Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: esplin on May 31, 2008, 11:37:23 PM
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animorphs was my childhood, the characters mean so much to me.
its a big freakin deal to me, and i can get way more worked up over animorphs then any political issue these days.
am i the only one.
im assuming im not, :p so tell me why it affected you
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well it doesn't work me up more than politics, but it has been an important part of my life for a long time now.
Animorphs really broadened my horizons. It was imaginative in was I could never conceive. The characters were realistic, tragic, and existed in some much depth that for so long it was hard to believe that it was made up. Back then it was a way to an infinite realm of endless possibility. Now it's a foundation for my ideals.
Ever since I started I would day dream about it: about joining the team, mixing it with other stories, creating my own plots with it, and though it's too a lesser extent, I still do those thing now. And I know for a fact I would not be the same person I am now without these books. Some manners, beliefs and standards all come straight for the books.
There are two things in particular it did to me that have maintained and actually become stronger over the years.
There is a quote that I'm to lazy to pull up and cite, but I'm sure it's familiar to you all: somewhere along the lines of "A warrior must be a scientist and an artist"
I judge people. I do. People I like and people I don't. And myself. And more and more my judging is based on that one line. The value I place on a person stems from how they think, how they can endure, how they can perceive life. Unfortunately more and more fewer people meet that ideal. But I still look for it. And I push it upon myself too. I try and live by that creed, too make myself and see others become more, the ideal warrior, something of only older stories and legends far before the Animorphs, but something I want to see restored
And the other thing, well, for a while Jara Hamee's line "free or dead" stood out to me. Not so much anymore, I've no interest in dying. But the alternative, too live a life of misery and whoa, too exist in agony and despair and the array of all other emotions both good and bad, it gives rise to that last thing. Even in the darkest hour, your dying moment, when you have no chance and nothing left to gain or lose, theres always hope. Always for something, something great, something new, or just something different, I'll take that for these books above all other things. It gave me ideas and dreams and entertain that will last a life time, but so much more is that it taught me, no matter what, hope.
yeah I know, too dam long. Sorry :-\
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Animorphs is what got me into reading!
It also helped me learn a lot of things..
I've explained the plot of animorphs to my family like hundreds of times, most of the time they forget what something is, so I launch into a huge conversation about it. My parents met some guy when we were on holiday, so I explained every little thing about animorphs to him, I was about 9-10 at the time.
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Man, it really has affected me. Not only did it bring me to books, but it was a real eye-opener..
War's are never pretty. There are no last climactic battles between the good and bad. In wars, there is very thin line in becoming the "Good guys" and the "Bad guys". Also, in wars, relationships get destroyed, people you love die....
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I really just started Animorphs recently (Like 2 years ago), but it was most likely the first book series to really make me think about things.
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yea animorphs def made me a much bigger reader and I think they were really informative about animals, got me lovin them. I'm a big outdoors person because of them. And they've prob shaped me in millions of other ways, tough to say
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Animorphs is definately what got me into reading. And one of the reasons I'd be super tired in the morning...
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I can't say that Animorphs made me read...I've always read.
But Animorphs is the first book that I've willingly dove deeper than plot and characters. If I could write an English paper on Animorphs, I would in a heartbeat.
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Animorphs and Goosebumps pretty much made up my childhood
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lol nice siggy!
I beat you in a childrens card game!
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I would say that Animorphs deeply affected me, as I'm still obsessed 12 years later. In all seriousness, Animorphs made it 'cool' to be a grade-level reader when reading wasn't fundamental. Unlike most people, I wasn't drawn to the animal aspect as much as I was drawn to the sci-fi parts of the series. It (the sci-fi aspects) took me out of my world and transported me to a different place, the writing was so vivid and real. Very few books have been able to do that since then, so major kudos to K.A. for that.
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i enjoyed the series to say the least, but no other novel or series has stuck with me so much.
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Yeah same here. I was a bit obsessed with Harry Potter but nothing like my obsession with Animorphs lol
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i was obsessed with harry potter like crazy but i dont think it left as much of a lasting expression...prob due to the ending, and cause i was younger when i read animorphs
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Animorphs ending > Harry Potter ending
Animorphs definately had a lasting impression on me that no other book series or book did. The first book series I read that dealt with darker subjects like war.
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It has gotten me a lot into reading, I have to say that. Before i ever read Animorphs, I really didn't like to read a lot, not a lot of books were interesting to me. (I need animals in the story to read it and to get it)
You could probably see, if you look through my notebooks, and if you could read my small writing, how much it made me want to fanfictions. Still yet to continue my first one, though.
