Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: CounterInstinct on July 04, 2008, 08:10:31 PM
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Okay, I think is a very important piece of writing (of course), that needs to be read by everyone. I dunno, I just felt like posting it here. And if possible, Please sticky this.... for future references... :)
this is from hirac delest, the animorphs archive:
Hi, everyone. I remember when the last Animorphs book first came out how there were some people who really hated it. Their negative posts really brought me down, because I loved the last book, and I was compelled to respond to all of the posts.
Apparently, K.A. felt the same way.
So, here it is for you, a letter from her to the fans explaining exactly why she ended it the way that she did, a response that will undoubtedly annoy some people. Be warned, the following does contain spoilers, don't read if you haven't read the last book!
- Jeff Sampson
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Dear Animorphs Readers:
Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.
So I thought I'd respond.
Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.
Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.
If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.
K.A. Applegate
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You tell em K! Sock it to em
Also; ten irony points sense this was posted by the guy with that as his sig
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I don't care, I still think the ending is beneath her.
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why?
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I don't think I have anything to say that I haven't already said.
I could read the first ten, twenty books or so again and again and never see an "ending" like that coming.
It took a more serious note once the ghostwriters took over, but I'm not sure why.
Realistic war endings are seldom fair, and should not be sought after if anyone can help it.
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I could read the first ten, twenty books or so again and again and never see an "ending" like that coming.
well, K.A. usually does that. she always tries to make the story end way different than how the reader at first thought it would. so, naturally, reading just the first 20, you will not be able to guess the ending.
Realistic war endings are seldom fair, and should not be sought after if anyone can help it.
well in animorphs case, I think it would make sense to use unfair endings. I wonder why I think that though.
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why?
Except for the fact that she was disorganized at times, the author created one of my favorite book series of all time. It was a science fiction series that was easy to relate to and was simple and complicated at the same time - I don't think someone has to like science fiction to like Animorphs. The books were written on two different levels - I enjoy them just as much now as I did when I first read them. The characters were diverse, well-developed, realistic, and evoked feelings from the reader. It was funny.
Although I am a lot like Rachel - I'd even say that I'm a shorter version of her - I can see myself in each of the characters. I liked every single book but the last one - there was no book that I couldn't or refused to finish.
I read that book seven years ago when I was ten years old. I haven't re-read it since, but it's burned into my brain. I hated how rushed it felt, how one-dimensional Rachel became, how none of the Animorphs but Marco got the future they deserved, and how she introduced a brand new character in the last few pages of the series. Unbelievable.
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strangely, I do not feel any of that. what I do feel: animorphs was great. the tv show not so muh. and the ending was left open enough for me to imagine what happened after.
so ramming the blade ship was the future marco deserved...
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strangely, I do not feel any of that. what I do feel: animorphs was great. the tv show not so muh. and the ending was left open enough for me to imagine what happened after.
so ramming the blade ship was the future marco deserved...
It was left too open.
Marco had a playboy lifestyle - I figured that would be what he would get. He was lonely and his life was rather shallow, but it wasn't like he was dead, depressed, or dating some random new character. It wasn't exactly good, but it wasn't horrible to the point of me hating it either. The other characters should've gotten the balanced outcome that Marco did - the rest of them were all one-dimensional at the end.
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too open and open enough are the same to me.
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You tell em K! Sock it to em
Also; ten irony points sense this was posted by the guy with that as his sig
I liked the ending, but, I found the part with the One funny... .hehehehe...
It was left too open.
Marco had a playboy lifestyle - I figured that would be what he would get. He was lonely and his life was rather shallow, but it wasn't like he was dead, depressed, or dating some random new character. It wasn't exactly good, but it wasn't horrible to the point of me hating it either. The other characters should've gotten the balanced outcome that Marco did - the rest of them were all one-dimensional at the end.
That is Marco. Marco isn't the time to be depressed. Remember his motto? That life can either be miserable or funny? That's just how the way it is. He is allergic to pity and sadness, that's why he doesn't get too emotional himself.
Except for the fact that she was disorganized at times, the author created one of my favorite book series of all time. It was a science fiction series that was easy to relate to and was simple and complicated at the same time - I don't think someone has to like science fiction to like Animorphs. The books were written on two different levels - I enjoy them just as much now as I did when I first read them. The characters were diverse, well-developed, realistic, and evoked feelings from the reader. It was funny.
Although I am a lot like Rachel - I'd even say that I'm a shorter version of her - I can see myself in each of the characters. I liked every single book but the last one - there was no book that I couldn't or refused to finish.
I read that book seven years ago when I was ten years old. I haven't re-read it since, but it's burned into my brain. I hated how rushed it felt, how one-dimensional Rachel became, how none of the Animorphs but Marco got the future they deserved, and how she introduced a brand new character in the last few pages of the series. Unbelievable.
I understand, the animorphs really did not get what they deserve, but who really gets what they deserve nowadays? Rich people become richer, the poor poorer.
This isn't some video game story. Personally, I admire K.A for going true to the story, instead of making it end happily ever after. It must have been hard for her to make it turn out this way, but if it ended like some fairy tale, I would hate the last book. Thank goodness K.A made it end this way.
I agree with your last statement though, the introducing of a brand new char in the last few pages kinda stinks.... :P
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I can't believe im bout to say this but....I totally disagree with the creator of the best book series ever written. There are so many different things she could've done to the ending tht would've made it good
1. I personally wouldn't have minded a "wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt". They did tht with HAryr Potter and tht turned out pretty good.
2. I don't mind Rachel dying but WTF is up with Tom's death? if it weren't for Jake's desire to save Tom, then the Animorps probably wouldn't even exist tht was like a big punch in the face for Jake.
3. I never even thought about this book being like a war until the last 5 books. The words war never even came into my mind when I read an animorphs book.
4. I really thought/hoped tht it would end with everybody(Not just Cassie) being happy, Jake and Tom being able to talk about everything tht had happened in the las 3 yrs, Tobias not exactly getting over Rachel but still not going into a deep depression and turn into the bird equilivent of an emo, a showdown between Ax and Visser Three, a big battle in the middle or end of the book, and maybe even have Jake and Cassie together instead of Cassie falling for sum random guy. after all the Animorphs have been through, don't they desereve to have a good ending not just having all of them killed off by ramming a f[beep]ing Blade Ship.
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I can't believe im bout to say this but....I totally disagree with the creator of the best book series ever written. There are so many different things she could've done to the ending tht would've made it good
1. I personally wouldn't have minded a "wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt". They did tht with HAryr Potter and tht turned out pretty good.
2. I don't mind Rachel dying but WTF is up with Tom's death? if it weren't for Jake's desire to save Tom, then the Animorps probably wouldn't even exist tht was like a big punch in the face for Jake.
3. I never even thought about this book being like a war until the last 5 books. The words war never even came into my mind when I read an animorphs book.
4. I really thought/hoped tht it would end with everybody(Not just Cassie) being happy, Jake and Tom being able to talk about everything tht had happened in the las 3 yrs, Tobias not exactly getting over Rachel but still not going into a deep depression and turn into the bird equilivent of an emo, a showdown between Ax and Visser Three, a big battle in the middle or end of the book, and maybe even have Jake and Cassie together instead of Cassie falling for sum random guy. after all the Animorphs have been through, don't they desereve to have a good ending not just having all of them killed off by ramming a f[beep]ing Blade Ship.
1. harry potter lost my interest at book 4. apparently not that great a series.
3. really? they mentioned the word war in like every single book. and not just in any random sentence. they said "we're in a war"
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I can't believe im bout to say this but....I totally disagree with the creator of the best book series ever written. There are so many different things she could've done to the ending tht would've made it good
1. I personally wouldn't have minded a "wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt". They did tht with HAryr Potter and tht turned out pretty good.
2. I don't mind Rachel dying but WTF is up with Tom's death? if it weren't for Jake's desire to save Tom, then the Animorps probably wouldn't even exist tht was like a big punch in the face for Jake.
3. I never even thought about this book being like a war until the last 5 books. The words war never even came into my mind when I read an animorphs book.
4. I really thought/hoped tht it would end with everybody(Not just Cassie) being happy, Jake and Tom being able to talk about everything tht had happened in the las 3 yrs, Tobias not exactly getting over Rachel but still not going into a deep depression and turn into the bird equilivent of an emo, a showdown between Ax and Visser Three, a big battle in the middle or end of the book, and maybe even have Jake and Cassie together instead of Cassie falling for sum random guy. after all the Animorphs have been through, don't they desereve to have a good ending not just having all of them killed off by ramming a f[beep]ing Blade Ship.
1. harry potter lost my interest at book 4. apparently not that great a series.
3. really? they mentioned the word war in like every single book. and not just in any random sentence. they said "we're in a war"
I know but it still didn't seem like a war to me, whenever I read the books the first things to pop into my head are superheros, spies, science fiction, but nothing about war just like how avatar is about a war but at the same time the show doesn't really feel like a war
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yeah...avatar is not that realistic...startin g with the fact that they can bend elements.
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yes, and 13 yr olds changin into animals and stopping a whole army of aliens is very realistic ::) :P
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2. That's what makes Jake so depressed. You don't always get what you want, you know. This is not Cinderella.
Anyway, Marco did point out in as early as book 1 that this not some video game war but some reality, where you have to kill your own brothers, right?
At least chainging into animals is theoritically possible with nanotechnology. Flipendo, Woah there. Animorphs is SCIENCE fiction. SCIENCE. Harry Potter- Magical fairyworld.
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At least chainging into animals is theoritically possible with nanotechnology.
.....what?
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Theoretically, if Z-space exists. We DO can send our mass to Z-space and get some mass from it... thus morphing... Theoretically though... :P
Plus, the story happens in OUR world. Coke, Pepsi, Spiderman, Cinnabon, The Gap! It has to be realistic. HP happens in a world where Griffins and intelligent owls exist.
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in case someone lazily skips....
Dear Animorphs Readers:
Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.
So I thought I'd respond.
Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.
Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.
If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.
K.A. Applegate
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Theoretically, if Z-space exists. We DO can send our mass to Z-space and get some mass from it... thus morphing... Theoretically though... :P
Plus, the story happens in OUR world. Coke, Pepsi, Spiderman, Cinnabon, The Gap! It has to be realistic. HP happens in a world where Griffins and intelligent owls exist.
and Animorphs is in a world where blue centors and alien slugs exist. Im not seeing a big difference here yet. Plus Harry Potter took place in the real world too(remeber the fourth book I forgot when but Harry was telling Sirius about Playstation.
