with his dad, but was actually a Yeerk plant all along. Do you think this is a viable suggestion, or is he just grasping at straws? Do you think Nora was a Controller all along?
7) The book ended on kind of an odd note. After the Animorphs finally contact the Andalites there is a page break followed by the following words, in bold: "We do know who they are... and we know you, too... What do you think the meaning of this was?
8) Anything else?
I've been thinking, based on your responses, that this book really would have been better off as two separate books. One dedicated to the fact that Marco had to reveal himself to his dad, and one to rescuing his mom. Yeah, it would shift the rescue back five books (because obviously it would have to be a Marco narration), but it would give each event the amount of page time they deserved.
It was a thin book, wasn't it? And yes these plot points could have been in their own books. If so, which would you have first? Do you think it would be more interesting to have Peter know Eva is alive first, or for Eva to be rescued and find out Peter has remarried before she and Marco tell him?
And, conversely, can anyone tell me if this ghostwriter happens to be the same as the one in The Weakness or The Ultimate?!?!
That's a funny one, because, according to wikipedia, the ghostwriter was the same one who wrote The Illusion, which is a very fleshed out story, and my favorite Tobias narration. Interestingly enough, The Familiar and The Resistance (both unneventuful books) were also ghostwritten by her.And, conversely, can anyone tell me if this ghostwriter happens to be the same as the one in The Weakness or The Ultimate?!?!
The Animorphs' Wikipedia page has a complete list of ghostwritten books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animorphs#Ghostwriters - The Weakness, The Ultimate and this book were all written by different ghostwriters. They probably did a lot of reading and feeding off of each other's work, though.
I would have LOVED to see Marco's funeral. I would have loved to see Jake need to pretend to be devistated over his best friend's death, and Marco possibly making funny remarks via thought-speach to the other Animorphs. (Because of course he'd want to watch)Agreed.
Also, I just remembered something I would have loved to see in this book, which I've mentioned a few times before and will probably one day write a fanfiction of:
I would have LOVED to see Marco's funeral. I would have loved to see Jake need to pretend to be devistated over his best friend's death, and Marco possibly making funny remarks via thought-speach to the other Animorphs. (Because of course he'd want to watch)
Mr. King needed to be directly hit so the dracon beam wouldn't just pass through him. Sure he could make it look like the hologram was desintegrating, but there wouldn't be anything solid to make contact with. Dracon beams have been powered down since the HBC Chronicles, where a beam would just slice right through someone and desintegrate their body after one shot.
Yeah I think they could do more with eva being freed first than with Peter. She could help out on missions, and maybe even be given the power to morph. In fact that's probably what should have happened instead of bringing Loren back. they only brought Loren back as a plot device to get them to start making auxilaries. Eva could have taken her place by being rescued in 45, and there would be at least one less loose end left dangling at the end of the series.
Kind of a side note, but does anybody else feel like most of the ghostwriters were pulling their punches?I disagree here. I think a lot of the flak that the ghostwriters get isn't really their due, and that you have to be willing to criticize KA for her problems as well as praise her brilliant strokes. OK, maybe the ghostwriters could have put more power into their emotional scenes and deeper messages, but they'd be just as at risk of being criticized as being too 'over the top' and 'too dramatic' as the criticism you get here. Ultimately, KA did a read-over to make sure it fit in the series and made changes to suit what she wanted to see in it, if she gave it her approval to be a part of the canon of her series then she is responsible for the content.