Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Alexandra on November 17, 2009, 05:26:30 AM
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One of the things that's always really bugged me about Animorphs is the fact that it never really tied up properly. Now, I don't mean I wanted everything in a neat little bow, far from it! But, damnit, don't just leave us hanging! Especially not with the open ending we were left with, anyway!
There were so many loose ends left dangling it's ridculous.
Was KAA overworked and unenthusiastic? Did the ghostwriters not know how to follow an outline? Was it merely lazy writing? Was she making it up as she went along and got lost, like Chris Carter did with The X Files?
What gives?!
So what loose end annoyed you the most and why? Which unanswered questions would you love to see resolved? And, of course, what are your theories on these unresolved issues?
Personally, all the issues mentioned above (and a few others) bug me an awful lot. But my real pet hates on that list have to be the Ellimist's (re)productive stay on the Andalite Homeworld and what its signifigance was; what the hell happened to Loren after the war; what happened to Mertil after Gafinilan's death; Madra and her fate (being named after a Yeerk moon probably didn't help); and the eventual outcome of Crayak and Ellimist's game.
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iawtp THE ABSOLUTE MOST FRUSTRATING THING ABOUT THE SERIES!!
but, fortunately for us, there are a lot of really talented fic authors who have taken it upon themselves to answer some of these questions, many of which exceed canon in a lot of ways. That's one reason I'm so obsessed with this series; it's the only thing I've ever read that inspires me to write so much. Not even just fic, even issues that never got addressed that would have been interesting to explore, a lot having to do with the morphing technology. A lot of good sci-fi that never went unearthed.
So much of the stuff I watch carries the caveat of not having enough story (Mad Men, LOST at this point...) but the great thing about Animorphs was that its curse was it carried too much
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What happened to Mertil? Well, I would think he might have gotten Marco's help. The guy could well afford to make Mertil a nice area to live in, and buy him a prosthetic tail. If he wanted privacy, Marco could hire a few people to make sure no one got close to Mertil when he wanted to be alone.
What happened to Loren? How did she feel about having her son back? How did she feel when he left her after Rachel's death? Why didn't Tobias get the chapter right after Rachel's death, instead of three years later?
Why didn't Toby leave to try to save her homeworld and the rest of her people after the war? what happened to the Hork-Bajir resistance that was started in book 34?
Why would you make up the Kelbrid and the One in order to show that conflict never ends, when the anti-alien terrorist groups performed the same purpose without ending the series in a cliffhanger? Why didn't you have Rachel survive the war and fight terrorists instead of killing her off after having the others think she wouldn't be able to handle peacetime? Not that there really is a peacetime with anti-alien terrorists running around.
What happened to Madra, and the son, and did they find out about V1? What happened to Nora, and how did she take the news about eva? Is she still a friend of the family?
What did Tom think when he found out about Jake? What did Jake and Rachel's parents think of Jake after the war?
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The unresolved plot point I'd like addressed most is the strange third omnipotent-ish entity at the end of book 41.
I mean, who the hell was that?
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I always thought it was just this guy:
[img width= height=]http://thecia.com.au/star-trek/next-generation/4/10a14.jpg[/img]
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Not sure who that was supposed to be, but some people like to give it closure by saying it was the One. I just think it was unimportant, but if it was unimportant why couldn't it just be a regular nightmare?
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too many choices! (i think we should get 2 picks each)
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The One was definitely the biggest unresolved plot point for me. Him, and the Kelbrid race. I think that book would have been so much more meaningful if its cliffhanger had been a face-off against some known enemy. Bringing in new baddies right before the end just feels . . . anticlimactic. You know? KA could have at least given us more than simply the name "Kelbrid" and a brief look at the One.
I've never bought the idea that the One had anything to do with Ellimist and Crayak's game. If he did, don't you think he would have had a stronger influence on them before this? Besides just a (possible) mention in #41 (if that was even him)?
Lol, nice pic, anijen.
