Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: babette on June 26, 2008, 03:04:11 PM
-
I think none of us like the ending, This is topic that allows you to think of your own ending, but please no cursing
I always think about what happended to jake and cassie the two love birds, K.A Appplegate never told us what
what happened to them so you can write about what you think shoul have happened.
-
I think a more appropriate ending could have been made with some minor tweaking.
First, I think something else should have gotten Visser Three to the bridge besides dumping the Yeerks. Maybe a public thought speak announcement the V3 and others from Jake that they're taking the bridge.
Also forget Eric draining power from the Pool Ship. The crew takes control of the guns and blasts the wing of the blade Ship, providing a distraction for Rachel to morph Hork-Bajir and take Tom to the nearest escape pod. She would be posing as one of his, so he'd go willingly. They land, and she knocks him out.
The Blade Ship is down, and Earth wins.
Jake and Cassie marry, or at least go steady while helping the Free Hork-Bajir out. The Yeerk Peace Movement ships the Yeerks off the planet and to somewhere else.
Tobias goes Human nothlit and stays with Rachel, while she joins the military. Sounds like something she'd do.
Marco and Ax are pretty much the same, except no chasing the Blade Ship around for Ax, or getting assimilated by The One.
The Yeerks are crippled by the loss of Earth and the Anati homeworlds, and the Andalites start making a comeback. Allaron goes back to the Andalite military and provides info to his people about the Yeerks.
The Chee go into hiding and resume their secretive lives.
P.S. Applegate did explain what happened to Jake and Cassie, so I'm not sure what you mean.
They split up.
-
the only thing I want to change is at the end, cassie goes with them. other than that, no problem with the ending.
-
I really really really really wish they stayed together. They even talked about getting married :(
-
I really really really really wish they stayed together. They even talked about getting married :(
Yea me too, how sad that they didn't.
-
Not liking the ending is different from the bad ending. I also felt sorry for the Animorphs the way they turned out... but thinking realistically, I don't think there was another way of things ending up. If Jake never felt sorry for all the things he had ruthlessly done in the war.... The book would feel so stupid I would throw it. K.A made it beautifully... and to contradict your first statement....
I liked the ending. Plus that ending in the first post sounds too much like Cinderella... if you know what i mean...
-
I wish that Cassie had gone with them and the absolute ending should've been more concrete than it was.
-
Yes... but I don't think the real "Jake" would have let Cassie go with him and risk her life again, after mistreating her in the war.
-
I dont understand why so many people wanted a happy ending, it was a war! At the end of saving private Ryan you don't see all the brave men happy alive with there family's living a normal life. There is only one lucky man who is still mentally and emotionally wounded by horrors of what had to be done and who had to be lost. What happened had to happen. JAA never made the problems to easy before why should she start doing that at the end? Sure she might have made the ending to ambiguous but not to easy. I wanted to know life played out for them I didn't want to be left with a cliff hanger but I think it was done well.
Oh yeah and Rachel had to die the whole point of the progress of her character was that she was turning into a psychopath she wouldn't have been able to leave the war she was starting to need the murder she was turning into a tool of the chaos and destruction. Dying the way she did allowed her to die a hero despite her mental instability. Do you think at the end of the war she would just magically turn back into a normal girl? No she would have stayed a mentally damaged human being craving violence and filling the void of the war with other unhealthy alternatives.
-
Jake and Cassie finally getting it together properly would be so sweet, but personally I think Jake was too scarred by the war, even if Rachel hadn't died. They crushed on each other before it all started, sure, but their feelings were kept constant and driven by the intensity of horrors they faced. Could that survive forever and after in peacetime? I'unno.
-
No Rachel didn't have to die. I think the ending of 48, and one of her last thoughts being about shopping showed she was not just a psychopath. Besides, if she really wanted action she could have found plenty of it. It's not like winning the war put an end to all conflict on the planet. She would have found something. She could have lived a normal life, and killing her off at the end was really bad in my opinion. Yes I wanted a happier ending.
Most of the characters got what they had originally wanted in the end. All except Jake. Marco got to save his mother, Rachel got to save Humanity, Cassie got to save the world, Tobias got to do something important with his life, and Ax stepped out of his brother's shadow. So not only did Jake not get what he wanted, even when he was starting to move on with his life KA decided to send him off to possibly die in outer space.