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they're aliens. there's a very good chance aliens exist. now apparently griffins are from earth...
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Most of it takes place in Hogwarts. Okay, the slugs exist, but there is an explanation, theoritical explanation though. How do you explain how glowing sticks emit balls of energy? At least Ax explains Z-space.
Anyway, enough with the minor details. Animorphs is written realistically because K.A thinks we are mature, intelligent readers that can accept reality. Just read the latter parts of the letter.
I don't think Fairy Tales are good either. I personally believe Cinderella stretched up the truth to make her sisters look bad. ;D
The Prince is there was a pervert who only looked at beauty. (search only for the most fair in the land, huh)
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they're aliens. there's a very good chance aliens exist. now apparently griffins are from earth...
finally Counter gets sum backup this was startign to get boring.
back on topic
until I get sum proof of alien existence, Im gonna chalk them up on my list of imaginary creatures just like Griffins, werewolves, and phoenixs
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I have always been an avid hater of the ending of Animorphs, for many of the same reasons you guys have stated. But on a closer look, I think thats the point.
We aren't supposed to like how Animorphs ends. It ends with tragedy, loss, depression, and hey, guess what, another war to top it off! Yippee!! It isn't fair, it isn't right and it certainly isn't a video game victory. And that was the point.
I don't like the ending. It pains me to see the characters I loved and followed for six years reduced to realistic war wounds and deaths. I don't like it, but I can respect it. Because it really is a realistic representation of what war is about. I think a "perfect ending" would have cheapened the series.
Also, I'm not sure what everyone means about Rachel being one-dimensional (or any of them really). I thought Rachel was extremely one-dimensional in a lot of the ghost-written books, but in the last book we finally got "our" Rachel back for like...three chapters.
Anyways, as I said. I don't like the ending and I never will, but I can respect it.
I think the one change I would suggest would be to make it longer, like MM or Chronicles length, so it seemed less rushed.
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yeah it is getting boring...though not the way you think.
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I don't think Fairy Tales are good either. I personally believe Cinderella stretched up the truth to make her sisters look bad. ;D
The Prince is there was a pervert who only looked at beauty. (search only for the most fair in the land, huh)
why r u comparing my idea on wut the animorphs endiing should've been with a fairy tale? just cuz sumthin has a happy ending where the good guys win and the bad guys die doesnt make it a Fairy Tale. As a matter of fact, not all fairy tales end too hapilly either. in sum versions of the 3 little pigs, only one pig survives, and I'm not sure if this is really true, but in the original little mermaid, the mermaid dies.
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Because that ending is perfect. Okay... I'll stop using fairy tales as a term. I'll use Cinderella instead. ;D
Wait a minute, what is your definition of "hated the ending".
I admit, I felt remorse for Rachel, and wished she didn't die. I didn't like it that she died, of course. But as a whole, its hard to explain but, I like how it ended. The ending wasn't bad, literature wise. But... I dunno, its kinda hard to explain.
I'm not exactly thrilled either in our debate. It was getting boring in my part as well.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
Seriously, please just read this. I've just fed up with people who cannot accept that things can go wrong, can go bad... nuff said. I don't want to elaborate this any furthur... :(
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you know how I said it was boring. it's this debate as a whole that's boring, and everything inside it. the part where counter backs up k.a. and me trying in vain to help is getting boring. everybody hating the ending is boring. arguing is boring. so many refrences is broing. I'm boring! (well I'm bored anyway).
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I like that K.A. didn't end it happily. I hated that about HP...It ended WAY too happy. All this great build up...All was well. So, the ending was great to me, but I completely understand how people could criticize it.
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KA's ending was perfect except for the new war!!!! AAGAGAGGGAAAH.
I understand that war doesnt end happily im not that ignorant, but I was a child when the book ended and even now as a more mature person I still think that, the kelbrid and the one could have been done without, I wouldnt have changed anything else but that, maybe i just should have ripped the last few chapters out of my book.
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Although I was originally slightly disappointed by the cliffhanger ending (the rest of the book was good), I have since learned that it was the best way and possibly the only way to really end the series. I would have hated a "lived happily ever after" ending or anything like that. That's for fairy tales, not real life (or realistic fiction).
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In short, I agree with Applegate's thoughts, but she probably should not have written them out. I came to those same conclusions on my own, and would have preferred for other intelligent readers to do the same. No ending would have satisfied everyone.
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The ending was good for the series. Yeah, it wasn't fair, but the Animorphs were never in fair situations throughout the war anyways. The odds were always stacked against them.
I agree with what K.A. said. If you look back at history, you can see that most wars transition right into another war. And the people that fight in them always come out scarred in some way.
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Also, I'm not sure what everyone means about Rachel being one-dimensional (or any of them really). I thought Rachel was extremely one-dimensional in a lot of the ghost-written books, but in the last book we finally got "our" Rachel back for like...three chapters.
The only Rachel book that she was one-dimensional in was #37. It seemed like the ghostwriter was trying to touch on some personal conflict but couldn't quite do it - I'm pretty sure that was the shortest book in the series anyway.
Rachel's character was well-done in all of her early books (2, 7, 12, 17, 21). 32 and 48 were the books where she is directly confronted with her violent tendencies and that was also well-written. The Journey (#42) could be considered a filler book because it's just one of those fun books that involves the Helmacrons, so I really wouldn't count it because it doesn't go into anybody's character at all. The Exposed (#27) dealt more with her relationship with Tobias and introducing the Drode.
I'd say that the only Rachel book that was bad was #37. I hated how Rachel was treated in the last couple of books, but it could be retconned as that being the perception of the other characters - keep in mind how early Rachel's last book was in the final story arc.
I'm always going to think that the ending was terrible. I think that the mindset that a war story has to destroy all of the characters to be a good war story is childish. The notion that an unrealistic story has to have a "realistic ending" is ridiculous - I think that K.A trying to pass off her ****ty book as being "realistic" is the quintessential cop-out. I would rather have a good story that was "unrealistic" than a bad story that was "realistic". Her job is to entertain her readers - maybe if this piece of crap was different, Animorphs wouldn't have died out so many years ago.
As stated earlier, it was beneath her.
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I halfway agree with you Escafil. #37 was one-dimensional.. ooh... i despise that ghostwrite.... T_T
48 showed another side to Rachel... especially at the ending...
However, Grandpa G always made a notion that majority of people from wars, never really come back. I guess its true. Our country has been through a lot of wars due to a lot of nations wanting to colonize as in the past... >_<
I didn't think the story was bad because of the ending. That was made it bittersweet. If it ended out as a good ending, I think it would have died out in our hearts, much, much earlier, feeling at place where everyone was happy at the end. However, making it end like a real war story makes it feel.... bittersweet....
I love K.A as a writer, and I believe that this work of hers is/was one of her best.
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in case someone lazily skips....
Dear Animorphs Readers:
Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.
So I thought I'd respond.
Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.
Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.
If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.
K.A. Applegate
In case, again, anyone lazily skips.
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I find it dreadfully appalling that some of you seem to believe it to be the author's 'job' to ENTERTAIN the READERS.
Forgive me for saying so, but that is quite possibly the single most ridiculous thing that I've ever read, and I've read a LOT.
It is YOUR job to try to understand HER. NOT the other way around, fools.
If you believe otherwise, than you are an arse among idiots, heartily-begging-yer-pardon.
It is as though you are telling Michelangelo to put some clothes on David, ordering Picasso to draw a normal-looking face, or demanding that Tchaikovsky take those cannon shots out of his 1812 Overture, because YOU think that it should be that way. Utterly ridiculous. She is an ARTIST, and it is her RIGHT to do WHATEVER-THE-HELL-SHE-WANTS with HER characters. They are her CREATIONS. She has artistic license, and you need to learn to respect that, or you are going to be sorely disappointed for the rest of your life.
I freely admit that I wept my eyes out when Rachel died. I'll tell you right now that I gained MUCH more from that catharsis than I'd have gained from a 'happy ending'. If you expect happily-ever-after from everything that you read, I sorely pity you for being a Lazy Reader. If you can't contribute emotionally to the art that you observe, what are you gaining from it? It's unconscionable, but unlike being blind and tone-deaf in an opera house, you can DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. You have enough of a brain to read this series.
Now USE it.
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I find it dreadfully appalling that some of you seem to believe it to be the author's 'job' to ENTERTAIN the READERS.
Forgive me for saying so, but that is quite possibly the single most ridiculous thing that I've ever read, and I've read a LOT.
It is YOUR job to try to understand HER. NOT the other way around, fools.
If you believe otherwise, than you are an arse among idiots, heartily-begging-yer-pardon.
It is as though you are telling Michelangelo to put some clothes on David, ordering Picasso to draw a normal-looking face, or demanding that Tchaikovsky take those cannon shots out of his 1812 Overture, because YOU think that it should be that way. Utterly ridiculous. She is an ARTIST, and it is her RIGHT to do WHATEVER-THE-HELL-SHE-WANTS with HER characters. They are her CREATIONS. She has artistic license, and you need to learn to respect that, or you are going to be sorely disappointed for the rest of your life.
I freely admit that I wept my eyes out when Rachel died. I'll tell you right now that I gained MUCH more from that catharsis than I'd have gained from a 'happy ending'. If you expect happily-ever-after from everything that you read, I sorely pity you for being a Lazy Reader. If you can't contribute emotionally to the art that you observe, what are you gaining from it? It's unconscionable, but unlike being blind and tone-deaf in an opera house, you can DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. You have enough of a brain to read this series.
Now USE it.
I don't know if that was amazing or scary...
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Here is my response to her response...
SCREW YOU!
You gave me 6 amazing years of books that inspired, delighted, entrapped, and flat out owned me. Then you take the last few pages of the final book after 6 years, and you ram REALITY down my throat??? WTF?
The series is BUILT on the fact that IT IS NOT REAL. If any of the crazy ideas in your books were real, we would be in trouble big time. But they aren't. And I spent 6 years hoping for it to be real so that I could get taken away into this other reality and forget my own life.
And now you want to tell me that your books were supposed to have a REAL meaning??? Hell no. I won't accept that. There SHOULD have been a fairy tale ending, as the books were based on FANTASY. I can't believe you find it OK to destroy the hearts of young children all over the world who read your books and FED YOUR FAMILY for 6 years waiting for the best conclusion in the world and a happy ending to your series!!! That is selfish and shameless and just all around terrible.
