Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: KitsuneMarie on December 05, 2009, 10:46:24 PM
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Applegate's letter to her readers following the final chapter of "The Beginning" issues thanks to those who supported the project, including the readers, and a farewell to the characters: "Time to say good-bye, Jake. Good-bye, Cassie. You, too, Tobias and Marco and Ax. Good-bye, Rachel." (The finality of Rachel's good-bye always gave me mild hope for the survival of the remaining Animorphs--perhaps their story, in their own world, is not yet complete.)
But the part of the letter that has stuck with me over all this time was its conclusion: "You may now demorph."
Were these words as emotionally charged for Applegate as they were for me? Was she acknowledging the depth to which some of her readers had immersed themselves in her world? Did she recognize that her books had transformed many of us and taught us so much: about how questionable morality can become during war, about mistrust and fear, about camaraderie and love, about the preciousness of nature? Did she really think we could put all of that behind us?
Maybe this isn't what she was saying at all. Maybe this is just the over-analytical English major in me. Was anyone else powerfully effected by these words? What do they mean to you?
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I guess you can consider me, and possibly all of RAF nothlits. We didn't let it go at all, and will be forever transformed by her series.
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I like how you worded that Chad. +1 when I get home to a computer.
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Thanks. The statement about now demorphing just struck me that way. The series had a transforming effect on us, and now that it's over she says we may now demorph and continue our lives. But many of us decided to become nothlits and never forget.
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1. I love this thread; beautifully done.
2. Yeah... I'm inclined to think of myself as trapped permanently in narrator-morph. I grew up seeing the world through eyes that had been educated by those six perspectives, and those perspectives became so completely and irreversibly a part of me that I can no longer guess what my worldview would be without them.
Instead of being a human mind trapped in an animal body, I'm a reader's mind trapped in a narrator's perspective.
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I agree: beautifully said, Chad. It seems to me, though, that anyone who actually finished the series and read the note had to be pretty invested in the series at that point. The rough patches in the middle and the sheer number of years since publication of "The Invasion" had lost the majority of her readers by 2001. I guess that's why this sentence has always irritated me; I find it hard to believe that any member of the letter's intended audience could return to who they were and how they perceived the world before reading Animorphs.
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Very nicely worded, Chad. Haha, I guess I'm a nothlit in more ways than one . . .
I guess I never really thought of it that way before, although that phrase still did really resonate with me, too. For me, it was for a different reason, though. It seems to imply that every reader is somehow a hidden Animorph. Or maybe I just saw it that way because I so desperately wanted to believe it. But it seems to say, "Okay, you guys don't have to hide anymore. You know the Yeerks are defeated, and earth is safe again. You may now demorph." It's like that phrase made it all real.
So, I guess, to me, 'demorph' sort of implied the opposite of what everyone else seems to have thought. Instead of letting go of Animorphs, I saw it as finding the meaning of Animorphs in your own life.
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I agree: beautifully said, Chad. It seems to me, though, that anyone who actually finished the series and read the note had to be pretty invested in the series at that point. The rough patches in the middle and the sheer number of years since publication of "The Invasion" had lost the majority of her readers by 2001. I guess that's why this sentence has always irritated me; I find it hard to believe that any member of the letter's intended audience could return to who they were and how they perceived the world before reading Animorphs.
I get what you mean.
I don't know, that phrase always did have a strong effect on me, but I always thought it was because it was the last words of an Animorphs book that I would ever read (that I hadn't read before, anyway). That and [spoiler]Rachel's death[/spoiler] always had lasting effects on me. Even now thinking about it brings back old feelings...
But now you've drummed up some new thoughts. For some reason, I've never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense. It'd be great if that wasn't just a throwaway sentence...
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It's one of my favorite lines in the series actually. Everytime I read it I can't help but think "not yet."
If she meant it to be all that it was I don't know, but no doubt a powerful sentiment
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^^
I think I'm not a nothlit... or a nothlit who still can morph, because I often morph and demorph... even if I don't have a lot of morphs.
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I guess you can consider me, and possibly all of RAF nothlits. We didn't let it go at all, and will be forever transformed by her series.
Well said Chad, I think that's very profound. +1
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Okay, okay, I'll admit it: The whole last book had me bawling my eyes out on and off for three days straight, and I still get snuffly when I re-read the last message. :'( :-[
So there, you got it outta' me. Happy now?
;)
Seriously, though, when you can pretty much sum up your childhood in the meanings conveyed by a book series like this one... of course, then ending is going to be important to you.
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I'm glad so many people like my reply. I feel all clever and wise.