A lot of people who defend the ending throw up a strawman, thinking the ending has to be either one extreme or another. It doesn't. We just expected it to end like just about every other book. The Anis went through hardships and sometimes loss, but at the end of the day they were usually well enough off afterwards. It didn't have to be a magically happy ending where all was well, but it could have been a better ending where they all grew and took something good from it. Yes war is hard, but they had decades worth of life to cope with the stress, go to a bit of therapy, and still be fine.
I will never agree that Rachel needed to die. If the authors really wanted me to believe Rachel was lost, they should have had her accept Crayak's offer. But she didn't, and she needed no outside encouragement or pleading to do it. She came to that conclusion by herself, and it gave me assurance that she would be fine. Yes she was the darkest member, but she wasn't a total blood knight.
Lastly, the only time I don't expect to see a happy ending, or want one, is a horror story, or a nonfiction story where things just didn't go right. Not everyone who goes through war comes out horribly scarred and unable to contribute to society anymore.
By the way, welcome to the forums.
-
I don't think Rachel had to die because she was a psychopath, but I do think someone had to die. War is not without consequence, we were kidding ourselves thinking they'd all make it out alive. So going on the premise that K.A had to kill one of 'em. Rachel was the bridge in some senses; Cassie's best friend, Tobias' love. Made sense for her to die rather than somebody else. I love Marco but let's be honest, if he died I doubt Tobias, Cassie or even Rachel would be massively, personally distraught.
-
No, no one had to die. It's been established the The Ellemist makes sure there's always a way out. Most wars in real life don't have a super cosmic being that makes sure a group of people survive three years of war. When you have no main character die throughout the entire series, you shouldn't break it just because it's the last book and as the author you don't have to pay consequences from doing it. Excluding fan backlash, that is.
Now if main characters had died here and there along the way, it would be fine. It would be realistic. Having them all survive for three years, then having just one die in the last battle doesn't make it realistic. It just makes me feel like The Ellemist dropped the ball. No main character had to die because none had died up until then.
But yes, I agree that Rachel dying would have more of an impact than some other characters like Marco or Ax.
-
Maybe The Ellimist did drop the ball. Maybe Crayak, sensing he was about to massively lose the game, kept a few tabs on the Ellimist to make sure he couldn't save her. Maybe there was a sneaky deal. *shakes fist at the sky* Second Ellimist book, please, I want conspiracy! :)
I wonder how the outcome of the war would have changed if one of them had died. Would it have been bloodier, with the hardened Animorphs out for revenger, or would they have been more careful, less bold with their attacks? Hmm.
-
Thanks for the welcome.
I don't think Rachels death made the books realistic. There where aliens morphing technology and a intergalactic take over of earth. The few deaths where the least of the books problems when it came to realism. But I have absolutely no problem with that at all. I feel like it made the books have a much greater impact on me. If Rachel lived even if she did come out fine in the end and recover emotionally which I guess is possible, I feel like the sacrifice of her life made the victory mean so so much more. It created a lot of complication in the group dynamic towards the end, which made the book much more interesting. Of course this is a matter of personal taste, but I am glad that the loss of life that goes on in war was demonstrated.
-
I would make a couple of changes to the ending.
I'm not going to get into the "whether or not Rachel should have died" debate, but personally, I have more of a problem with the way she died rather than the fact that she did die. KA chose to kill her off, and that's fine. And her death scene is one of the best written scenes in the whole series. However. Rachel's heroic death is completely cheapened by what Erek did, and if you're going to kill a main character off at the last minute, do NOT have it happen for nothing. Rachel's mission was to a) create a diversion so the Blade Ship could be taken out, and b) save Tom if possible. None of that happened, and I think it was an unecessary defeat. We get that war is hell, but everything doesn't have to turn out so dismally for everyone who fought. I wouldn't make it so Rachel lived, but I'd make it so she was at least able to carry out her final mission successfully. Tom's Yeerks kill her, but the Blade Ship gets taken out.
