Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: planetstella on April 05, 2015, 02:53:19 PM
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For example, I literally cried the at the end of 'The Andalite Chronicles' the second time I read it.
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Rachel and Tom dying at the end of the series, and most of the main cast possibly dying out in space fror no good reason. I know, they were saving Ax, but the only reason she wrote that plot point was to make her stupid bolivian army ending. The end of the series in general was a downer ending.
The end of TAC and HBC. Of course neither of those could have very happy endings.
Finding out what happened to Loren.
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Well, I actually really like the sad stuff, so long as it has a point to it. The ending to HBC. The scene in Visser where Visser One is pointing a gun at Darwin and the kid grabs the gun and holds it to his chest so she couldn't miss. Most of Tobias's memories during the torture scenes in #33. The very end of #48, where Rachel can't decide whether or not killing David is the 'right' thing to do. The backstory between the Pemalites and the Chee and the Howlers. The dismal post-apocalyptic views of earth we get in #7 and again in #41. That's the stuff that sticks with you and hits you where you live, you know?
The problem is with the stuff that's supposed to be sad, but completely misses the mark and just ends up frustrating and pointless to read. The ending of #54 was very much this. I get that it needed to be a cliffhanger, and a bolivian army ending can actually be quite excellent if done well. But 'going out' against some completely random monster out of left field that we know nothing about? After everything the Animorphs had been through with their main established enemy, the Yeerks?
Nope. Not sad. At least not in any meaningful way. It'd be like reading about a soldier coming home from a war, and then falling down the stairs to his death.
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I agree. Those things were pretty sad. I also agree about the frustrating things in the ending. As much as I go on about how bad Rachel dying is, it overshadows the fact that Jara Hamee died with no battle scene or anything. Toby just mentions that he's dead. The death of a guy who proved he wasn't a controller by splitting his own skull open should be sad, but it's given no focus. Just an offhand remark after the death scene of a main character.
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Jara's a tiny, tiny character though. His function is basically "representing the first of the free Hork-Bajir, and being half of the reason Toby exists". He didn't need some big last-hurrah scene, he's just representing the notion that it wasn't just humans and yeerks involved.
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I just think that if he was going to die, he deserved more than an offhand comment. I know he's an incidental character. He made a big impact with me, though, like Mellissa did.
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Yeah, the Ellemist didn't really explain that she was pregnant, did he? And later when we find out that Andalites kiss by caressing each other's faces, it does seem like Elfangor was kissing his son goodbye. even though we know KA did not think that far ahead when writing her books. She wasn't the kind of author that figures out all the major plot points of a series before publishing the first book. That scene in the first book might have inspired the idea for an andalite kiss, though.
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This one line was probably it for me: “I knew I had said good-bye to Jake forever”.
Not because i shipped Cassie and Jake in a major way or anything. But it was a line that worked on multiple levels.
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Threads like this come up from time to time, and I'm always surprised more people don't mention Tobias becoming a nothlit.
Another underrated sad moment is when Jake breaks down on the witness stand when testifying against Visser 3 in book 54.
The scene in book 6 when the Yeerk controlling Jake (who used to control Tom) shows Jake a memory of Tom, who no longer has the will to fight for himself, powerlessly pleads for the Yeerk to leave Jake alone. Another scene that is rarely mentioned but has stuck with me since the very first time I read the series nearly 20 years ago.
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Not because i shipped Cassie and Jake in a major way or anything.
Here's the thing: they're canon for most of the series. They don't need to be shipped.
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You can ship a canon pairing, I think. Some people will ship characters that have no chemistry, or just haven't done one thing to indicate they feel for each other that way. If they can do that, we can ship canon pairings.
Some sad moments get overlooked by some people, for various reasons. What happened in book 6 is pretty bad, especially since in the end that's the only thing we genuinely learn about Tom himself.
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I mean, with crack pairings, pairings that TOTALLY WORK but haven't been confirmed, and everything in between, it's up to the fans to write and draw them. With canon pairings though we expect canon to create our fics for us. Also, this is completely off-topic.
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Talking about Jake and Cassie's relationship falls within the topic of sad moments.