WHO were the Ellimist's Andalite descendants? Was this important?
To be honest, I've never even thought about the fruits of the Ellimist's stay on the Andalite homeworld. But that is a very interesting question. I'd be willing to put some money down that Elfangor, Ax, and Seerow were all part of the Ellimist's bloodline. Which would explain why he had such an interest in Elfangor, Tobias, and Jara Hamee and his family (who is descended from Seerow, let's not forget).
Somebody needs to write a fanfic about this.
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too many choices! (i think we should get 2 picks each)
There is a "more than one choice above" option. I clicked that because quite a few up there are good. About the only thing that bothered me that wan't listed was the Toby thing.
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too many choices! (i think we should get 2 picks each)
There is a "more than one choice above" option. I clicked that because quite a few up there are good. About the only thing that bothered me that wan't listed was the Toby thing.
it's still more helpful in a poll to see the choices you'd choose.
want me to edit the poll to allow this?
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You could do that, yes.
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done, you can now change vote and vote on 4 of them.
if alex has a problem with it i shall change it back.
edit: how about, what happened to david?
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he died
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Rachel probably did kill him. He definitely wanted to die, and it's doubtful that Rachel could convince either one of them that his current existance was better than death.
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WHO were the Ellimist's Andalite descendants?
I would bet money that Ax, Elfangor, and Tobias where descendants. And Aldrea, Seerow (her son), Jara Hamee, and Toby. Arbon is a bonus descendant. But not Seerow the andalite.
How was the Time Matrix created?
Maybe the Ellimist while making some species then gave it to the pemalites to keep safe. Then when they died, the chee put it in the top of a pyramid.
How did Tobias tell Ax and the others that Elfangor was his father?
This question is part of a thread I made. It's called " I just realized how nonexistent Ax's history is".
Who the HELL was The One?! Was he the "other power" the Ellimist spoke of?
May it's Father or the dude that ran Crayak out of his Galaxy. It would be funny if the One was a girl.
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I want to know what happened to Alloran after the war. What was the reunion like with his wife and kids?
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All of these things, such as never seeing Tobias tell the others about his family, not seeing what happened to Alloran, not getting answers to half the questions raised leads me to the conclusion that as good as Animorphs was at setting things up, it was terrible at resolving them.
Maybe if more time had been put toward resolving unanswered questions and less toward how best to destroy every relationship, accomplishment (other than ending the war), and goal in the series, that wouldn't have happened.
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I would have liked to see what everyone thought of Alloran too. His wife and whatever family he had. All the soldiers who had seen his face and had been told that this guy was Visser Three. You just know he would walk into a room, and any soldier who had seen Visser Three would flinch.
KA was great at coming up with an idea, but bad at resolving it.
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I really want to know how Tobias told the others. I imagine they were all shocked!
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-What ever came of the Hork-Bajir colony? It was NEVER mentioned again, was it?
-What was Jake’s decision at the end of #41? (INTERESTING CHOICE…)
-What did Rachel do with David the rat? (“I’m one of the good guys.”)
-What ever came of the Iskoort? Why were they never mentioned again? Their existence proved so huge to the Animorphs, but nothing ever came of it.
Also, can anyone explain why Cassie said “Thanks, James,” when a red-tailed hawk flew by the train in Ax’s last book? Was that a mistake or did she recruit him to pose as a hawk to spy on Ax?
K.A MUST have been pressured to get those last few books done quickly. I hadn’t realized just how many unanswered questions there were.
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-What ever came of the Hork-Bajir colony? It was NEVER mentioned again, was it?
I can answer your first question it mentions in the last book that the Hork-Bajir were given refuge at Yellowstone Park (I know cheesy). That's also where Jake asks Cassie about the suicidal rescue mission.
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You know James has a Red Tailed Hawk morph, right? I think he swooped by to help out some way, then flew off to help elsewhere, and Cassie said thanks. Ax thought it was Tobias, and questioned to himself why Tobias came by and didn't say anything. Then Cassie mentioned James.