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I was always a reader, but Animorphs completely changed my world.
I'm the type of person who is always trying to escape reality in one way or another (I'm like Tobias in that sense...) and Animorphs remains the only book series that allowed me to get so profoundly lost in its story that I questioned my own reality. I remember when I was little my family would often go on camping trips. We'd be driving along and I'd spend hours staring out the car window, hoping to catch a flash of an Andalite running by. Or save my dad from Marco's bad driving.
Like almost every Ani reader my brothers and I would pretend we could morph, and every time I pretended a secret part of me was hoping beyond hope it would actually work. And disappointed each time it didn't.
Even now, years later, I often look up at the sky when I'm walking my dog, hoping to see a rather unusual "plane" in the sky. There's a large open field behind where I live, the perfect place for a spacecraft to crash.
If one of these days I were to find out that the Yeerks were a real species invading our planet, I don't think I would be surprised for a second. :P
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I've played out numerous scenarios in which I suddenly discover that it's real.
But yeah, Animorphs gives me lots of thought material. I never run out of daydreams now.
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I used to read a lot of kids books before Animorphs (Goosebumps mostly, and several other 'scary' titles), but none of them really stuck with me, and they were pretty forgettable on the most part. Animorphs is what really got me hooked onto reading though. At the time, I thought it was the most revolutionary thing ever written, mainly because I had never read a story so realistic and fantastic at the same time. It was very relatable, and you could easily loose yourself and believe that you were living in their world with a secret invasion carrying on around you.
Years later, I'm still finding myself thinking about the series and talking about it one way or another. Heck, I've been known to spend days just looking for specific items or facts or images for my website alone. So yeah, Animorphs has deeply affected my life, and it still does to this day.
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ive just wondered why it was one of the only things to ever do this to me, im only super passionate about a few things
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Animorphs got me into reading, animals and writing stories of my own. It's by far the longest book series I've ever read and remains to be one of my top favourites even after all these years...
But besides all that, no I wouldn't say the series has really affected me much! ::)
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Hello all. Animorphs was my LIFE from 1997-2001, one of the best four years of my life ;D. I've read some of at least every book, and in those years, ages 7-11, I poured over every book I could get my hands on. I didn't have a lot of friends then, so I got to know all of the characters as my friends. I had a similar relationship with the first three seasons of Digimon. In the times I've read them since they ended; it's like a wonderful blast to the past. Sometimes I'm amazed how much time has passed, they feel like I gotem just yesterday. Is it healthy to be nostalgic of the 90s :D?
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Well I think I speak for a lot of people here when I say that half my life so far was lived during the 90s, which gives me every right to be nostalgic about it. That's my childhood you're talking about!
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Yeah I miss the 90s too; better in some respects than this lousy decade-except for the superhero movies, back then you only had Batman and the last two were seriously screwed up by the evil JOEL SCHUMACHER :barf:.
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I had a wonderful blast from the past the other day.
I've owned the entire series of Animorphs since it ended (every month I would get whatever book came out, so I didn't end up with any gaps or anything), but I decided that I wanted to further my studies in Spanish. Well what better way to increase my vocabulary than read a book I already know the plot to by heart? I could spend more time reading and less with a Spanish-English dictionary in hand!
So I ordered #4 The Message (or El Mensaje) off of Ebay. When I got it in the mail it was in nearly-mint condition. For the first time since Animorphs ended I had the experience of opening a "new" Ani book, smelling that new book smell and, since it was in another language, it was almost like reading it for the first time!
Yeah, I'm crazy....
Also a few hours later my dog got her teeth on it and now it is no longer in mint condition. :(
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I cried the moment Rachel died.
At least the moment I got to the part, that's how affected I got. ;)
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Yeah, I still cry when I read that part. Every time. I also still laugh out loud at a lot of scenes. Like Marco and the trash cans. Gotta love the trash cans.
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yeah, I also love the part when Marco made his paper about the "use of rhetoric to obscure lack of meaning in writing". Oh man, that was funny...
But still, you gotta love the trash cans.... ;D
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Man, it really has affected me. Not only did it bring me to books, but it was a real eye-opener..
War's are never pretty. There are no last climactic battles between the good and bad. In wars, there is very thin line in becoming the "Good guys" and the "Bad guys". Also, in wars, relationships get destroyed, people you love die....
Yeah, I think that was one of the most important lessons I got from Animorphs--I applaud KA for not taking the easy fairytale way out, but giving it a realistic ending, that shows that war is terrible, and can affect/harm someone's life long afterwards even if they physically remained unscathed...