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In any case, for me, what made that line particularly sad, was that it signaled the end not only of a particular relationship, but the end of the book, emotionally. Clearly very subjective, but yeah. SmartGirl333 is right to say that, because it was canon, it was always sort of a given, and i guess for this reason, it doesn't necessary encourage the same kind of enthusiasm or support as non-canning pairings. But precisely also because it was also sort of a given, to see it finally come to naught, was slightly crushing.
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Yeah, good point. Wow. I missed that in my first read of #54.
On topic, #54 has all the emotions. Happy because the war is finally over, sad because it took so much major character death, angry at KA for the BolivianArmyEnding, and an emotion I can't even describe in English (closest approximation is "HOLY F**KING SH*T") when I realized that the entire Ellimist Chronicles took place in one line on page 24.
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It is good that the world is saved, and Marco got the life he wanted. I'm just not sure why he didn't have a proper vacation like regular rich folk. That's what you do when you're bored. Not crawl around a swimming pool as a lobster. The rest is crap. Especially with Toby. Someone tell me how an uneducated, three year old alien child gets a seat on Congress. You wanted to kill Rachel and Tom for more realism, then do that? And why didn't she go back home, especially since they started a rebellion there?
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It is good that the world is saved, and Marco got the life he wanted. I'm just not sure why he didn't have a proper vacation like regular rich folk. That's what you do when you're bored. Not crawl around a swimming pool as a lobster. The rest is crap. Especially with Toby. Someone tell me how an uneducated, three year old alien child gets a seat on Congress. You wanted to kill Rachel and Tom for more realism, then do that? And why didn't she go back home, especially since they started a rebellion there?
What i have difficulty with isn't that she's an uneducated, three year old alien child. I can sort of accept that, because she's a "seer", somehow she's just exceptionally bright or whatever. I mean, it does push the boundaries of believability a bit, but i can still buy it. What i don't get is again the fore-fronting of American politics. Surely this isn't just an American issue. This is a global issue. I mean, sure, they're occupying a territory within the United States, but you're dealing with an alien species setting up shop on Earth. Surely the international community has an interest in the matter as well. And in any case, why congress? Maybe a cabinet position would be more appropriate. Something executive, as opposed to legislative.
The bit about not going back to the Hork Bajir i can also sort of accept. Maybe they don't want to have all their eggs in one basket. If the Hork Bajir homeworld doesn't work out, they have a colony on Earth. Also, Earth could still function as a remote headquarters for the rebellion on the Hork Bajir homeworld, i guess.
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I know I'm a little late to the party (dang this topic moved fast all of a sudden!) but there's a point that was made a while back that I want to comment on, so I'm just gonna comment on it anyway.
What happened in book 6 is pretty bad, especially since in the end that's the only thing we genuinely learn about Tom himself.
Not quite entirely true. There was one, and only one, scene, in the entire series, that actually featured Tom as a free human being. In the very first book, when the Animorphs are raiding the Yeerk pool, he was one of the hosts that broke out and tried to help the Animorphs.
And what does he do, with that one singular moment of freedom? He runs straight at Visser Three, in eight-headed-monster-morph no less, armed with nothing but his own fists. That is a guy who deserves respect. That scene, is the reason I cried for him in the last book. :'(
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I know I'm a little late to the party (dang this topic moved fast all of a sudden!) but there's a point that was made a while back that I want to comment on, so I'm just gonna comment on it anyway.
What happened in book 6 is pretty bad, especially since in the end that's the only thing we genuinely learn about Tom himself.
Not quite entirely true. There was one, and only one, scene, in the entire series, that actually featured Tom as a free human being. In the very first book, when the Animorphs are raiding the Yeerk pool, he was one of the hosts that broke out and tried to help the Animorphs.
And what does he do, with that one singular moment of freedom? He runs straight at Visser Three, in eight-headed-monster-morph no less, armed with nothing but his own fists. That is a guy who deserves respect. That scene, is the reason I cried for him in the last book. :'(
Oh man. Yeah. That was a difficult scene as well. For much the same reason as the Cassie-Jake goodbye one i mentioned earlier. It was like, finally we saw the resolution of something we'd been following the entire series, and it was the opposite of what we'd hoped, possibly even assumed.