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Why was that red tailed hawk James instead of Tobias?
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The One was definitely the biggest unresolved plot point for me. Him, and the Kelbrid race. I think that book would have been so much more meaningful if its cliffhanger had been a face-off against some known enemy. Bringing in new baddies right before the end just feels . . . anticlimactic. You know? KA could have at least given us more than simply the name "Kelbrid" and a brief look at the One.
I've never bought the idea that the One had anything to do with Ellimist and Crayak's game. If he did, don't you think he would have had a stronger influence on them before this? Besides just a (possible) mention in #41 (if that was even him)?
Lol, nice pic, anijen.
WHO were the Ellimist's Andalite descendants? Was this important?
To be honest, I've never even thought about the fruits of the Ellimist's stay on the Andalite homeworld. But that is a very interesting question. I'd be willing to put some money down that Elfangor, Ax, and Seerow were all part of the Ellimist's bloodline. Which would explain why he had such an interest in Elfangor, Tobias, and Jara Hamee and his family (who is descended from Seerow, let's not forget).
Somebody needs to write a fanfic about this.
Well, I sorta did/am doing that... I'll find the link then put it here.
http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1596.0.html
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Why was that red tailed hawk James instead of Tobias?
I don't know. I believe it ties in with the current plot/subplot, but I don't remember the book too well.
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omg! i have got to read that story! thanx peepos!
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I too have never thought of the One as anything to do with Crayak or Ellimist. I thought maybe the One was another powerful single entity who is somehow allied with the Kelbrid.
BTW, wouldn't it be interesting if somehow, the Crayak began as a parasitic species?
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That would seem like overdoing it, I think.
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Also, how effective was the arn made Hork-bajir resistance in book 34?
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That's a big question for me. What about the resistance? Did Toby just forget about it, or did any of the Earth Horks do anything else about it? Is Earth really a suitable place for a species designed to groom thousand foot tall trees?
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I have to wonder if later on there may have been an expedition for the earth Horks to reclaim their planet, or if they just settled into permanent residence on Earth. I think most of the Horks would probably stay on Earth and their original planet would just become a fable or myth. I have to imagine Horks are not very long-lived, so once their seer was gone there really isn't much to motivate them to go home when there's plenty of bark in Yellowstone. :)
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It is likely that all andalites are descended from the ellimist: before him they didn't have thoughtspeak (this is possible population wise-major problem with the DaVinci code)
Maybe they could've made the hork-bajir smarter so that they wouldn't always rely on and need humans to protect them (teach a man to fish...)
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It is likely that all andalites are descended from the ellimist: before him they didn't have thoughtspeak (this is possible population wise-major problem with the DaVinci code)
Maybe they could've made the hork-bajir smarter so that they wouldn't always rely on and need humans to protect them (teach a man to fish...)
There's only so much you can teach a Hork-Bajir, though. Limited brain ability. I mean...I can teach my dog a ton of tricks, but she's never going to start speaking English or playing my violin. You know?
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Even your average Hork is smarter than a dog, though. They do have speech, and they know how to work the things that seers invented. I still don't care to have them stay on Earth, though.
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what if you just genetically reengineer them? a la descolada virus.
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And people wonder why I was so pissed with the ending of the series ::)
any book that invested YEARS of my life should have WAY less loos ends than this. you should not have enough to make a list out of. It was just sloppy and unfair to her fans.
ranting aside, I really wish I knew how the others found out Elfangor was Tobias' dad, what happened to Mertil? what about Lauren, and how did Arbron survive all those years without being eaten? instead of writing all those stupid cassie books like her going off to the outback, KA could have spent time writing a better outline for the end to tie up all the loose ends.
Another thing that always really bugged me was the Ellimist chronicles never really explained much. and how can you explain the ellimist, but not crayak?
