Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: wolfev on January 02, 2009, 11:36:47 PM
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Would it be possible to shorten the series length? I mean, apparently everyone hates the ghostwritten ones, or at least think they aren't the best. So here is what I propose. If a series re-release were to happen, at what books could you just take out of the series completely and make it so it ran for about 30 books give or take a few. Did the ghosties have anything that contributed to the plot ever?
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People don't hate ALL the ghostwritten ones. Some are actually VERY good.
And it's not that they were ghostwritten, its just they were bad. Some of K.A.'s weren't all that good either.
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I only hate the ones who's plots have been used before , like #39. That's the only one I don't really like. the others, except #24 and, to a lesser extent, #42 (although the reasons are a bit more personal. I hate the helmacrons), I like.
so the only books I would take out are #39, and #24. #42...well I don't like the helmacrons but the idea of going inside marco was pretty good.
though if I had to shorten to about 30 books...
#1 (the first book, duh)
#4 (they meet ax)
#5 (they meet visser one)
#7 (they meet the ellimist)
#8 (seerow's kindness)
#10 (the chee)
#13 (tobias gets his morphing powers back)
#19 (the ypm)
#20 (they get the blue box)
#21 (and of course if you have 20, you need 21 and 22)
#22
#23 (elfangor is tobias's father)
#26 (they meet crayak)
#45 (beginning of the final arc, and marco's dad finds out, and get marco's mom back)
#49 (the yeerks find out they're humans)
#50 (the auxiliaries)
#51 (the governor)
#52 (destroy the yeerk pool)
#53 (second to last book)
#54 (last book)
no megamorphs, no chronicles
yeah...really boring...
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I only hate the ones who's plots have been used before , like #39. That's the only one I don't really like. the others, except #24 and, to a lesser extent, #42 (although the reasons are a bit more personal. I hate the helmacrons), I like.
so the only books I would take out are #39, and #24. #42...well I don't like the helmacrons but the idea of going inside marco was pretty good.
though if I had to shorten to about 30 books...
#1 (the first book, duh)
#4 (they meet ax)
#5 (they meet visser one)
#7 (they meet the ellimist)
#8 (seerow's kindness)
#10 (the chee)
#13 (tobias gets his morphing powers back)
#19 (the ypm)
#20 (they get the blue box)
#21 (and of course if you have 20, you need 21 and 22)
#22
#23 (elfangor is tobias's father)
#26 (they meet crayak)
#45 (beginning of the final arc, and marco's dad finds out, and get marco's mom back)
#49 (the yeerks find out they're humans)
#50 (the auxiliaries)
#51 (the governor)
#52 (destroy the yeerk pool)
#53 (second to last book)
#54 (last book)
no megamorphs, no chronicles
yeah...really boring...
That's pretty good, but I would include the first three chronicle books. I may take out Ellemist Chronicles. It wasn't that good, though it could have been better. Then because it's shortened to 30, there's room for a few more. I think 3 should be in, because it goes over Tobias coming to terms with his new life.
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like I said, I would place all except #39 and #24, but to limit to 30, only those are enough.
there doesn't have to be a whole book about tobias coming in terms with his whole life. you could, and I won't mind, but for about 30 books, you could just stick it in the beginning of #13...
the ac, hbc, and visser, don't seem to play very important roles. we have 23 for revealing tobias is elfangor's son, hork-bajir chronicles is needed even less. what's it actually give to the overall plot? visser, same thing with hbc...
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Oh oh, but those chronicles were really good entertainers. And they helped make things more convincing. Excluding Ellimist's though, IMO, it's quite boring. Or perhaps it's because I didn't feel any connection with it.
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if we're adding ones that are entertaining, then the only one you can take out is #39, cuz the plot's been used already (#24, even if it wasn't interesting to me, was interesting to some people)
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But at least Visser Chronicles explained the origin of the Earth invasion. HBC about the attack on the HB planet, also a thing or two about Seerow's Kindness. Those are important, yes? The most useless chronicles for me is Andalite's, however it was my favorite just because it's... very good, for the lack of phrase.
And yea, I hate Helmacrons. Though #24 gave me some real laugh.
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important, no. those are just details. you could write books about them, but there's no need to (other than making the series more interesting).
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Still, those chronicles are the basics' details, without them things would be clouded much. If those were just left to the readers' imaginations... Why, I simply appreciate what's official.
And it could be pretty dull to just jump from new revelation to new revelation considering each book's length. Some well written bridges could be real nice.
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I did say limiting to 30 books would be boring...
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Well, I appreciated hearing the stories behind the Hork-Bajir homeworld takeover and the start of the invasion of Earth. Plus I liked reading about Elfangor, and finding out how V3 lucked out and got an Andalite host.
I think such a large part of Tobias' life deserves a book, since it's the main turning point. But these are just my opinions.
Your list doesn't add up to 30, so there's room to ad a few more. Those are some that I would add.
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maybe not, but if I try to add one more based on something, a lot of others have to be added too...like if I added #3 because of that, I'd have to add #18, #38, #48, #37, #11, #35...you get the picture, right?