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You're right. I'm not sure what Tom expected to be able to do to that monster, armed with nothing, unless he figured the only way he'd be free is to die. The Yeerk that controlled him might have said that even if he escaped, he'd be hunted down and killed, and we see that happen to hosts in book 8. That's the only reason I see him rushing an eight headed fire breathing monstrosity completely unarmed. I'm kind of surprised he lived anyway. The others were forced to flee. Somehow Tom did something that made the Yeerks think he was worth keeping alive.
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The scene from 16 where Cassie is consoling Jake is pretty much one of the saddest moments for me, mostly due to how I identify with Jake in that part. Also, pretty much any book narrated by Tobias has one of these.
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It is sad when in some ways your life has improved after you become a hawk nothlit, fighting a secret invasion.
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It is good that the world is saved, and Marco got the life he wanted. I'm just not sure why he didn't have a proper vacation like regular rich folk. That's what you do when you're bored. Not crawl around a swimming pool as a lobster. The rest is crap. Especially with Toby. Someone tell me how an uneducated, three year old alien child gets a seat on Congress. You wanted to kill Rachel and Tom for more realism, then do that? And why didn't she go back home, especially since they started a rebellion there?
Since the Constitution requires that Representatives be at least 25, and Senators at least 30, Toby should have been ineligible. Also, I am certain that Congress, in passing the post Civil War amendments that ended slavery, provided equal rights to blacks, and extended Constitutional protections to state actions, would not have intended that ETs born on US territory be automatic US citizens!
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Even if the seat was just meant for show, it still doesn't make sense. Ok, she has Human level intelligence, and three Hork-Bajir years might be several Human years, but she's still an alien that grew up in the woods, being raised by her intellectual inferiors.
It's a joke. Now, I like Toby. i have no problem with Toby. I also like to think I know enough to realize that Americans would not stand for having an alien child in their government. I'd fully expect people to be saying "But does she believe in Jesus?".
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My signature is both the saddest and one of the most memorable sences/quotes from the series. I was crying after reading it, that's why I chose it as my signature.
Also these were pretty sad:
[spoiler]TAC:Once, a long time before, I had explained to Loren what it must be like to see the universe as the Ellimists saw it. And now, as the Ellimist lifted me up out of the everyday world of three dimensions of space and one of time, I saw what he saw.
When I had used the Time Matrix I glimpsed the lines of time interwoven. But now I saw a thousand times more. It was beyond sight. Beyond sound. It was some new sense, some new awareness. I could feel the lines of time flowing through me. I could see and taste and hear and touch and smell a billion possibilities, all flowing through me.
I saw the Ellimist himself, as he really was. An indescribable being of light and time and space. Huge, but without a place. Alone, but not the only one of his kind. I saw and understood the vast power that trailed the lines of time through his grasp. And yet, against the enormity of all that had ever been and all that would ever be, I saw his limits, too.
The Ellimist was mighty. But not all-powerful.
I saw a young Andalite who looked like I had once: so serious, so determined to prove himself. I heard his name in my mind: Aximili- Esgarrouth-Isthill.
Hello, little brother, I said silently.
I saw Arbron, still alive on the Taxxon world. I felt his Taxxon hunger. But I also felt his Andalite pride.
Hello, Arbron. You have become the hero I always wanted to be.
I saw Loren, and wrapped around her time line now was another human who would be her mate. I had been written out of her memory. It tore at my heart to realize that I was now a stranger to her.
And yet, I saw that some part of my own time line still intersected her own. I still touched her future in some way. My line and hers converged, and then from those two lines came a new line, just emerging, just beginning to grow.
<What does it mean?› I asked the Ellimist.
YOU HAVE A SON, ELFANGOR.
In a flash I saw the truth. That's why Loren had gone to see her doctor. She would have come home and told me. We had a child!
<No! You can't take me away! I have a son!> I cried. <That changes everything! Don't take me away!>
YOU ARE AWAY, ELFANGOR-SIRINIAL-SHAMTUL. WHAT WAS BROKEN HAS BEEN REPAIRED. YOU ARE WHERE YOU MUST BE. THE CHILD WILL BE RAISED AS THE SON OF ANOTHER.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]54: "Tom is in cobra morph, striking at Rachel's face)
Rachel: Help me, Tobias!