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I agree Estrid. With all the loose ends, and the Ellemist Chronicles. It didn't even mention the Time Matrix, which was one of the key things we knew about the guy early in the series. Then you have Crayak, whose methods in 26 kind of make sense, but then he just becomes something less interesting who wants to destroy life just because he can? And she just handwaves how Crayak came to the same state as the Ellemist, and why the Ellemist didn't imprison him or something before he even got the chance. I understand not going into the past to destroy Crayak before the Ellemist became entangled in the timestream, but to just sit there while Crayak finds a way to duplicate what happened to the Ellemist?
There are many things wrong with the ending, big and small. I just posted in another thread where someone wondered if she became out of touch with her fans near the end, and I said no doubt about it. At all.
16 things listed in that poll, and that's not even all of them!
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good to know I amn't the only one who sees a problem with that. and I agree, she def seemed to be getting more and more out of touch as the series went on. Which is pretty ungrateful considering without her fanbase she is nothing. cuz you can publish all the books you want, but if no one buys them and/or reads them, what's the point? the least she coulda done was to keep up the dedication she had in the begining. the majority of their fans didn't lose the dedication to the series, why did she?
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Yeah I really want to know who was the one that was stronger than the Ellemist and the Crayak was. That always bothered me and I was sure we were going to meet him. On the other hand maybe K.A. was just referencing God when she said that.
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what is that quote from? Are you guys talking about the Ellimist's pontificating at the end of the Ellimist Chronicles? Or is that in some other book?
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In book 26 it's said that Crayak was banished from soemwhere else because of a being strong than him. I liked the crayak in book 26, bu KA has a habit of making some interesting characters and turning them uninteresting when we see them again later. It happened with Crayak, and Loren, and Arbron. I don't know why.
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ohhhh okay, you're right. Interesting. I always like in sci-fi when our galaxy is like ridiculously more primitive than other galaxies out there. I just chalked that up to that, I think.
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also at the end of the book where jake is in the future (cant remember the #). that book was SO random. didn't really fit in if u think about it, cuz all of a sudden he wakes up and it was just a dream, no real basis for any of the future, and then you never find out who set Jake up for that
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41. And why is it that in all the timelines Visser Three moves up? I mean, we know he had villain/badass decay, but maybe in universe KA was thinking he was as bad later in the series than he was in the first couple of books? That's a plothole right there. How messed up does the Council have to be to let this guy work his way up to Emporer?
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yeah I agree, Visser Three was a lot more compelling when he was under pressure than when he was *magically promoted*. And estrid, one of my biggest problems with the 40s in general is that EVERYTHING ended up as a fracking dream, including MM4 even though it's my favorite MM. :')
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Am I the only one who likes not knowing who the One is?
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Hey, 41 was actually one of my favorites. Why? Because (unlike sooo many plots that just provide a stupid hand-wave at the end that 'oh, by the way, it was all a dream') I think this one was intended to be viewed as a dream from the start. And it still manages to be a compelling story, even if it is just a dream. I see it as very important and revealing character development for Jake. The mere fact that his mind can compose such a bizarre and twisted horror-story shows how much he's been through, and hints that he's maybe starting to lose it.
I think the voice at the end was utterly and completely unnecessary. I think the author was trying to avoid the 'it was all a dream' cliche, so they wanted to hint that it was something more than a dream, when, IMO, it didn't actually need to be anything more than that. Who knows? Maybe Jake just dreamed the voice, too.
I do, to some extent, appreciate the sense of mystery behind the One. I just think he was introduced too late in the series for it to feel like a serious 'mystery.' It just ends up feeling like something the author ran out of time to explain.
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maybe the voice was something K.A. was thinking about using later on but didn't? kinda like how she did that with Crayak in the beginning of the series.
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I liked #41 too, mostly because of the Tobias posing as Elfangor part. Also I think 41 is one of those books that had a lot of wasted potential. Jake had this huge relevation, and it no affect on the rest of series.