And yes, to quote the facebook group, "The Animorphs Stole My Childhood....But I don't want it back!" :D Definitely one of my fave series of all time, I was obsessed with them, and am beginning to be again! ;) Hell, I even made up an Ani-related game with my friends! Definitely a big part of my childhood, god bless them!
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"The Animorphs Stole My Childhood....But I don't want it back!"
-quoted by sherrilina
Oh man, that is some nice quotation there. Fits perfectly for us young readers of Animorphs. It fits the Animorphs themselves as well. How their childhood was taken from them by this Yeerk-Andalite war.
OT: how do you put the "Quote from" thing?
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I read goosebumps, famous five, and some other series but the ones that got me obsessed with are Animorphs and the famous five ;D. Animorphs was awesome, I remembered waiting for the new book to come out each month ;D
I wouldn't say I'm affected, though, other than it made me a book worm of some sort ;)
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Yeah, I liked the Goosebumps too, especially those series that you would get to choose how the story goes. The Animorphs, in my opinion, is a large small bit better than the Goosebumps series, although the Alternamorphs kinda let us down. The Goosebumps version of Alternamorphs was way cool.
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I don't know about deeply affected, but doing a marathon reading (and listening to the radio show [at least what was out at the time]) of all the books in around a month definitely had an impact on me :-)
Even if it was at the age of 19...
Never really read them as a kid, though I do remember them being in the Scholastic Book Fair ads.
-- J.P.
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Right now, I'm still deeply affected. I still feel sorry for the Bird-boy. Tobias never got what he wanted...
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You know what's funny? When I first started reading Animorphs, back in my younger years of course. (I started reading them in the fourth grade. Im almost done with college now.) it never really hit me that Animorphs was a war story. I knew it was a serious tale, and the characters were constantly fearful and stressed over their involvement in the ongoing battle. But I never saw Animorphs as an actual war story. Maybe because it was targeted towards a younger demographic. I was just enjoying the action-adventure comedy aspect of it. I didn't fully grasp the magnitude of what I was reading until I went back and reread the series.
Which is probably why I hated the ending. Because i thought the ending would be much happier to suit the kids that were reading it. Boy was I wrong. I respect KA for the last book but I still dislike some parts. And I do indeed see the series for what it was. A war story.
Recently I went back and read the last couple chapters of #48 The Return, and MAN! Talk about intense! All these crazy emotions that I dont recall feeling the first time came rushing at me. I felt despair and sympathy for Rachel. It was awful seeing her that way but it totally defined her character to the core and who she really was.
I go back to a quote in a MM4.
Jake: I gave in. I can't believe I gave in.
Ellimist: You have been strong for a very long time.
Rachel: But he shouldn't have to! None of us should have to. This is enough! This has gone on too long!
And continuing to read that last section, it was then that I realized how broken not only Rachel and Jake were, but ALL of them. It was terrible. And an excellent characterization by KA. These kids were really tired and I could feel that. So realistic.
KA created the best book series of all time. Well, at least for kids.
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Do you like the ending or not? Like MAKE UP YER MIND, DUUUDE.
Sheesh.
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Isn't it clear that he likes the ending? How much realistic it is? ;D
Plus, he isn't talking just about the ending. He was also talking about how the characters and the story ended up to be. By books 40+, it was clear that the animorphs were tired, mind, soul, and body wise. They have already given up so much of their humanity for this war. That would be totally ruined if the ending was like, "All was well".
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Do you like the ending or not? Like MAKE UP YER MIND, DUUUDE.
Sheesh.
'Sheesh,' i didn't even know this thread was about whether or not you liked or hated the ending. I sure don't see that question anywhere...
But if you really want to know.
I hated it.
Happy?
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Smite Stormrider to the ends of the Earth then, young Padawan... ;D
just joking...
anyway,I think the last book was pretty good, though, although it made me feel sorry for everyone in the series.
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stormrider is done, and i think theres a thread for oponions on the ending
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Okay, this thing is showing me a warning
Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days. Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.
But I'm going to ignore it because I can't resist.
I guess I was always into reading since I was a kid, and I was only introduced to Animorphs when I found a dog-eared tattered copy of the Visitor in our school library when I was 9. I didn't understand half of it then, so I went back to Enid Blyton. But later, in the sixth grade, I rediscovered Animorphs when I saw a copy in the mall and ever since I've been obsessed with the series. But this was three years back, by which time, most of the books were already out of print ... I remember my desperation to read book 54, but being unable to find it anywhere until I found the e-books. ;D
Yeah, I just stared at the screen when Rachel died and it took me a few minutes to realize there were tears on my face.