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No, I don't see any point in adding 11 and 35, for starters, just because I added 3. 3 is important for Tobias' character development, but 11 never happened and 35 had no effect on later books. Except maybe 41, but 41 never happened either.
Edit: Wait, I thought 35 was The Extreme. That's 30. 35 is the one where Marco starts losing control of his morphing powers, right? I probably still wouldn't add it, because we're already well aware that his mother's plight stresses him out.
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the extreme is #25...
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Obviously I have trouble identifying the books by number. Sometimes I have trouble identifying them by their names as well.
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Omit books 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 25, 28, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 44.
If you want to leave out more, add 17, 24, 46, 47, MM1, MM2.
That leaves 44 books. KA said she thought Animorphs probably should have been ten books shorter, so that works.
That leaves us with these books (not listed in chronological order):
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Opening)
7, 8 (Kandrona arc)
AC, 13, HBC, 23, 34, 38 (Tobias's family story, Hork-Bajir story, Andalites emerge as potential antagonists)
15, 18 (Leeran war)
19, 29 (Yeerk Peace Movement)
20, 21, 22 (David trilogy)
10, 26, 27, MM3, MM4, EC, 48 (Ellimist/Crayak/Drode/Pemalites/Chee storylines)
32, 33, 43 (Anti-morphing ray, Taylor)
6, 31, 41 (Jake and Tom drama)
30, 35, Visser, 45 (Visser One storyline)
49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 (End of the war)
When looking at books to trim, I took more into account that what they strictly contributed to the overall story arc. If you look at it from that angle, a book like #3 isn't necessary. However, it would be pretty ridiculous to create the Animorphs story and leave out that material. The character of a boy trapped as a hawk was pretty darn unique, and people reading the series would likely be interested in how he's able to cope with the experience. It doesn't move the invasion story further much, but it's still one of the more valuable entries in the Animorphs series.
The facts and basic outline of the Animorphs story aren't what make it successful. It's how the story is told. Books like the Andalite and Hork-Bajir Chronicles were extremely engaging and moving. There's far more value to them than just what background info they contributed.
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I agree with Hylian Dan's idea, too. Even though it's 44 books instead of 30, that's a pretty solid series there. Even though it does include some books I'd leave out.
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I agree with Hylian Dan's list as well, except I'd probably leave out book 2, although if I did that, then i guess Rachel would be the only one to not have a narration in the opening books, but I didn't think it brought anything at all to the table, plot-wise or character-wise, except Melissa, whom doesn't really ever show up again anyway except a couple small parts later on, I believe.
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If Mellisa had been used later in the series, or even mentioned in a book other than MM3, then book 2 could have been very important. As it is, it just shows that the Yeerk invasion destroys families. Which is already pretty well explained otherwise.
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Yeah, exactly. It had the potential to introduce a great recurring non-Animorph character, but then she ended up never writing about her again, which ends up making the book quite pointless.
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... we have 23 for revealing tobias is elfangor's son, hork-bajir chronicles is needed even less. what's it actually give to the overall plot? .
One word: tragedy. The saddest part of HBC is realizing that the Yeerks eliminated the very best bioengineers in the entire galaxy, the ones who had the ability to give them perfect hosts, to end the Yeerk conquest--that is if the Yeerks and Andalites were willing to come to peace. #18 and HBC work together to quite effectively show just how ruthless the Andalite military has become, leaving the later books on the same topic to deal more with how that impacts Aximili.
@Dan
Brilliant. I'd keep #16, though. It's great foreshadowing of just how dark the series will get, and I just love the ending.
Who burned down the mansion? Jake, Cassie, Tobias? Marco wouldn't dare do it alone, and Rachel isn't that cold blooded. Ax, not without orders. Cassie's strangely quiet in #17, but she does say this: "And all the rights and wrongs, and all the lines between good and evil, just go wafting and waving and swirling around, don't they?" Did she do it? Jake's evasive at the end of his narration, and Tobias, well, about Tobias.
He spends an awful lot of time going behind peoples backs in the early part of the series--making good use of his ability to privately thought-speak, even as early as #2 (the flea-plan for example). Shortly after #16, in MM2, he's responsible for disabling the explosive and allowing the meteor to strike. In short, when there's something he believes is right, he does it and saves everyone else the pain of having to decide.
So that's three strong cases for three different characters to have burnt down the Fenestre mansion. And we never get any resolution. That alone is reason to leave #16 in.
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A lot of the books are pointless, but some of them are mentioned afterword. I read a lot of the series out of order, and I remember being confused reading #15 without having read some of the earlier ones (#5). But it would be easy to cut out some of the later pointless ones, like 36, 39, 42 and 44.
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I don't hate the gostwriters' ones. Just they aren't as good as the others... But I like reading them for fun. I wouldn't reduce, but I'd prefer more books about the important things...
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The facts and basic outline of the Animorphs story aren't what make it successful. It's how the story is told. Books like the Andalite and Hork-Bajir Chronicles were extremely engaging and moving. There's far more value to them than just what background info they contributed.
that's kind of my point. to limit to 30 books you'd have to take out all the extremely engaging and moving books...