I don't care what kind of message you are trying to portray! I would have been just FINE knowing that they won and the bad guys lost and everyone lived happily ever after. Of course, I'm fine the way it ended, but it still left a void in my world. It felt like a Girlfriend who you truly love just dumped you for the guy down the street. And it wasn't a pretty breakup.
Bah. Bah. Bah. I am a bitter person about this situation. I have not let it bother me save for about a week of feeling like crap after finishing the series, but it is still the principal of the matter. So go ahead and feel Smug about teaching kids about real life and wars, you taught me NOTHING! All you taught me is not to get wrapped up in any more fantasy series.
Sorry to offend anyone, but I had to get that out. It has been brewing for years in the back of my mind and heart.
I want to be entertained, which is the PURPOSE OF BUYING A BOOK and spending MONEY on a series of 60+ books! Why else? To learn? To experience an artists expertise?
NO! To be ENTERTAINED!
And I don't expect a HAPPY ending to EVERYTHING I read, but from a children's series based on fantasy and relationships between characters that had been built from book 1, I would expect SOME kind of happiness when I close the last book! I would NOT expect to be sad about the ending, confused, and pissed off.
But I am wrong for having an opinion and having a desire for what I want in the end? WHY?
I spent the MONEY and TIME to buy and read all of the books. Why should it be that I cannot complain about the ending? That is wrong.
She can do whatever she pleases, even if it hurts others, just because she is an artist???
OK FINE, with that logic, anybody can be innocent for going around shooting people in the streets, as long as when they line up the bodies, it makes a form of art, right?
WRONG. Artists need to be VERY aware of the wants and needs of their audience, just like anyone else trying to SELL something.
Which brings up the question, if you are selling it to others, is it truly art? Or is it only art when you do it for your own satisfaction and do NOT profit off the work. If there is an audience for 6 years worth of artwork, and a loyal dedicated fan base, then those people SHOULD be considered when creating the finishing touches. After all, without them, the series is NOTHING. Without US, she is looking for a new job and no longer writing the books. Right?
OK I'm done. I will limit my posts from now on to better flavored discussions.
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well first of all, animoprhs is science fiction, not fantasy.
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It doesn't hurt others... :(
I loved the way she made her ending.. it wasn't bad, literature-wise... I don't understand why people do not enjoy uneasy endings... really...
the book wasn't based on fantasy, it's a SCIENCE fiction.... plus, doesn;t mean its a children's series means it is for children. It is merely the rating of how easy to read it is, i think. Of Mice and Men is... well.... a children's story... but still.... you know what happened to Mice and Men.
I want to be entertained too, but not to the point that I can control and shapen the story to my liking.
There is some Hapiness in the ending, I'm surprised no one seems to point this out.
Tobias's grief.
Jake's uneasiness.
Rachel's death.
Ax's ultimate destiny.
The cost for... what else?
Freedom. I guess.... isn;t that happy?
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Here is my response to her response...
SCREW YOU!
A bit tetchy, now, en't we, laddie? You're new-ish here, so I'll try not to be terribly snarky with you.
1. WHO, exactly, are you suggesting be screwed? Ms. Applegate, or me? Answer that one very carefully, oh FearlessLeader.
2. Unless you are EAGER to make a LOT of enemies here, very, VERY quickly, you need to learn some manners. We don't say things like 'screw you' on this forum. If you want to debate, do it nicely. If you want to argue and sling insults, kindly get the heck out of here.
Thank-you.
Edit: Oh, yes. One more thing.
This is a series about a WAR. In what possible universe can you exist, that wars do not have casualties?
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Here is my response to her response...
SCREW YOU!
A bit tetchy, now, en't we, laddie? You're new-ish here, so I'll try not to be terribly snarky with you.
1. WHO, exactly, are you suggesting be screwed? Ms. Applegate, or me? Answer that one very carefully, oh FearlessLeader.
2. Unless you are EAGER to make a LOT of enemies here, very, VERY quickly, you need to learn some manners. We don't say things like 'screw you' on this forum. If you want to debate, do it nicely. If you want to argue and sling insults, kindly get the heck out of here.
Thank-you.
Exactly what she said. For one thing, not a good idea to say "Screw you" at all. And a worse idea to say it either a well liked member or the AUTHOR of the series this forum is for.
K.A. ended the story in the way a war would end. She didn't end it happily and not many authors seem to do that. And honestly, could you imagine Animorphs ending nicely at all?
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screw you is not something you should tell ANYONE. Even worse if you tell it to a popular member or an even more popular author.
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Yeah, I agree with several recent posters here. There's no reason Applegate should have made an ending to please her fans with. It was her decision to take the story where she did. What, should Shakespeare have made Romeo and Juliet survive in the end? He could have, but he didn't.
The entire Animorphs series was pretty dark. Even the dumb filler books had their dangerous moments--remember the Helmacrons shrinking the characters down to their size? It's a series about humans, not immortals. Some of them will probably die, some of them will get their feelings hurt. I'm a lot more satisfied with the ending than I would have been with "Jack and Cassie got married and Ax was their butler and everyone lived happily ever after."
Think about how the ending made you feel. Angry, confused, sad? The point is, it made you feel an emotion. It's saying something that Applegate was able to make her readers care enough about the characters that they reacted to the ending this way. The idea that she should have made it end happily because we were paying for the books is just stupid. We pay to go see movies too. In some of them we get attached to characters as well, and they don't always have happy endings. We weren't paying to tell Applegate what to write for us--we were paying to hear what she had to say.
Now, I'm not saying you had to like the ending. There are some valid criticisms of it: I for one would have preferred a villain we were used to appearing instead of The One, for instance. But it was still Applegate's ending to write, not ours.
And honestly, I'm amazed that she had the Animorphs defeating the Yeerks at all. How realistic was that, seriously? I'd say she threw the fans a major bone.
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The entire Animorphs series was pretty dark. Even the dumb filler books had their dangerous moments--remember the Helmacrons shrinking the characters down to their size? It's a series about humans, not immortals. Some of them will probably die, some of them will get their feelings hurt. I'm a lot more satisfied with the ending than I would have been with "Jack and Cassie got married and Ax was their butler and everyone lived happily ever after."
Yeah, that kind of ending in a dark series which became especially dark at the end...sucks. Like Harry Potter, all this darkness ending extremely happily.
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Think about how the ending made you feel. Angry, confused, sad? The point is, it made you feel an emotion. It's saying something that Applegate was able to make her readers care enough about the characters that they reacted to the ending this way. The idea that she should have made it end happily because we were paying for the books is just stupid. We pay to go see movies too. In some of them we get attached to characters as well, and they don't always have happy endings. We weren't paying to tell Applegate what to write for us--we were paying to hear what she had to say.
Amen to that, brother.
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And honestly, I'm amazed that she had the Animorphs defeating the Yeerks at all. How realistic was that, seriously? I'd say she threw the fans a major bone.
Amen to that. And only one of them died? Six kids against a whole army of alien invaders and ONE died...how can you complain about that and say she took too much away and the ending ruined it or was 'too realistic'? realistically -- they would've lasted a week. Month would be pushing it. That's why it's a sci-fi series, not a biography.
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in case someone lazily skips....
Dear Animorphs Readers:
Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.
So I thought I'd respond.
Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.
Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.
If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.
K.A. Applegate
In case, again, anyone lazily skips.
I'm giving you a smiting because you keep pushing this on us. We read it. We still don't accept it.
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in case someone lazily skips....
Dear Animorphs Readers:
Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.
So I thought I'd respond.
Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.
Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.
If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.
K.A. Applegate
In case, again, anyone lazily skips.
I'm giving you a smiting because you keep pushing this on us. We read it. We still don't accept it.
and I smite you because I see that as unfair smiting.
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in case someone lazily skips....
Dear Animorphs Readers:
Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.
So I thought I'd respond.
Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.
Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.
If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.
K.A. Applegate
In case, again, anyone lazily skips.
I'm giving you a smiting because you keep pushing this on us. We read it. We still don't accept it.
and I smite you because I see that as unfair smiting.
It's spam. Of course, I spammed at his spamming, so it all comes full turn.
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Hey, its not really spamming, I put in once in every page in case. you know, for convenience, like if someone wants to go back and read it but doesn't want to turn to that page. Anyway... I'm NOT smiting you in retaliation.... I won't stoop to just that just because I'm raising a different POV.
I just thought that repeating it would help the majority.
And who is this "We"?
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Hey, its not really spamming, I put in once in every page in case. you know, for convenience, like if someone wants to go back and read it but doesn't want to turn to that page. Anyway... I'm NOT smiting you in retaliation.... I won't stoop to just that just because I'm raising a different POV.
I just thought that repeating it would help the majority.
And who is this "We"?
I'm sure I'm not the only person who read it, so I put we. I guess once per page might not be that bad.
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Yes, one per page, no more, no less, let's agree on that... :)
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I find it dreadfully appalling that some of you seem to believe it to be the author's 'job' to ENTERTAIN the READERS.
Forgive me for saying so, but that is quite possibly the single most ridiculous thing that I've ever read, and I've read a LOT.
It is YOUR job to try to understand HER. NOT the other way around, fools.
If you believe otherwise, than you are an arse among idiots, heartily-begging-yer-pardon.
It is as though you are telling Michelangelo to put some clothes on David, ordering Picasso to draw a normal-looking face, or demanding that Tchaikovsky take those cannon shots out of his 1812 Overture, because YOU think that it should be that way. Utterly ridiculous. She is an ARTIST, and it is her RIGHT to do WHATEVER-THE-HELL-SHE-WANTS with HER characters. They are her CREATIONS. She has artistic license, and you need to learn to respect that, or you are going to be sorely disappointed for the rest of your life.
I freely admit that I wept my eyes out when Rachel died. I'll tell you right now that I gained MUCH more from that catharsis than I'd have gained from a 'happy ending'. If you expect happily-ever-after from everything that you read, I sorely pity you for being a Lazy Reader. If you can't contribute emotionally to the art that you observe, what are you gaining from it? It's unconscionable, but unlike being blind and tone-deaf in an opera house, you can DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. You have enough of a brain to read this series.
Now USE it.
+1
Well said. I've stopped arguing in these types of threads, because I've stated my opinions more than enough on the matter, but it's nice to know that some else understands this.