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i felt the same way.
you worded it perfectly, guys.
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The finality of it was big, too. I think those words held the most weight in possible the entire series.
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That was, awesome, Chad. That pretty much makes all of us nothlits. That phrase didn't really strike me very much 'cause I read the books in the crappiest, most screwed-up order you can think of. I didn't read #54 last. But, yeah, I see where you're coming from.
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I never really thought too much into it. It was just "the series is over. Here's a related line to end with" to me.
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I actually did get that same sort of feeling when I read those words, like the series was over, and it was time to go on with our lives. I didn't cry over the ending or get upset about it, but still, finishing a story that was episodic in nature and spread across a huge chunk of my childhood and adolescence did make me feel like...wow, this is the end of an era.
I guess I didn't want the era to end, obviously XD But like many other things that I've read or watched and enjoyed over the years, I've taken the series and its lessons with me and still think about it as a huge influence on my life, and even my personality. It's sort of funny how big an impact pop culture can have on a person's life.
I think I felt just as powerfully about the part in that farewell letter where she was saying goodbye to the characters, and that she enjoyed writing about them. It was sort of like we were all saying goodbye to them at the same time, at least in terms of their continuing story.
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I think I felt just as powerfully about the part in that farewell letter where she was saying goodbye to the characters, and that she enjoyed writing about them. It was sort of like we were all saying goodbye to them at the same time, at least in terms of their continuing story.
That was the part that got me about the farewell letter. For me, the last line paled in importance comparatively.
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I never really thought too much into it. It was just "the series is over. Here's a related line to end with" to me.
yeah, I always thought it was like George Lucas saying "the force will be with you" at a convention or something. But Animorphs didn't really have a stock phrase like that so idk it didn't really work for me
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i honestly don't remember that phrase at all. by the time i got to the last page of the story I was so upset, that I could hardly sum up the calmness needed to read her letter all the way to the end. the only thing that sticks to me still is her telling me to go read her other books, after just royaly pissing me off.
but like many of you i do agree that animorphs was a series that was a huge part of my childhood. i was reading them from the beginning, and every month i would go buy the book cuz i couldn't wait for the library to get them. this is definetly a series that had a big impact.
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i honestly don't remember that phrase at all.
it was the last words in the book.
most emotionally stirring to me.
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I never really thought too much into it. It was just "the series is over. Here's a related line to end with" to me.
yeah, I always thought it was like George Lucas saying "the force will be with you" at a convention or something. But Animorphs didn't really have a stock phrase like that so idk it didn't really work for me
What about <Hope...>? ;)
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yes i know they were the last words in the book goom, but like i said, i was too pissed off to pay attention
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I think you bring up another good point, Estrid. Was it really an appropriate time for her to be advertising Remnants in this way? Especially when Scholastic included a teaser for the first book immediately following the letter?
Maybe there just wasn't sufficient communication between Applegate and Scholastic. And maybe she intended for the letter to be a kind of comfort to readers or a challenge to us to use what we had learned in our lives, as Dino posited. But it seems a fair number of us did not interpret her words in that way.
It makes me wonder if Applegate really was out of touch with her readers--at least those of us who were loyal enough to read to the end.
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I have no doubt that she got out of touch with her readers towards the end. She made Everworld because she wanted to try to keep the part of the fanbase that might be leaving Animorphs, and left those still loyal to the series to read books made by ghostwriters. Then we get the very last books written by her that most fans think is full of crap.
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I personally don't have a problem with the way the series ended because it feels realistic. [spoiler]It isn't a happy ending by any stretch of the imagination, but the Animorphs were ultimately successful in stopping the Yeerk invasion, their sacrifices were not in vain, and they receive acknowledgment from all sides for what they did. The surviving Animorphs are finally given a chance to live without killing and making terrible decisions. And if their lives seem hollow after the war, what more could we reasonably expect? They're suffering from PTSD; who wouldn't, in their shoes?
I know the final conflict involving Ax is probably troubling for a lot of readers, too, but it provides a tenuous reason for the Animorphs guys to regroup (which is the best we could expect after all the understandable resentment between Tobias and Jake), and it confirms that their love for their friends is stronger than their anger towards each other.
As for all the loose ends the series leaves, it is sloppy, but I think it's somewhat inevitable in a world this complex, unless the author issues some kind of statement or encyclopedia afterwards. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, but one of its messages is that life doesn't tie up in nice packages and that there is no such thing as a happily ever after. Life is full of ambiguity, so why should Animorphs be any different? And, as anijen21 pointed out in the loose ends thread, it leaves plenty of fodder for fanfic writers![/spoiler]
My issue, instead, is with Applegate's tone in the letter. A finale so turbulent deserves to be followed by a serious, on-topic note that acknowledges how emotionally weighty and life-changing the last books of the series became. I imagine this was the first time many of us had been exposed to the psychologically damaging nature of being a soldier, especially in regards to children. Doesn't that warrant more than an impossible dismissal and an invitation to join a new adventure?