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The One came totally out of left field, and was unnessecary to the plot. If she wanted to let us know that conflict never ends, then the terrorists fill that same role without giving us a bolivian army ending or introducing new big bads. No wonder many people file that under discontinuity.
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ya the discontinuity was dumb, it was an unecessary filler book that just added to the lose ends. and I agree with the whole visser 3 thing. it never made sense how BOTH visser 1 and visser 3 were always seeming as if they were both on probation with the council, yet somehow visser 1 was tried and convicted, and visser 3 was able to jump to visser 1? and what about visser 2?
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Visser two didn't seem bitter at all when he showed up in book 48. He was all for the new Visser One's plan. I guess that's another loose end. He didn't seem quite as bad as esplin. I mean, if Ax pulled Esplinn into a jet and said he was going to fire on the Yeerk Pool if he didn't surrender, Esplin would have said go ahead. Visser Two doesseem to care more than that for his people.
I don't know. It's confusing.
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Here's something that's always really bothered me. I never understood how the heck Visser Two wound up a visser at all, let alone such a low-numbered one. Every other high-ranking Yeerk in the series is an arrogant, self-centered, and heavily ambitious jerk, and it is their ambition and arrogance that seems to allow them to ascend through the ranks. In Yeerk world, you only are given what you are willing and able to take by force.
But Visser Two doesn't fit that profile at all. He's a butt-kisser, who seems to care about everyone except himself. How does such an altruistic (for a Yeerk) toady become a visser? It sure didn't work for Chapman, and Chapman has been kissing V3's butt for far longer than Visser Two has.
EDIT: And that was book 46, not 48.
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Oopsie, 46. Yeah it doesn't seem to fit, and was never explained. It would make more sense if V3 became V2, and V2 became V1. Though promoting V3 at all doesn't make a lot of sense.
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it does if V2 was a butt kisser.
Who knows, maybe V2 blackmailed his way up to Visser Two.
Or...someone else did it for him without him knowing.
Maybe there was internal Council politics involved.
Maybe it was a deal involving hosts or planets, or ships.
Maybe V2 was a former leader back in the old days when the Yeerks were still planetside, and they promoted him to V2 just out of respect and fear.
Maybe the former V1 (before marco's mom) was a mentor to V2 and pulled him up along the ranks.
Maybe V2 helped with the creation of the current Council of Thirteen and so was promoted.
Maybe he accidentally invented new technology that only he knew how to work.
Maybe V2 was a former Council of Thirteen member that was actually demoted to V2 for being too nice.
I don't know, but I could come up with a couple more.
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this is really farfetched but I think maybe *41 was foreshadowing for the end of the book where Jake's decision between the world and Cassie kinda showed which one was more important to him in the end. They didn't end up together, he fit all the pieces together alone, without anyone's advice and made no attempt to reconcile with her after the war.
Post Merged: June 14, 2011, 10:33:00 PM
and also i think the voice at the end of 41 was THE ONE. maybe he had been watching jake and the rest and in the end, and eventually used this elaborate ruse to bring them about, whatever it was that happened.
and i dont think V2 was being too nice. most of the yeerks, their force, the central pool were based in the town. it seems disturbingly unlikely that an alien invasion would be centred on one town but im pretty sure thats how it is (i cld be wrong). destroying that one town would probably do more damage to the yeerks than to the humans
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it does if V2 was a butt kisser.
Who knows, maybe V2 blackmailed his way up to Visser Two.
Or...someone else did it for him without him knowing.
Maybe there was internal Council politics involved.
Maybe it was a deal involving hosts or planets, or ships.
Maybe V2 was a former leader back in the old days when the Yeerks were still planetside, and they promoted him to V2 just out of respect and fear.
Maybe the former V1 (before marco's mom) was a mentor to V2 and pulled him up along the ranks.
Maybe V2 helped with the creation of the current Council of Thirteen and so was promoted.
Maybe he accidentally invented new technology that only he knew how to work.
Maybe V2 was a former Council of Thirteen member that was actually demoted to V2 for being too nice.