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Thank you, Truth. To put it very simply, I am sick and tired of lazy readers who expect to be pleased. They are as bad as high-school students who sit with a vacant look on their faces, expecting the teacher to entertain them.
My own Mum recently read one of my books, and she was angry that it CONTAINED A VILLAIN, because all her romance novels (80% of our publishing industry, for pity's sake!) are peachy and cheerful.
*GAG*
What is this world coming to? I'd rather they all be illiterate than just plain lazy for the sake of instant gratification.
Truth, +1 and high-five!
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+1 to both of you.
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Thanks, Ken! Ditto!
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It took a more serious note once the ghostwriters took over, but I'm not sure why.
I disagree, I think the Animorphs reach their lowest point (besides #54 of course) in #49/50, and that's when KA was back at the reigns....
I like this letter, I think it explains things well--my only objection is that I disagree that Jake/Cassie were "in love during the war"--from the first or second chapter of book 1, before they ever went through that construction site and the war began, Jake makes it clear that he likes Cassie "in that way," and we learn later in MM4 that Cassie reciprocated at that time--so it wasn't like they only fell in love during the war, I think they would have done so regardless....
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Sherrilina, you have an amazing knack for changing the subject.
Bless you. :)
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Maybe I dislike realistic endings, partly because I read books to escape reality. If I wanted to read realistic books, I'd pick out some nonfiction.
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Fiction is designed to reflect reality in a new way, to help us to understand our universe and our purpose within it. It provides an escape, but that is merely a disguise for its greater purpose.
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I was saying it to Applegate. And I think she deserves it. Just because she wrote SOME of the series, does not make her untouchable.
In my opinion, it is fantasy because kids who read it fantasized about it. I don't care if it was science fiction or romance. It was also fantasy. Don't give me definitions etc. I'm not interested. I am referring to it as what I thought it was, regardless of what the literature world thinks. The ghost-writers kept it alive, and we paid for Applegate to make a living. IMO it is the same as any other entertainer, sports or otherwise. Athletes get paid big money by teams, who make money by selling tickets and concessions to customers. Fans. People like US. If there were no fans, the athletes would not eat. If nobody wanted to see John Cena take on HHH in a cage match, they would be looking for jobs elsewhere and not providing the entertainment service.
When you write a book or series that you intend to sell for money that will feed you and keep you financially afloat for the next 6 years, there should be some consideration as to the fans and how they feel. For her to flat out say "If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad." is like a slap in the face of anyone who is mad.
And that is a terrible attitude to have when selling something to people. ESPECIALLY after the fact when there is nothing to be done about it. That is like the chef of a really good restaurant cooking up a meal and having assistants create much of it, then putting on the finishing touches, but the problem is, the dish you ordered calls for a sprig of mint and the chef personally decides he'd rather put some parsley on it instead. And then once it is brought to you, and you complain, he says, "TOO BAD. I want you to eat it and like it, and learn from it. O yeah, and don't forget to PAY ME."
I just don't like the attitude is all. I'm fine with Rachel dying and having casualties etc. I'm NOT fine with ending the whole thing on a mystery that goes unexplained forever. I know you are all fellow fans and all that. And I just stumbled across this site the other night, so it has brought back very old memories and made them very fresh. And I love it. But I can't get over how mad that ending made me. And I never thought it through. I stopped thinking about it 7 years ago, after only about a week from finishing it. And I haven't gone down memory lane since. So it's tough for me. I don't want to argue with anyone here. Please understand that. I am just EXTREMELY emotional about this incredible sci-fi series that made my youth that much more special.
I am 22 years old now, and I would wish that everyone I know could've read this series around the same age I did. Except for the last chapters of the last book. I would tell them to read until Rachel is gone, and the world is saved. Read about Marco's fame and Jake's depression. Read about Tobias' emotions and Cassie's new life. Read about the honors that Ax received from his home land. But then stop. Do NOT continue onto the last Animorphs mission that you will EVER know of, and do not read further because things will happen and you will need to live forever without knowing the outcome. That is all I would say. It was not bittersweet to me. It was not ironically pleasant. It was terrible. I am a man of closure. And for me to NOT have closure on one of the biggest pieces to my youth is something that bothers the HECK out of me.
It may be selfish to think this way, or lazy or whatever you may say, but in truth all I wanted was closure. I didn't want an alternate ending where everyone lives and there is a happy ending. I simply wanted to know what the heck The One was and what took place after the final page. Closure.....
Anywho, thanks for reading all that took the time. Don't be offended all those who disagree. I am simply stating my opinion on entertainers and the industry as a whole. I will not be posting for a bit unless I really want to share something. I just don't want to get caught up in the forum when I have hardly any time in my life(recently married, new career starting, etc.)
I will read as often as possible. It is just nice to know I'm not the only Animorphs freak out there.
BTW, anyone remember all that fan fiction stuff on the internet back then? I printed out PAGES and PAGES of that stuff.
I even wrote my own story, but alas, I lost it among my rents getting new computers and word documents not being backed up. It was about 40 pages long, 2 chapters. It was an extension of the series after book #47 or so. Maybe one day I'll revive the story in my head and rewrite it so I can share it.
Thanks again all and I'm sorry to offend anyone!
And I have to say...Daphnes...you summed it up for me. I wish I could've just wrote that originally. Lol. Nice.
Estelore...I get where you are coming from. You are a literature buff. But what you should understand is that MANY people are not. And many people think that fiction is designed to take you away from reality. And some think it is supposed to take you as far away as possible. Not everyone is going to accept you telling them that they are wrong and that this book series was full of hidden messages about reality. People who read it, and I think, especially kids, do not care about reality. They are kids for crying out loud. My biggest concern when I was reading these books was this: Are my batteries going to hold up in my radio and reading light? Will it rain tomorrow and stop me from playing basketball outside?
I was 16 when the final books came out. I was then concerned with my first year of HS being over and I hadn't found a steady girlfriend. And I really wanted to beat this sophmore out for his starting spot on the football team. Honestly. Had I been 22 when I read the final book, I MAY have thought more about reality. But I took these books as an escape from reality, as I'm sure many people did.
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Don't you see what would happen if Animorphs would end happily?
"Kids" or people in their "robbed childhood" as you say, would like wars. They would like to be the Heroes of wars. Because they do not see wars as tragic.
No one wins wars. That's what K.A might be trying to say. The motif is anti-war from the very start. If this war ended happily, it would defeat the point of writing Animorphs in the first place.
Everyone wants to see John Cena and HHH in a cage match, but not everyone wants to dictate who wins or not. Most of us pays just to see what happpens. We won't make a fuss if HHH wins over a bloody Cena or vice versa.
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"Maybe I dislike realistic endings, partly because I read books to escape reality. If I wanted to read realistic books, I'd pick out some nonfiction."
Hey Daphnes...is it cool if I use this quote whenever anyone talks about the war messages from Animorphs? LOL. Not trying to be rude...I just find it funny. I did not take any messages from the books. I simply was entertained. I read and was entertained. And you know what? If that makes me lazy...then so be it. I am one lazy reader. Whatev. I, for one, am glad I missed all those hidden messages, because it would've ruined the fun of reading for me. So, I guess we are all happy.
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A lot of kids actually do care about reality. I'm a kid, I read these books and I care about reality.
Like Counter said, it's completely anti-war. They never wanted to fight in the war. At the end, it shows how war ends. It didn't end well. Like it should. That's reality and I did care about that.
It was still unrealistic in the way it was supposed to be. The points it covered about war were realistic throughout the books. But, it was an intergalactic war.
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Estelore...I get where you are coming from. You are a literature buff. But what you should understand is that MANY people are not. And many people think that fiction is designed to take you away from reality. And some think it is supposed to take you as far away as possible. Not everyone is going to accept you telling them that they are wrong and that this book series was full of hidden messages about reality. People who read it, and I think, especially kids, do not care about reality. They are kids for crying out loud. My biggest concern when I was reading these books was this: Are my batteries going to hold up in my radio and reading light? Will it rain tomorrow and stop me from playing basketball outside?
*sad smile*
Thank you, for clarifying and for seeing it my way. That is good of you.
I sorrow that people go to such lengths to get away from reality, first because they feel the need to flee in the first place, and second because that escape-instead-of-act reflex has been the cause of much pain for many people, on a very large scale. World hunger, war, poverty and disease, global climate change, all these things could be so swiftly and well resolved, if only more people would stop avoiding the truth and just DO SOMETHING, for pity's sake. The first step in action is realising the problem and admitting that it exists.
From a very young age, I sought fiction, not as an escape, but as a way to learn. I've always felt that if I can do something, anything, to leave this universe a better place for my presence in it, then my existence will have meant something, and I can hopefully deserve whatever comes after it. There is no greater sin than walking away, when you can prevent a great suffering.
One last point: The series is fiction, yes, but it is VERY realistic, by the rules it defines for itself. The Animorphs existed in a realistic Earth with non-real entities. They were realistic people, with realistic emotions, motives, and choices. It would be utterly wrong to create an ending that is unrealistic, by the rules of the Animorphs' universe.
I see your point of view, but I cannot so easily understand it, in the method of my mind. Reality is reality, and escape is turning your back on reality, denying all responsibilities for its future, according to the belief system by which I have lived my entire life. I admit that there are circumstances in which escape IS preferable to the alternative, circumstances in which the escapee is powerless to help himself out of his own misery, beyond dreams and fiction. However, when a person has an otherwise-endurable life, it seems to me a variety of cowardice to turn-tail-and-run, even if only on a psychological basis. There is always someplace that I am needed (to some extent or another), between my friends and my family, so I believe that my view of this is understandable.
I am not calling YOU a coward, of course. This is more of a non-specific generalization (a debator's cardinal sin, yes, I know).
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*sad smile*
Thank you, for clarifying and for seeing it my way. That is good of you.
I sorrow that people go to such lengths to get away from reality, first because they feel the need to flee in the first place, and second because that escape-instead-of-act reflex has been the cause of much pain for many people, on a very large scale. World hunger, war, poverty and disease, global climate change, all these things could be so swiftly and well resolved, if only more people would stop avoiding the truth and just DO SOMETHING, for pity's sake. The first step in action is realising the problem and admitting that it exists.
LOL. I found this part really funny, but I can't seem to point out why. NOT funny because it's stupid... but funny because it's SO CORRECT and Straight to the point.....
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*sad smile*
Thank you, for clarifying and for seeing it my way. That is good of you.