I guess this Animorph obsession of mine is going to last forever, what got me hooked to the series was the fact that KA could express such a variety of emotions so fantastically in a sci-fic book. All those insightful quotes on war and shades of grey ... they were so simple and meaningful. The characters were also something I could relate to ... her books sorta transported me into their world. Most of the stuff she wrote was so realistic ... an accurate pen-portrait of the ugliness of war. -sighs-
Part of me even agreed with the ending [though 'the One' was a definite no-no] I don't think I would have liked a cheesy ending like Tobias and Rachel happily ever after/Cassie and Jake marrying etc. She kept the books grounded to reality till the end.
Kudos to KA!
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I'm not exactly sure why animorphs effected me so much. Maybe because I got into the series near the beginning, and because the earlier books were so well written. I don't know why I continued thinking about Animorphs every single day, years after it ended. Especially since I disliked how it ended and donated all the books away.
It was just a fantastic series that, unfortunately, fell too deep into darkness by its end.
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Okay, this thing is showing me a warning Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days. Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.
But I'm going to ignore it because I can't resist.
I guess I was always into reading since I was a kid, and I was only introduced to Animorphs when I found a dog-eared tattered copy of the Visitor in our school library when I was 9. I didn't understand half of it then, so I went back to Enid Blyton. But later, in the sixth grade, I rediscovered Animorphs when I saw a copy in the mall and ever since I've been obsessed with the series. But this was three years back, by which time, most of the books were already out of print ... I remember my desperation to read book 54, but being unable to find it anywhere until I found the e-books. ;D
Yeah, I just stared at the screen when Rachel died and it took me a few minutes to realize there were tears on my face.
I guess this Animorph obsession of mine is going to last forever, what got me hooked to the series was the fact that KA could express such a variety of emotions so fantastically in a sci-fic book. All those insightful quotes on war and shades of grey ... they were so simple and meaningful. The characters were also something I could relate to ... her books sorta transported me into their world. Most of the stuff she wrote was so realistic ... an accurate pen-portrait of the ugliness of war. -sighs-
Part of me even agreed with the ending [though 'the One' was a definite no-no] I don't think I would have liked a cheesy ending like Tobias and Rachel happily ever after/Cassie and Jake marrying etc. She kept the books grounded to reality till the end.
Kudos to KA!
try and use spoilers (for the consideration of those who haven't finished the series yet).
[spoiler]without 'ram the blade ship' and 'the one', it would have been a much better ending.
rachel dying was kind of needed, but i still cried. i remember, oh how i cried.[/spoiler]
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When I read these as a young tike, yeah I loved the animals and actual aspect that it could be a reality, but I think I was specifically drawn to the diverse characters and their interactions, which can be applied to almost any setting. Jake is an excellent leadership model. It could have been about five/six (weird human kid with stalk eyes and scorpion tail) in a library and it would have still been interesting. We can't tell you what library we are in or what we are reading. Its too risky and we have to be careful. Really careful. Because if the librarian finds us, well we just won't let him find us. The thing you should know is that the entire young adult section is in trouble. Yeah, even Remnants.
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That made me laugh.
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I don't think it ever affected me like that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the series and I love talking and obsessing over it but it doesn't really affect me
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I grew up with this series. My mother bought me Book 2 and we read it ever since. There were only 4 books out at the time so i got the anticipation of waiting for each new book as they came out. It had been years since I read the series but now about 10 years later i have reread it all. I love this series and I will read it again and again from time to time and hopefully my kids too someday. The characters are so well written that the are like old friends that you have gotten to know really well and can predict how the will react and what they will say in just about every situation.
Whenever I'm tired after a day of earning a living to pay the bills and the tax man I like to retreat back to the stories and characters that I got to know so well. So yes, I would defiantly have to say that this series has affected me.
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the animorphs series is what got me hooked on reading, but then again, i've always loved reading books...
[spoiler]but yes, when the books ended, i too cried when Rachel died[/spoiler]
i know it's kinda weird for a 17 year old guy to admit something like that, but it's true... i cried at the end of the series...
animorphs got me hooked on reading, the characters were extremely well written, the plot was damn engrossing (is that the right word?), and all in all, the entire series was beleivable (sp?)
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It affected me. Now, (this sounds wierd) I'm really alert, looking for alien invasions. If you really think about it, it could happen.