I don't know, but I could come up with a couple more.
My idea is that Visser Two has no real authority or responsibility, and he was promoted to the rank in a very hamfisted attempt by the Council of Thirteen to promote patriotism and devotion as Yeerk virtues.
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Oh, I hate unresolved ends in the book series...I'm too accurate in these cases, I want to know everything, even what happened to Joseph-Dont-know-what (or something like this) ;D
Ok, seriously, there are many unresolved questions. I voted for Jake's parents and Rachel's dad : what about them? They are dead, free.or?...and how did they react to the death of Tom and Rachel? And Dan? Has he ever tried to contact his family after they became fugitives? Has he ever known something about this? And after the war? What happened to Berensons brothers, as they both lost a child?
And there are other things like the fate of David. And Chapman and his family? Tidwell and the Yeerk peace movement? Some Andalites like Estrid and Gonrod and Prince Galuit? The Hork-Bajir planet? Visser Two? Loren? Nora Robbinette? The Chee? It's a very long list 8)
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Here's something that's always really bothered me. I never understood how the heck Visser Two wound up a visser at all, let alone such a low-numbered one. Every other high-ranking Yeerk in the series is an arrogant, self-centered, and heavily ambitious jerk, and it is their ambition and arrogance that seems to allow them to ascend through the ranks. In Yeerk world, you only are given what you are willing and able to take by force.
But Visser Two doesn't fit that profile at all. He's a butt-kisser, who seems to care about everyone except himself. How does such an altruistic (for a Yeerk) toady become a visser? It sure didn't work for Chapman, and Chapman has been kissing V3's butt for far longer than Visser Two has.
EDIT: And that was book 46, not 48.
we dont see very many high ranking yeerks though. visser 3 is on several occasions mentioned as being an anomaly. most of the council of 13 seem to be of the firm but fair types. visser 2 may well have gotten through the ranks by saving a large number of yeerks from certain death somehow.
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I so wish they put how tobias and ax and the other animorphs told Loren about Elfangor. That would have been so funny :P
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In an emotionally scarring way, sure.
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Not enough
choices! (I think we should get
6 picks each.)
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i know, that's like not enough choices,i want to know what happened to just about all of them
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I know what 'The One' was.
It was Neo. :P (couldn't resist the joke) :XD:
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To hell with the one, I want to know about the Five.
And that thing at the end of book 41
And the Skrit Na.
God I wanna know what the deal with the Skrit Na is
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Ummmm theyre ugly??? :P
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also want to know the deal about the traitor in 18
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Ummmm I don't remember that so no sarcastic joke to make.........dang.
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Ax killed him.
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??? The guy in 18? Captain S-something?
Ax didn't kill him, the TO killed him before blowing up the ship
But what I meant is why he was a traitor, and the depths of his treason.
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There are just way too many loose ends to talk about all of them.Maybe there will be another animorphs TV series or movie,maybe a spin off book or a sequel series that will awnser some of these questions.Let's just face it,except for the animal's training,the animorph's TV series sucked. :logo:
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One book there's tons of loose ends in is book 1, Tobias can mind read when he's in morph?
etc
etc
It's hot today...
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wasn't that a KASU though? I think they changed it in the new version
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Actually K.A. admitted that was a very big mistake she had made. In the subsequent books it was fixed so that <thought-speak> could only work while they were in a morph.
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What happened to the Chee after the war? Are they still active in human society?
Book 10: Erek shows the Animorphs that he can keep a Yeerk alive AWAY from the Pool. He does so by generating Kandrona rays and feeding them to the Yeerk in his head. In later books, Why didn't anyone ever suggest utilizing the Chee to keep alive dissident Yeerks such as Aftran (Book 29)?
What forms did the nothlit Yeerks take? Did any Yeerks become human nothlits?
Will the Yeerks ever meet the Iskoot?
What postwar uses were found for morphing besides anti-terrorist operations?