I sorrow that people go to such lengths to get away from reality, first because they feel the need to flee in the first place, and second because that escape-instead-of-act reflex has been the cause of much pain for many people, on a very large scale. World hunger, war, poverty and disease, global climate change, all these things could be so swiftly and well resolved, if only more people would stop avoiding the truth and just DO SOMETHING, for pity's sake. The first step in action is realising the problem and admitting that it exists.
I'll have to applaud you again when the time limits up. That's an amazing point.
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LOL. I found this part really funny, but I can't seem to point out why. NOT funny because it's stupid... but funny because it's SO CORRECT and Straight to the point.....
Thank you. I have a gift for factual irony, I think. I make it a point to be direct and correct about serious matters, whenever possible. *self-deprecating chuckle*
I'll have to applaud you again when the time limits up. That's an amazing point.
Thank you, Ken. I take pleasure in knowing that I am not the only one who feels this way.
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Hey guys..sorry if I hit home with some of the topics being discussed. I am a much different person now, of course, than I was 7 years ago. For one thing, the media pushes images and messages onto the public in a much different way nowadays. Before, you didn't see so many adds for "going green". You didn't see the liberal points of view so clearly in mass media. And 7 years ago you certainly didn't see the entertainment world as vividly as you now do.
All of these things contribute to the MAJOR differences in the 12 year old of today versus the 12 year old of 1998. That is simply fact. There is a greater awareness of the Earth's issues and the possible solutions. However, even though liberal thoughts have entered the playing field a bit more in terms of media outlets, there are still enough conservative points of view being thrown around to control any new-age hippie movement. War, especially since the time this series ended(sadly and ironically), has become a MAJOR factor in every American's life. And because of this, there is more to think about than simple character relationships and plot twists when reading books or engaging in other forms of entertainment.
When I read these books, I was not really a kid, but I was going through a time of major change in life. I had a rough family life and since I lived about 20 minutes drive from all my school friends, I was pretty much stuck and alone. I spent much of my time reading the books, sitting outside watching animals and wondering...and playing sports by myself. I was not close enough to anyone to actually go hang out. And my best friend had just watched his brother accidentally hang himself when we were 12. So he was never the same person and did not want to hang out anymore. Very often I found myself associating him with Tobias.
I was always a leader in the classroom and on the court or field. So, I began to really relate well to Jake, as he was around my age at the time I read these books.
It isn't surprising that I let myself get taken away into this new world that existed only between the pages of the books. I wouldn't necessarily call it escaping or running away from my problems, but I would certainly think of it as fantasizing about having a purpose. I wanted so badly to be able to fight for something as passionately as Jake and the Animorphs fought.
I had assembled my team that consisted of my friend who I thought of as Tobias. Myself(Jake). One of the girls who introduced me to the books(Cassie). Another girl who had liked the books, but was more into fashion(Rachel). And the first person to ever show me an Animorphs book(Marco). So, how could I not pretend to be inside the book? We played Animorphs at recess. I had dreams about it. I wrote fan fiction about it. We acted out scenes and wrote our own.
And this was the ONLY Series of books I have ever read. And the first real books I read outside of school assignments.
So piece all of that together, and you can kind of see why I would have been thinking of it as more of a "fantasy" series. I never even considered the fact that people could read into it otherwise, and I am at fault for not thinking of other viewpoints.
I was just so excited to see other fans posting in a recent forum that I may have started to urinate before I could unbuckle my belt. I just wanted others to relate to my Animorphs experience.
I hope you will all accept me into your society, as I really have much much more to say about the books if you will allow it.
Thanks.
;D
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Alright, there's a story...And, you're right, more 12 year olds are aware of things now. But, pretty much the most realistic points of Animorphs were the realistic points of war that were there through the entire books. The end was a way to really point that out.
Here's a the biggest tip you could get right now,
Don't yell "Screw you" That's going to launch an awkward debate that consists of you revealing things about your life 7 years ago...weird.
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"Maybe I dislike realistic endings, partly because I read books to escape reality. If I wanted to read realistic books, I'd pick out some nonfiction."
Hey Daphnes...is it cool if I use this quote whenever anyone talks about the war messages from Animorphs? LOL. Not trying to be rude...I just find it funny. I did not take any messages from the books. I simply was entertained. I read and was entertained. And you know what? If that makes me lazy...then so be it. I am one lazy reader. Whatev. I, for one, am glad I missed all those hidden messages, because it would've ruined the fun of reading for me. So, I guess we are all happy.
Sure, go ahead. It's kind of cool being quoted.
Thank you, for clarifying and for seeing it my way. That is good of you.
I sorrow that people go to such lengths to get away from reality, first because they feel the need to flee in the first place, and second because that escape-instead-of-act reflex has been the cause of much pain for many people, on a very large scale. World hunger, war, poverty and disease, global climate change, all these things could be so swiftly and well resolved, if only more people would stop avoiding the truth and just DO SOMETHING, for pity's sake. The first step in action is realising the problem and admitting that it exists.
Leaving reality for a time and taking a break can be a healthy way of dealing with it. Reality can leave one stressed, especially people like kids who have little or no control over their realities. So calling them cowards for wanting to delve into worlds of fantasy and enchantment periodically does not make them cowards. You may be the kind of person who likes to take action at any possible time, but some people feel differently. Not everyone wants to spend their life trying to avert worldwide problems. Some people just want to live peaceful and quiet lives.
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When you think about it, it's not just for a while. Most literature shapes us permanently, the way we forever mourn for Rachel's death.
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"Don't yell "Screw you" That's going to launch an awkward debate that consists of you revealing things about your life 7 years ago...weird. "
Lol...all my own doing. I understood what I was getting into. But yeah, if I yell it again, I'll make sure to keep my stories to myself.
It didn't help that it was like 2:30 am when I wrote that.
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Thank you, for clarifying and for seeing it my way. That is good of you.
I sorrow that people go to such lengths to get away from reality, first because they feel the need to flee in the first place, and second because that escape-instead-of-act reflex has been the cause of much pain for many people, on a very large scale. World hunger, war, poverty and disease, global climate change, all these things could be so swiftly and well resolved, if only more people would stop avoiding the truth and just DO SOMETHING, for pity's sake. The first step in action is realising the problem and admitting that it exists.
Leaving reality for a time and taking a break can be a healthy way of dealing with it. Reality can leave one stressed, especially people like kids who have little or no control over their realities. So calling them cowards for wanting to delve into worlds of fantasy and enchantment periodically does not make them cowards. You may be the kind of person who likes to take action at any possible time, but some people feel differently. Not everyone wants to spend their life trying to avert worldwide problems. Some people just want to live peaceful and quiet lives.
that kind of kid actually fits my description perfectly. strange enough, I still really like how the ending went (except for how cassie didn't go with them). I guess in my mind, animorphs is just so great, that I don't care how it ends.
oh, fearless leader, tip:
when quoting, use [*quote*]in front of the quote and [/*quote*] after the quote (minus the *).
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Here is my response to her response...
SCREW YOU!
You gave me 6 amazing years of books that inspired, delighted, entrapped, and flat out owned me. Then you take the last few pages of the final book after 6 years, and you ram REALITY down my throat??? WTF?
The series is BUILT on the fact that IT IS NOT REAL. If any of the crazy ideas in your books were real, we would be in trouble big time. But they aren't. And I spent 6 years hoping for it to be real so that I could get taken away into this other reality and forget my own life.
And now you want to tell me that your books were supposed to have a REAL meaning??? Hell no. I won't accept that. There SHOULD have been a fairy tale ending, as the books were based on FANTASY. I can't believe you find it OK to destroy the hearts of young children all over the world who read your books and FED YOUR FAMILY for 6 years waiting for the best conclusion in the world and a happy ending to your series!!! That is selfish and shameless and just all around terrible.
I don't care what kind of message you are trying to portray! I would have been just FINE knowing that they won and the bad guys lost and everyone lived happily ever after. Of course, I'm fine the way it ended, but it still left a void in my world. It felt like a Girlfriend who you truly love just dumped you for the guy down the street. And it wasn't a pretty breakup.
Bah. Bah. Bah. I am a bitter person about this situation. I have not let it bother me save for about a week of feeling like crap after finishing the series, but it is still the principal of the matter. So go ahead and feel Smug about teaching kids about real life and wars, you taught me NOTHING! All you taught me is not to get wrapped up in any more fantasy series.
Sorry to offend anyone, but I had to get that out. It has been brewing for years in the back of my mind and heart.
I want to be entertained, which is the PURPOSE OF BUYING A BOOK and spending MONEY on a series of 60+ books! Why else? To learn? To experience an artists expertise?
NO! To be ENTERTAINED!
And I don't expect a HAPPY ending to EVERYTHING I read, but from a children's series based on fantasy and relationships between characters that had been built from book 1, I would expect SOME kind of happiness when I close the last book! I would NOT expect to be sad about the ending, confused, and pissed off.
But I am wrong for having an opinion and having a desire for what I want in the end? WHY?
I spent the MONEY and TIME to buy and read all of the books. Why should it be that I cannot complain about the ending? That is wrong.
She can do whatever she pleases, even if it hurts others, just because she is an artist???
OK FINE, with that logic, anybody can be innocent for going around shooting people in the streets, as long as when they line up the bodies, it makes a form of art, right?
WRONG. Artists need to be VERY aware of the wants and needs of their audience, just like anyone else trying to SELL something.
Which brings up the question, if you are selling it to others, is it truly art? Or is it only art when you do it for your own satisfaction and do NOT profit off the work. If there is an audience for 6 years worth of artwork, and a loyal dedicated fan base, then those people SHOULD be considered when creating the finishing touches. After all, without them, the series is NOTHING. Without US, she is looking for a new job and no longer writing the books. Right?
OK I'm done. I will limit my posts from now on to better flavored discussions.
Lol, speaking your mind is allowed.
So I say right on brother. Not to mention skrew you isnt the worst Ive seen people post, /facepalm venom
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I can empathise with your story, just not with the way it has ended.
By the sound of it, Fearless Leader, you grew up without siblings.