... Or maybe I'm just unreasonably bitter.
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I have no doubt that she got out of touch with her readers towards the end. She made Everworld because she wanted to try to keep the part of the fanbase that might be leaving Animorphs, and left those still loyal to the series to read books made by ghostwriters. Then we get the very last books written by her that most fans think is full of crap.
i agree. she shouldn't have ever left the work to the ghostwriters.
i didn't feel she deserved to be writing animorphs after that. she didn't care enough about the series.
definitely angered by her mention of remnants in the ending.
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definitely angered by her mention of remnants in the ending.
Oh yeah, same here. I boycotted Remnants for a long time after that. I blamed Remnants for KA losing interest in Animorphs, and I told myself I was going to have nothing to do with it after that. I think it was actually my brother who bought the first Remnants book, and got into the series, long before I did.
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What about <Hope...>? ;)
lol
actually it worked when Elfangor said it, but every time Cassie did I wanted to punch her in the ovaries
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I just wanted to say that I completely agree with your take on the ending, kitsune. And anijen, poor Cassie. Ouch. XD
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haha anijen u are awesome, +1. i wanted to do much worse than that to cassie by the end.
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For me that line was all about finality-the story is finished, the voyage is complete, the journey is done. It was like at the end of the Lord of Rings when Sam, after the great adventure he had and all the sacrifices he made, was right back at home-completing the circle.
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Maybe our collective problem as Animorphs fans is that in our hearts, the series never really ended. They're still there, in their broken future, fighting whatever has come. I personally wish it had ended with some justice. I don't think KA Appelgate ever understood how much it meant to all of us. That it told us things that until that point we had not known with such clarity. Something about experiencing the reality of a guerilla war through the lives of children makes the concept real. Not as if it happened to us, but that it happened to old friends of ours from middle school or something. And we're just reading their long secret diaries now.
KA Appelgate assumed, I suppose, that her series couldn't possibly make that impact on people. By that line it's clear she knew it was important, but perhaps not so much. I still remember the incredible poignancy and bitterness of Visser and the thrill ride of many of the Chronicles. : )
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ok I didn't read all 4 pages. I barely read the first page. I never thought about it, but I guess I'm a nothlit too, but instead of stuck in a narrator's body or whatever, I'm stuck mid-morph. Part of the morph is still there, but another part has gone back to being human.
and for the record, those 4 words didn't have much impact. I didn't really think about them much outside of, "it's a common concept in the series"
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It's one of my favorite lines in the series actually. Everytime I read it I can't help but think "not yet."
If she meant it to be all that it was I don't know, but no doubt a powerful sentiment
same here! not yet! I always thought as a kid animorphs would never end. I always wondered what animorphs #200 would be like.
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Okay, I wanted to address something KitsuneMarie said but it was said under a spoiler tag so I'm just going to have to bury my whole comment:
[spoiler]"I know the final conflict involving Ax is probably troubling for a lot of readers, too, but it provides a tenuous reason for the Animorphs guys to regroup (which is the best we could expect after all the understandable resentment between Tobias and Jake), and it confirms that their love for their friends is stronger than their anger towards each other."
The thing is, I really like that, EXCEPT that Cassie didn't go. I would have been a LOT more okay with the whole entire book if only that one thing had been changed. If the whole group was able to put aside their anger because "their love for their friends is stronger," then the whole group should have gone, for Ax's sake. I mean, I think I had a lot of issues with that book, but that was something that I thought was maybe one of my bigger issues...[/spoiler]
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That single sentence was a half-brick to the soul.
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to summarize my own reaction:
when i first saw the title of this thread, i couldn't even remember where i'd seen those words, but they invoked a bittersweet emotion in me.
SO. obviously, now I remember, but i will say that i maybe/possibly cried a little when i read those words the first time. or even plausibly the second or third time. O___o it was, imho, a very cool way to end the series.
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[spoiler]Rachel's death[/spoiler] made me tear up. That line made me cry. I understand what someone meant by "not yet!" That's how I felt. I don't want to demorph. I want to be fighting the Yeerks with the Animorphs forever.