Tobias: I can't. I...
Rachel: Help me get him. Help me get him!
Tobias: Okay. Okay. Your left paw, towards your face. Has to be fast.
Rachel: Okay.
Tobias: Now!
(Rachel stabs at her face, impaling Tom on her claws)
Tom and/or his Yeerk: No!
Rachel: Sorry. Tom,
Tom's Yeerk: (screams) Jake, stop her!
(Rachel kills Tom)"
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]19:"Cassie: (talking to Aftran 942, the Yeerk controlling the human girl Karen) Don't you compare what your people do with what we do. You can't compare the attacker and the victim. You people started this war. And it's you invading my planet, not the other way around.
Aftran 942: We have a right to live!
Cassie: This isn't about you living! It's about you enslaving other people.
Aftran: It's what we are. We're parasites, you humans are predators. How many pigs and cows and chickens and sheep do you kill each year to survive? You think being a predator is morally superior to being a parasite? At least the host bodies we take remain alive. We don't kill them, cut them into pieces, and grill them over a charcoal fire in our backyards.
Cassie: We're not pigs.
Aftran: Oh yes, you are. That's all you are to us. Oink, oink.
Aftran 942: (like it wasn't important) We have people like you, too.
Cassie: People like me?
Aftran: Sure. Yeerks who oppose the wars, who feel it's wrong to take unwilling hosts.
Cassie: (stunned) What? There are Yeerk who are against all this?
Aftran: (bitter and resentful) Don't act so surprised. We aren't all the same. See? You believe the Andalite propaganda about us. According to the Andalites, we're nothing but evil slugs. We don't deserve to be free, flying around the galaxy. We're just parasites."[/spoiler]
[spoiler]22:Rachel: (narrating) I kept wondering: Had I always been like this? Back before the Animorphs, back before that encounter with a dying alien who changed our lives, who had I been? I tried to remember, but it wasn't like I was thinking about myself. It was like I was remembering some girl I used to know. Like she was an acquaintance I'd forgotten about until someone reminded me. It was like, "Oh, yeah, Rachel. I remember her." I'd been very into gymnastics, I knew that. Shopping. I guess I'd never exactly been a happy-go-lucky party girl. But I tried to imagine myself back then, and tried to imagine grinding the tines of a fork into someone's ear while I threatened his family. I almost laughed. It was crazy. I mean, I'm not someone raised in an abusive family or anything. Yeah, my folks got divorced, but probably a third of the kids in school have divorced parents, and another third wish their parents would divorce. I'd never had to wonder if my parents loved me. I knew they did. They told me. And they showed me. I wasn't on drugs or anything. But somehow, someway, I had gone from being this occasionally sharp-tongued girl, to being... well, as Marco would say, Xena: Warrior Princess. What made me feel stupid was that I hadn't realized I was changing. But everyone else obviously did. Jake did. When he knew it was coming down to kill-or-be-killed with David, he'd sent Ax to get me. Not Marco. Not Cassie. "Get Rachel." And in the cafeteria he had to let me go, knowing what I would do. Afterward, I'd seen Cassie in sixth period. She didn't ask me what had happened. She didn't ask me what I'd said to David. She'd known. I could have said, "Look at all the battles I've been through." It would have been a good excuse. Except that Cassie'd gone through the same battles. And Marco. And Tobias. Would Tobias have done what I did? That was the killer question, see. Because Tobias lived life as a predator now. He'd have every excuse in the world. But I wondered if even he would have gone as far as I'd gone. And, I wondered something else. What if David ignored my threat? Would I... could I...[/spoiler]
[spoiler]33:Tobias: (narrating) "Your time is up. Do you understand that? You can never escape your morph. You will be a bird till you die." Who said that? Rachel? Taylor, the sub-visser? Me?
Tobias: I won't give in. Do you know why?
Taylor/Sub-Visser 51: No. Tobias: Because if I surrender, you'll live. And if I resist, you'll die. And I want you to die.
Tobias: Who are you?
Taylor/her Yeerk: I'm a sub-visser of the Yeerk Empire.
Tobias: No, you're a weak misguided human girl. And you are also insane.
Taylor/her Yeerk: Then join me in my madness, Andalite.[/spoiler]