Well, so did I. Furthermore, even though my two closest friends, the people with whom I more-or-less grew up, lived within a mile, but my mother never allowed people over to our house, and I never got to visit them outside the school's playground during recess. Every imaginable pressure that can be put upon a young girl was forced on ME, because of my 'superior intellect and musical gifts'. I never had anything to do but read and practice my music. There was no point in trying to play sports by myself, because our yard was tiny, and Mum would fuss that I 'might break a finger or something, and not be able to play piano anymore'. If I even suggested going outdoors, she would dream up some or other pointless chore for me to do, on top of everything else that she expected of me. I was the perfect, flawlessly polite, utterly obedient daughter to her, and she never hesitated to tell me that I was not good enough. To make matters worse, she was the only sentient being with whom I had direct contact, outside school, so I could never escape her ridiculous condescension. However, I was always far too intelligent to ruin my own future by seeking vengeance against her unintended cruelties, so I let her think that I did what I did to please her, rather than just to further myself in life.
In school activities, I have always been assigned the leadership position, so automatically that I frequently was excluded from the actual decision-making. My work partners just trusted me to already have an A+ plan schemed up.
*Sigh*
Just know that I can empathise. If you ever need to talk about something, or rant about life, and you don't want to worry about being snapped at by other RAFians who don't know the isolation of it all...well, I'm here.
*laugh* Well, now you aren't the only one who has choked up their early life-story. Misery loves company, I guess.
;D
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Right on.
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I'd tell a story about my childhood but, considering I'm twelve...It'd just come right back here....
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Hm. Several things I think I'd like to comment on.
First off, I don't care what it is that you read, science fiction, fantasy, horror, whatever, EVERYthing is somehow based on reality. There is always something that ties it back in with what we know to be real in our world.
Second, Animorphs was always intended to make you think that it was plausible. That things could be happening where you live. The things that they did, the locations, the mentions of Cinnebons and The Gap, were all there to drag you into the mindset that maybe one group of kids sitting around the food court at your mall were the Animorphs. It was all there so that you could picture it being like your home.
Third, what K.A. does with her characters is her business. She can write what she wants. Most of the good or great writers don't write for their fans, they write because they have something to say. And if you like then hey that's great! But if you don't then sorry, try again next time. It's a sort of "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" kind of thing.
Fourth, and probably last (for now :P), I can empathise with both your stories, Estelores probably more so. However, I think it best to leave it for another time. Or at least maybe the Life Board.
One other thing I'd like to say though, for those of you who complain about the ending, or who say that they didn't take anything away from the books, if you read them awhile ago, for instance when you were younger, try going back and reading them again. I think you'll find a new appreciation for them. I read the books when they first came out and I took away several things from it. I've read the series several times since then and each time I've found something new. You really do get a new sense of what's going on, that there are some dark things that go on during the course of the series. I suggest doing this with other books that you liked before too. I'm currently doing a re-read of the Ender series which I loved as a kid but I'm finding so much more to it now that I'm older. It's something to consider. Perception changes with wisdom and experience.
Anyways, I'm sure there are more things that I'd like to comment on, but I'd have to go back and read the past couple of pages again to remember what they were. So I'm sure I'll be back here with more opinions.
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Thank you, Thermal Rider.
I realise, of course, that our life stories SHOULD remain in the life board. That was more of an I-understand-you-so-please-don't-feel-the-need-to-bite-off-my-head type of post. Still, you make an excellent point.
Let us strive to remain on-topic, please.
Once again, I believe that it was Ms. Applegate's exclusive right to do as she pleased with her creations, as I've already stated. If she had made them all nothlits and fed them to a lerdethak, I'd have been okay with it (albeit after a moment of fuming rage). It's her prerogative.
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Let us strive to remain on-topic, please.
Once again, I believe that it was Ms. Applegate's exclusive right to do as she pleased with her creations, as I've already stated. If she had made them all nothlits and fed them to a lerdethak, I'd have been okay with it (albeit after a moment of fuming rage). It's her prerogative.
Haha...That would've sucked...And taken pretty much one book.
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actually, the letherdak thing almost happened in book 11... ALMOST... :p
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Does anyone know if there's any talk of a Sequel Series being made by her, that'll deal with The One as the main enemy? Of course the series would be completely different in tone and style from the first series, due to all the main characters pretty much being depressed in some way, and that's if they even return. Now that the Government has the ability to morph, it could follow a special task force made by them to battle The One.
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She said she'd like to write a 55-60, but it's up to scholastic. I don't know what it would be about, but it'd be cool if it happened.
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Was that recently? Cause if it was a long time ago, then I can't see much point in hoping for it now.
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She said she'd like to write a 55-60, but it's up to scholastic. I don't know what it would be about, but it'd be cool if it happened.
I'd like to know where she said this, because I'm fairly sure she ended the series in the first place because she felt that Animorphs had had its run and it was time for it to end. I believe Scholastic would've allowed her to continue on by renewing her contract, but they stopped it because it was her decision to do so. (I got this from Morphz, who were covering that news story at that time) In fact, Animorphs still had 1 book left in its contract after #54, which was meant to be Megamorphs #5 (or a series bible for the fans), but K.A decided not to do it, and it was instead moved into the Remnants contract so that series could have an extra book.
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yep that was a long time ago. over 5 years ago I believe. maybe even 7 years ago
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She said she'd like to write a 55-60, but it's up to scholastic. I don't know what it would be about, but it'd be cool if it happened.
I'd like to know where she said this, because I'm fairly sure she ended the series in the first place because she felt that Animorphs had had its run and it was time for it to end. I believe Scholastic would've allowed her to continue on by renewing her contract, but they stopped it because it was her decision to do so. (I got this from Morphz, who were covering that news story at that time) In fact, Animorphs still had 1 book left in its contract after #54, which was meant to be Megamorphs #5 (or a series bible for the fans), but it was instead moved into the Remnants contract so that series could have an extra book.
She said it in a message or something. I remember reading it on Project AM, but that's gone, so I don't know where you could find that now.
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A bunch of people at livejournal I think put together a huge email to KA with their praise and thoughts about Animorphs, and at least one person asked if she would ever continue the series. KA responded to them, and mentioned that she'd be willing to write books 55-60 if Scholastic gave them the contract. So she wasn't really saying, hey I'm going to try to get Scholastic to let me continue the series now, she was just explaining the situation pretty much and how it wasn't in her hands.
I loved the ending of Animorphs, even Cassie staying behind and the One and Ram the Blade Ship. I'm pretty sure the One is meant to be a representation of the evil the Animorphs had been fighting against from the start--controlling slaves, stealing bodies, cults that surrender freedom to become part of something greater--in addition to representing the themes of morphing and changes. So the ending was KA's way of making a final statement about her characters, how they're heroes--unafraid of insane death-defying stunts--who are always going to be fighting on the side of freedom. The outcome isn't as important as understanding what the Animorphs stand for and that they'll continue fighting.
I think it's a bit weird how The Andalite Chronicles, a dark story with endearing characters and an utterly tragic ending, is beloved by fans while the outcome of the final arc is so despised by many.
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I think it's a bit weird how The Andalite Chronicles, a dark story with endearing characters and an utterly tragic ending, is beloved by fans while the outcome of the final arc is so despised by many.
Because it wasn't the very last book. It was a bittersweet ending, which in itself I didn't mind.
However, the last book has more bad things happen than good things, and doesn't really give closure. Someone posted that the fact the Animorphs are the ones that defeated the Yeerks was a major bone KA threw to us. Personally, I wouldn't care who defeated the Yeerks as long as the ending was more good than bad and actually ended.
When I watch TV shows, I don't mind episodes ending in cliffhangers in the middle of a season. I do hate it when the last episode of a season ends in a cliffhanger, and I have to wait months to see what happens.
Animorphs is worse, because the cliffhanger will never be resolved. There was no good reason for Rachel to get killed by five amateurs. There was no good reason to end the series with a cliffhanger. There was no good reason for Tobias to leave everything he still had in the world just because he lost his girlfriend.
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Tobias didn't lose just a girlfriend. He lost the love of his life, the one person that he cared for more than any other and the one that felt the same way about him. She was his lifeline to humanity. Without her, he felt he had nothing left in his life. If the war was still going on then maybe he would have kept fighting, but with the fight against the Yeerks on Earth over, he had nothing left to come back for.
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Tobias didn't lose just a girlfriend. He lost the love of his life, the one person that he cared for more than any other and the one that felt the same way about him. She was his lifeline to humanity. Without her, he felt he had nothing left in his life. If the war was still going on then maybe he would have kept fighting, but with the fight against the Yeerks on Earth over, he had nothing left to come back for.
Well, he's wrong about that. Somebody should have snapped him back to reality. Helped him get over it.
Marco and Cassie made an attempt to help Jake, and they should have made one to help Tobias.
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How was he wrong? His entire family was dead-and/or-worthless, his best friend/uncle was off doing his own Andalite thing, and the only person he loved was dead. He blamed Jake for her death, and Marco and Cassie he blamed for their association with him and their failure to stop him. All of them reminded of his own pain and loss. How do you expect him to 'snap out of it'? There was nothing on Earth to give him a good enough reason to care. To 'snap out of something', you have to have something to LIVE FOR. He had nothing, by his own definitions.
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He still had his mother. He could have left with Ax. Ax is his shorm and family, so there would be little reason not to leave with Ax.
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I think it's a bit weird how The Andalite Chronicles, a dark story with endearing characters and an utterly tragic ending, is beloved by fans while the outcome of the final arc is so despised by many.
Because it wasn't the very last book. It was a bittersweet ending, which in itself I didn't mind.
However, the last book has more bad things happen than good things, and doesn't really give closure. Someone posted that the fact the Animorphs are the ones that defeated the Yeerks was a major bone KA threw to us. Personally, I wouldn't care who defeated the Yeerks as long as the ending was more good than bad and actually ended.
When I watch TV shows, I don't mind episodes ending in cliffhangers in the middle of a season. I do hate it when the last episode of a season ends in a cliffhanger, and I have to wait months to see what happens.
Animorphs is worse, because the cliffhanger will never be resolved. There was no good reason for Rachel to get killed by five amateurs. There was no good reason to end the series with a cliffhanger. There was no good reason for Tobias to leave everything he still had in the world just because he lost his girlfriend.
Exactly.
The Andalite Chronicles broke my heart. It was dark, it was a love story, and it was one of the best books in the series. You can't really compare it to the last book.
FearlessLeader put it very nicely with his food analogy, so I'm not going to rehash all of that. Of course I think that an artist should have free rein over what they want to produce. However, someone who writes a children's series through Scholastic is in the business to make money.