Secondly, I would get rid of The One completely. Could have been a cool character, if introduced before the last ten pages of the last book. The way it got introduced, though, is crap. You don't start a new storyline in the last third of the series' final book and then just leave everybody hanging. So, instead of Ax getting assimilated or whatever, I'd have some other threat pop up. Maybe a pocket of rogue Yeerks that escaped Earth somehow and are trying to enslave a new planet. Ax comes to Earth and enlists Jake and the others, besides Cassie, to help fight it. They name their ship The Rachel and take off into the sunset. Anis still go out fighting, humanity was saved, and there's at least a bittersweet feeling, instead of a depressing, unfinished one.
I would not have Cassie go with the Anis, because Jake made a good point. She DID move on from the war. She was a peacemaker, not a warrior. And I'd still have them split up. As others have said, I think Jake was scarred by the war, and he and Cassie grew apart, especially from #50 on. After Earth was saved, they wouldn't have the war in common anymore, and I don't think their relationship would've survived.
-
I would make a couple of changes to the ending.
Secondly, I would get rid of The One completely. Could have been a cool character, if introduced before the last ten pages of the last book. The way it got introduced, though, is crap. You don't start a new storyline in the last third of the series' final book and then just leave everybody hanging. So, instead of Ax getting assimilated or whatever, I'd have some other threat pop up. Maybe a pocket of rogue Yeerks that escaped Earth somehow and are trying to enslave a new planet. Ax comes to Earth and enlists Jake and the others, besides Cassie, to help fight it. They name their ship The Rachel and take off into the sunset. Anis still go out fighting, humanity was saved, and there's at least a bittersweet feeling, instead of a depressing, unfinished one.
This. This is a good idea.
-
I wouldn't have minded if they cut off before introducing a new villain, though I believe the terrorists would have done just fine without them going off planet or something. She introduced a new villain group, but didn't stick with it for some reason.
-
To be honest...to suggest that war veterans or trauma survivors are going to be "fine with a little therapy" is kind of offensive to me somehow. It cheapens everything they did and made it through. Sure, you can become a more whole person through the efforts of sheer willpower and counseling. Some very strong people can even come out of it better than they once were, starting philanthropist organizations and whatnot.
But it always has an impact. There's this lingering fear even in the best of us, this part of the mind that now has to be prepared should it happen again. That cannot trust as easily, that carries old wounds that still hurt. I have never experienced anything close to the trauma the Animorphs went through, but I know this fear. Unless of course you repress it. You're better, but you're never really the same person again.
True, maybe there was a way to avoid Rachel's death. It was a slightly needless way for K.A. to show what war does to you. Maybe Jake didn't need to become a wreck and lose Cassie. But if it wasn't that, it would have been something else.
If the Animorphs had ended smiling saying, "Well until then, we fight."....like kids...I think I would've puked from the ignorant stupidity of it all. XD They lived through a war. There's gonna be some bittersweetness to it. Aldrea probably has my favorite interpretation so far. Speaks more to the power of their spirit.
-
I wouldn't expect them to ever be the same again, but I would expect them to all be able to move on. Although Tobias was the only one who never really moved on with his life. Jake went through some bad times, but he was starting to get through it when he got a job. I mean, Jake had it worst as the leader, and if he could get through I don't see why Rachel wouldn't.
Maybe "bit" wasn't the proper word, but I have a friend who went through three years of war too. He's not going to be an emotional wreck for the rest of his days. Sure he has nightmares, but we all have nightmares.
-
All of them? Really? Let's assume for a second that Rachel did make it out of this war and survived to Animorphs present day. But more important than that...let's play the odds.
There are five Animorphs, all of which have vastly different perceptions even at the onset of life and reality in general. I suppose Tobias counts, but he was warped already. Even assuming all of the Animorphs were "perfectly normal", at least one would get PTSD but be okay in the end and another would never recover. People are rather complicated, and not all of the Animorphs were strong people in any case.
I suppose most of them would move on with their lives, though still haunted by a lingering sense of mistrust. You're right on that. ((I still maintain that it would be very, very hard to get rid of this completely. It's like that mental flea that bites your ass saying you're worthless and nobody loves you, except weirder and worse. Though each person has a different response, some much more coherent than others. )) But all of them? Unlikely. Though Rachel shouldn'tve died. :3