It was also the end to a big chapter of my life. It's very hard to say goodbye to a series that taught me what it meant to be human. Animorphs really defined me as a person and defined large periods of my childhood. The series ending was a hallmark that a part of my life was now over.
"You may now demorph" affects me so profoundly because I partially live in the fantasy worlds I read about. They're more bitter, truthful and poignant than reality and they mean so much to me. Having been the child (and now the child masquerading as an adult) that was constantly told to get her head out of the clouds, the line was the person(s) that created the fantasy world I lived in gently telling me it was time to leave. Like...Aslan removing me from Narnia. And in that way, it was so bittersweet because I wanted desperately to stay, but it really was time to move on.
It makes my continuing obsession with this series kind of sad, actually...like me clinging to something I can never recapture.
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Like...Aslan removing me from Narnia. And in that way, it was so bittersweet because I wanted desperately to stay, but it really was time to move on.
D: i really like that parallel.
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To us it felt like we were all in a conspiracy together, us and the readers. Co-conspirators. Us against them, whoever "them" was. It felt like we were at the end of something transforming, something kind of intense, like a sports team at the end of the season or an army at the end of a war. Or like we were all being crazy together. Anyway the feeling was, "You guys have stayed with us from book #1 through book #54 and you have been incredibly loyal, we are incredibly grateful, but we understand you're going to see other writers now."
In case any of you didn't see it, the above quote was KA's reponse to the query about what "You may now demorph" was actually supposed to mean.
[spoiler]Cassie not going with the others on the final mission doesn't feel right to a lot of people (myself included at times) but I think it was done to keep the legacy alive. The whole series was about there always being hope, and with at least one of the Animorphs still safe it kept the hope alive. It also may have been a final way of proving how much Jake cared for Cassie, even though he didn't show it the rest of the book.[/spoiler]
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I beleive that when she said this she was saying something deeper than she ment to say...Andalites may be real, may not. Hork-Bajir may be real, maybe not. Yeerks may be real, though I wish not.
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Interesting :D Have you read Terenia's fan fiction sort of about this? It's very short: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4181732/1/Walk_the_Line
(http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4181732/1/Walk_the_Line)
In response to Applegate's answer (which I am so thrilled and grateful she provided), a series like Animorphs leaves an indelible mark on many readers. Even though we will and have been reading other books by different authors, I don't think it's entirely possible for those of us who were loyal and engaged enough to read all the way to the end to ever "demorph" from the series.
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No, I haven't read that, so I will. ;)
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For me when I first read about Jara Dying was when I cried, hard to say why so much, possibly because it made it sink in how Rachel had died, and it was like everything I had always thought about the ending was true, No one was going to be happy at the end.
And yes when I read the lines you may now demorph, I did what I do with everything that truly means something to me, I started from the beginning.
I just re-read the whole series and when I got to 44 what I think is the lowest point (I still always thought it was good) I was still wishing that I had more than 12 books left. And even though I’m 23 I tiered up when Jara died again. And the classic last words "Ram the blade ship" and when I read You may now demorph it was like I was 14 again. There was something so final about it. Anyway that’s what I reckon.
And I think at the point where Rachel is about to die or just did and you find about jara you should be listening to the song "Reckoner" By Radiohead, Its off "In Rainbows" for those that don't know. :)
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"you may now Demorph" got me kind of emotional when I originally read it, bu now I would argue that Elfangor ending with <Hope.> or Rachael ending with "I wonder if-" are both much more gripping than "you may now demorph."
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Okay, so I would never admit this to anyone in real life, but when I read those four little words I cried. I cried almost as hard as when rachel died.
I think that it is strange to have such a clear moment of growing up. Even thinking about it now gives me the same hollow feeling in my stomach that I had through most of the book. I remember so clearly reading it on a rainy sunday afternoon.
Animorphs affected me emotionally more than anything else I ever read. More than anything else, I wanted it to be real. I wanted to be able to morph and fly out of my bedroom window into the night. You may now demorph for me was almost a way of KA saying "I understand, and it kinda is real."
I don't even know. What little phrase would you have ended it with?
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Hmm I read this phrase a year ago, in English, a foreign language. I was not raised with English, it was just a compulsory language taught from elementary school. I didn't fully understand cultural references in the book, I didn't get some of the points and such, so that phrase was alien, like, I can never fully comprehend what it means no matter how hard I'm trying to analyze.
Didn't kill my connection with the book, though. And I cannot replace it with anything else, same as I cannot replace 'all was well.'
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I have to agree with what Chad said earlier. They were really charged for me. And I think we're all nothlits to the series... Why we have to hang on, keep hope, and make fanfic or other Animorphs art. And find others to do it with.