I think K.A is eloquent and creative, but she certainly isn't untouchable. I don't know how many of you like Star Wars, but I consider Star Wars to be my other not-so-guilty science fiction pleasure. Look at how many of those super-nerd Star Wars fans vilified George Lucas for putting Jar Jar Binks into Episode One - he was, and basically still is, the butt of every Star Wars joke. And guess what Lucas did? He wrote him out of the series by drastically reducing his role, but did it in a way that helped the series.
George Lucas and K.A. Applegate both created amazing stories. However, they did it because they wanted to make money. If George Lucas wasn't concerned about making a profit, he would've made Star Wars into one of those low-budget indie B-movies. (It could be said that Lucas needed the big studio money to get the effects, but Lucas was already in the business and he probably could've worked around it if he were stuck with an indie budget.)
I'm not saying that indie films are the only films that are good and all big-budget films are terrible. That's irrelevant, I've seen good and terrible films from both types of companies. But it's a fact of life that if someone wants to make money, they'll go to a big publishing house or a big movie company because that's where the money is.
I think the woman is a creative genius, but I don't think of her like I think of French artists starving to death because nobody will buy their paintings. I'm not saying one is better than the other - it's simply her devotion to her work, or lackthereof. If she were so serious about her "art" as you like to put it, don't you think she would've written more of the books herself? Yeah, some of the ghostwriters were fantastic, but #37 is the best example of someone missing Rachel's character entirely. And didn't she say that she "revised and edited them"? She obviously didn't do that much editing because there wouldn't be so many KASU's. There's a difference between writing out Jake's thoughtspeak in #1 and retconning things later on, but there were glaring errors in later books that she didn't pick up on. For a "serious artist", she didn't seem very serious.
And it's the quality of the book. There's a difference between disliking a genre or medium and disliking content. Putting personal preference aside, there are good paintings and there are bad paintings. Let's say that there's a painting of a monster devouring a baby in an art museum. For the sake of this example, it's a bad painting because the monster and the baby's mother are too far apart, which creates boring, empty space that looks bad. The lighting is also bad. Next to it you have Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Son", which is a masterpiece. The subject matter is the same, but Goya's painting is better because of the contrast, the colors used, the facial expressions, etc.
If she wanted to write this last book the way she did, fine. But she shouldn't get pissy at people who didn't like it because WE'RE the ones who have made her filthy rich. I don't have to eat at Jose's Mexican cafe, but if I order a crispy chicken taco and get a cold enchilada, I have a right to be angry. I don't have to go back, but Jose can't say that I'm in the wrong for not liking his crappy food when I'm the one who bought it. FearlessLeader's analogy was better, but you get the idea.
Really, how dare she end Animorphs on such a bad note and then tell us to buy her next series in the farewell. Oh and, surprise surprise, she had Remnants ghostwritten too. I think she's lazy and arrogant, which breaks my heart because she's certainly up there with George Lucas. I would not be so angry if I didn't love Animorphs so much.
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If she wanted to write this last book the way she did, fine. But she shouldn't get pissy at people who didn't like it because WE'RE the ones who have made her filthy rich.
I agree with some of what you say, but I just can't agree with this point. She wasn't angry at fans for not liking the last book--she was angry at them for misinterpreting its message. I mentioned earlier that she probably shouldn't have written the response at all, and that's why. An author cannot expect his or her readers to uniformly interpret a work in one particular way, and KA made that mistake in writing this response.
The example of George Lucas is one of the reasons I dislike him (even though I love the original trilogy of Star Wars). Once he had become popular, he didn't mind whoring out his series to every fan on the planet. Personally, I hang on to the belief that he toned down Jar Jar because he himself realized how stupid the character was, but I have no faith in Lucas anymore.
Another good point I saw in this thread that I wanted to enforce was the one about reading this series at different age levels. When I was a kid, I probably would have been mad at that ending too for similar reasons that others have brought up. Today, I thought it fit in very well with the theme of the series and was completely appropriate, even if not perfect. Whether KA cared about the series or not, she was still its creator--I applaud her for not selling out to her fans in the ending.
But I'll agree that the Remnants preview was totally pretentious and inappropriate at the tail of the book. I'm willing to bet it was Scholastic's decision to put it there, though. It probably needed the sales.
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so at what age would it be good to read the ending. I read it this year when I was thirteen, although I already knew the main points long before that.
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Ha ha. Well, there isn't any particular age; it's all about the experiences one has, which tend to occur in the teenage and young adult years. It's just that I see the world in a completely different way now than I did when I was a preteen. I've made my own video games and short movies and worked with others on them, experiencing the power of creative control and even the relationship with audiences. I've studied English Literature for the past three years. While I'm not an expert on either subject, and likely won't ever be, I still picked up on a lot more while reading these books than I ever would have before. ("More" probably isn't the right word--it's that I pick up on different things) Of course, there are other experiences I've had that have changed my reading, and not everyone has lived my life, nor I theirs.
One example. I used to hate Cassie, like a lot of readers, because she made stupid mistakes, loved the enemy and didn't want to be involved in the story at all. Now that's why I find her the most fascinating character in the series.
So really, it isn't about age so much--I didn't mean to stress that word--it's about perception. I imagine that if you or any reader were to read the series again in ten years like I did, especially after forgetting most of it, you would see it in a whole new light as well. Especially at the age you claim to be--going from 13 to 23, people change a lot.
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If she wanted to write this last book the way she did, fine. But she shouldn't get pissy at people who didn't like it because WE'RE the ones who have made her filthy rich.
I agree with some of what you say, but I just can't agree with this point. She wasn't angry at fans for not liking the last book--she was angry at them for misinterpreting its message. I mentioned earlier that she probably shouldn't have written the response at all, and that's why. An author cannot expect his or her readers to uniformly interpret a work in one particular way, and KA made that mistake in writing this response.
I thought it was in very poor taste.
I didn't misinterpret the ending, I knew exactly what she was going for. I just think she implemented it badly.
The example of George Lucas is one of the reasons I dislike him (even though I love the original trilogy of Star Wars). Once he had become popular, he didn't mind whoring out his series to every fan on the planet. Personally, I hang on to the belief that he toned down Jar Jar because he himself realized how stupid the character was, but I have no faith in Lucas anymore.
George Lucas is money-hungry, but keep in mind that he doesn't consider Expanded Universe to fit into the top tier of Star Wars canon (G-canon, if I'm not mistaken). He just wants it as he left it.
Yeah, Jar-Jar was a marketing tool to young Star Wars fans. I don't think he needed angry fans to tell him Jar Jar was irritating and pointless, but it certainly helped.
The point I was making wasn't that an author or a movie creator needs to dictate what their fans want. It's that they can't expect their fans to automatically love what they produce just because it's from them.
Another good point I saw in this thread that I wanted to enforce was the one about reading this series at different age levels. When I was a kid, I probably would have been mad at that ending too for similar reasons that others have brought up. Today, I thought it fit in very well with the theme of the series and was completely appropriate, even if not perfect. Whether KA cared about the series or not, she was still its creator--I applaud her for not selling out to her fans in the ending.
I don't think she was selling out because how would she have known people wouldn't have liked the last few books before #54 came out? Animorphs books were released every month - that's not really enough time for a bunch of fans to come knocking on her door telling her they hated #53 and that Jake shouldn't have flushed the Yeerk pool.
I'm not saying that she should write the ending a certain way because I want it that way. I'm saying that it was a bad-quality ending and would've been more entertaining written another way.
And about your maturity levels thing. I'm seventeen years old, so I read that book when I was ten. I thought it was crap back then and I've thought it was crap ever since. My opinion didn't change much, and I'm a pretty smart girl. If anything, my reasons for disliking it have become more complex.
But I'll agree that the Remnants preview was totally pretentious and inappropriate at the tail of the book. I'm willing to bet it was Scholastic's decision to put it there, though. It probably needed the sales.
For such a starving artist, she really gives in to Scholastic, doesn't she.
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And about your maturity levels thing. I'm seventeen years old, so I read that book when I was ten. I thought it was crap back then and I've thought it was crap ever since. My opinion didn't change much, and I'm a pretty smart girl. If anything, my reasons for disliking it have become more complex.
I said nothing about maturity, though I can understand interpreting what I posted that way. There's a difference between "studying something for four years" and "living for four years," which is why I point out that age itself has nothing to do with the way we interpet fiction. And naturally, I wasn't implying that your opinion would totally change. Mine did (or actually, I never read #54 before, but I have a feeling I would have hated it then), but yours stayed the same, only with new reasons. In either case, it's a good reason to reread the series, eh?
And I certainly didn't mean to imply that anyone was unintelligent. I'd agree; you seem pretty smart, even though I disagree with some of your points. The fact that you can back up your points proves it well enough.
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well...scholastics publish the book...
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well...scholastics publish the book...
He's got a point there...
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well...scholastics publish the book...
He's got a point there...
And you missed my point entirely.
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And about your maturity levels thing. I'm seventeen years old, so I read that book when I was ten. I thought it was crap back then and I've thought it was crap ever since. My opinion didn't change much, and I'm a pretty smart girl. If anything, my reasons for disliking it have become more complex.
I said nothing about maturity, though I can understand interpreting what I posted that way. There's a difference between "studying something for four years" and "living for four years," which is why I point out that age itself has nothing to do with the way we interpet fiction. And naturally, I wasn't implying that your opinion would totally change. Mine did (or actually, I never read #54 before, but I have a feeling I would have hated it then), but yours stayed the same, only with new reasons. In either case, it's a good reason to reread the series, eh?
And I certainly didn't mean to imply that anyone was unintelligent. I'd agree; you seem pretty smart, even though I disagree with some of your points. The fact that you can back up your points proves it well enough.
Thanks. :)
Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was illustrating a contrast.
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well...scholastics publish the book...
He's got a point there...
And you missed my point entirely.
ok...so what's was your point?
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Missed your point? Did either of them say ANYTHING to suggest that?
Maybe they were making a separate point, with nothing whatever to do with your point. Did that not occur to you? Take some time off from being surly and open your mind, please. :) The world is actually sometimes quite a nice place.
Has no one considered that perhaps K.A. could not write a different ending, BECAUSE of Scholastic? Many publishers have a MAJOR control over what the writer is actually allowed to print.
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well...scholastics publish the book...
He's got a point there...
And you missed my point entirely.
ok...so what's was your point?
I think she meant that some people have tried to depict KA as a textbook "Pure artist," starving in the streets (and enjoying it!), which makes it ironic that she didn't mind advertising for a huge company like Scholastic at the end of the series she was so "passionate about writing."
Not that I totally agree, but I think that was it.
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well...scholastics publish the book...
He's got a point there...
And you missed my point entirely.
ok...so what's was your point?
Many of you wrote paragraphs about how "KA was staying true to her artistic vision" by writing the last book the way she did, but then she panders to us to buy her new series.
If Scholastic asked her to do it, why didn't she refuse? You would think she would have the class.
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well...scholastics publish the book...
He's got a point there...
And you missed my point entirely.
ok...so what's was your point?
I think she meant that some people have tried to depict KA as a textbook "Pure artist," starving in the streets (and enjoying it!), which makes it ironic that she didn't mind advertising for a huge company like Scholastic at the end of the series she was so "passionate about writing."
Not that I totally agree, but I think that was it.
Exactly.
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Has no one considered that perhaps K.A. could not write a different ending, BECAUSE of Scholastic? Many publishers have a MAJOR control over what the writer is actually allowed to print.
Hmm. This is possible, indeed. I would hope not, but considering that KA has mentioned wanting to write six more books in the past, I wouldn't count it out as a possibility.
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If Scholastic asked her to do it, why didn't she refuse? You would think she would have the class.
Contract. Legal issues. Breaking contract = REALLY BAD IDEA.
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well...scholastics publish the book...
He's got a point there...
And you missed my point entirely.
ok...so what's was your point?
Many of you wrote paragraphs about how "KA was staying true to her artistic vision" by writing the last book the way she did, but then she panders to us to buy her new series.
If Scholastic asked her to do it, why didn't she refuse? You would think she would have the class.
maybe if she refused...scholasti cs won't publish the last book? I don't know how the writing industry works.
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Yeah, like Este said, a contract.
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If Scholastic asked her to do it, why didn't she refuse? You would think she would have the class.
Contract. Legal issues. Breaking contract = REALLY BAD IDEA.
So? She's an "artist", she writes what she wants to write.
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Mmm-hmmmn. But would you keep writing if, every time you DID, the publisher edited out everything that you wanted and totally changed it, then threatened to sue you if you tried that again?
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I'm still not quite sure what the thing is with suing, but the first part about changing, yeah that'd be bad.
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Sueing someone is taking them to court and accusing them of something, demanding money or prison time in compensations.
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ok...not as bad as the first, but still bad.
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Mmm-hmmmn. But would you keep writing if, every time you DID, the publisher edited out everything that you wanted and totally changed it, then threatened to sue you if you tried that again?
I would look for a new publisher until I had found one that would allow me to stay true to myself. And if that didn't happen, I just wouldn't get published.
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Getting a new publisher generally involves breaking contract. Bad.
What is the point of making art that no one gets to read? Plus, it WAS her major source of funds.
Lose-lose situation.
Stop trying to find excuses.
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if the last book doesn't get published, animorphs will end in even more of a cliffhanger, and more people will probably hate it.
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actually if they had ended things at 53 it wouldnt have been that bad for some people, they could kind of figure out what happened, the actual necessary plot points were more or less handled
i personally loved 54 and loved that there was a whole book dealing with their post-war lives, tying up alot of the plot points
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But, if you think about it, having the last one was much better than ending at 53.
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oh yea, definately, for me and you, but for some people that hated 54, 53 didnt make that bad of an ending, unless they hated it just for the fact that it was a cliffhanger cause 53 would leave an even worse one
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I loved #54, except that teensy little paragraph where jake said cassie wasn't coming.
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Thanks to the E-books I just read the last 5 animorphs for the first time. I loved the ending! I think everything was exactly as it needed to be, even the cliffhanger.
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Thanks to the E-books I just read the last 5 animorphs for the first time. I loved the ending! I think everything was exactly as it needed to be, even the cliffhanger.
another satisfied customer, keep em coming KA haha
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I still don't understand what's so "bad" about it... I dunno if i'm missing a major point here, but, I kind of liked the way it ended. If K.A just wrote to please fans and not stay true to the Animorph's story... then wouldn't it be "worse"?
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no, you're not missing a point. not everyone sees it like that though.
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some of us feel that the ending was a little cheap and it could have been done diffrently and we have some very good points.
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Yes, I agree with "a little", like the One part.... but other than that, not much of a bad ending. I mean, no one is perfect, right? And you can't satisfy everyone either. :)
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Yes, I agree with "a little", like the One part.... but other than that, not much of a bad ending. I mean, no one is perfect, right? And you can't satisfy everyone either. :)
I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Animorphs fans weren't satisfied with the ending.
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what's wrong with the one? he's my favourite bad guy...well assuming he is a guy?
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what's wrong with the one? he's my favourite bad guy...well assuming he is a guy?
How can he be your favorite villain? You know nothing about him.
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what's wrong with the one? he's my favourite bad guy...well assuming he is a guy?
How can he be your favorite villain? You know nothing about him.
that's why. cuz I know nothing about him.
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what's wrong with the one? he's my favourite bad guy...well assuming he is a guy?
How can he be your favorite villain? You know nothing about him.
that's why. cuz I know nothing about him.
Okay. Whatever floats your boat. I like mysterious characters too, but I also like to know enough to hold a solid opinion of them.
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I have to agree with Daphnes on this point. I would have liked to know what all this 'the one' business was, although I still feel that the ending is otherwise well enough.
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Umm... about this:
Yes, I agree with "a little", like the One part.... but other than that, not much of a bad ending. I mean, no one is perfect, right? And you can't satisfy everyone either. :)
I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Animorphs fans weren't satisfied with the ending.
I can't agree with this. I don't see much people that weren't "satisfied" with the ending. not much. I mean, I don't see Estelore and morfowt fending of every member of RAF in the K.A defense debate LOL. Maybe there were some points a vast majority of the fans didn't like, but not necessarily "not satisfied".
I didn't like some points, but I am "satisfied". I like the ending. Sure, mighty morphing kids aren't realistic, but that doesn't mean their motives, actions, and thoughts should be unrealistic as well. :)
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Umm... about this:
Yes, I agree with "a little", like the One part.... but other than that, not much of a bad ending. I mean, no one is perfect, right? And you can't satisfy everyone either. :)
I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Animorphs fans weren't satisfied with the ending.
I can't agree with this. I don't see much people that weren't "satisfied" with the ending. not much. I mean, I don't see Estelore and morfowt fending of every member of RAF in the K.A defense debate LOL. Maybe there were some points a vast majority of the fans didn't like, but not necessarily "not satisfied".
I didn't like some points, but I am "satisfied". I like the ending. Sure, mighty morphing kids aren't realistic, but that doesn't mean their motives, actions, and thoughts should be unrealistic as well. :)
You have to consider this forum's target demographic. Everyone on here is a serious Animorphs fan.
Pretty much everyone has seen Star Wars, but only about 10% of them are serious fans who buy all of the merchandise and go on websites and spend a fortune on action figures they never take out of the box. Most people know Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Emperor Palpatine, but only a few people could rattle off the names of every character you see for 3 seconds as the camera passes over them on the streets of Coruscant.
The average person isn't going to be satisfied with a Debbie Downer ending, regardless of the genre. I'd say that the only genres that unhappy endings typically work for are historical fiction (depending on the event) and love stories. And even then it depends on how it's done - The English Patient was much better than Becoming Jane.
Regardless of whether or not you thought it was justified, the average person who isn't an expert on the series isn't going to like it.
I have my own reasons for not liking it, but the fact that it would be so hard to sell just sticks out in my mind as well. I think that the books would've stayed around longer if it ended on a better note.
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actually, I haven't seen star wars and know nothing about it except it has lightsabres.
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actually, I haven't seen star wars and know nothing about it except it has lightsabres.
You need to see it.
But watch it 4-5-6 and then 1-2-3.
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actually, I haven't seen star wars and know nothing about it except it has lightsabres.
:o Gasp! And gasp again! :o
It's one of the greatest science fiction stories I've ever seen. They started with 4-6, which you should start out with, and then did 1-3. ! has Jar Jar, which is a character I actually like, but many agree he doesn't really fit in the series. 3 seemed a bit rushed to me, but there was always that risk.
4-6 are greatness, and should be watched. You can watch 1-3 if you want afterwards.
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uh...no thank you. I don't like star wars and I don't think I ever will.
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uh...no thank you. I don't like star wars and I don't think I ever will.
You've never seen it! How do you know that you don't like something before you've ever seen it?
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I've heard commercials :p
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I've heard commercials :p
That isn't a good excuse.
Either way, just watch the series once. It's something everyone should see at least once.
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fine whatever.
ok, I'm watching it. and I already hate the theme song because I've heard it a million times already.
ok I watched #4. I have opinions but not positive ones.
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lets stay on topic
i was "satisfied" with then ending of animorphs because it was like 80% ok
but certian things could have been diffrent
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Umm... about this:
Yes, I agree with "a little", like the One part.... but other than that, not much of a bad ending. I mean, no one is perfect, right? And you can't satisfy everyone either. :)
I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Animorphs fans weren't satisfied with the ending.
I can't agree with this. I don't see much people that weren't "satisfied" with the ending. not much. I mean, I don't see Estelore and morfowt fending of every member of RAF in the K.A defense debate LOL. Maybe there were some points a vast majority of the fans didn't like, but not necessarily "not satisfied".
I didn't like some points, but I am "satisfied". I like the ending. Sure, mighty morphing kids aren't realistic, but that doesn't mean their motives, actions, and thoughts should be unrealistic as well. :)
You have to consider this forum's target demographic. Everyone on here is a serious Animorphs fan.
Pretty much everyone has seen Star Wars, but only about 10% of them are serious fans who buy all of the merchandise and go on websites and spend a fortune on action figures they never take out of the box. Most people know Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Emperor Palpatine, but only a few people could rattle off the names of every character you see for 3 seconds as the camera passes over them on the streets of Coruscant.
The average person isn't going to be satisfied with a Debbie Downer ending, regardless of the genre. I'd say that the only genres that unhappy endings typically work for are historical fiction (depending on the event) and love stories. And even then it depends on how it's done - The English Patient was much better than Becoming Jane.
Regardless of whether or not you thought it was justified, the average person who isn't an expert on the series isn't going to like it.
I have my own reasons for not liking it, but the fact that it would be so hard to sell just sticks out in my mind as well. I think that the books would've stayed around longer if it ended on a better note.
People who arent fans of the series cant have an opinion on the subject lol
I wouldnt call an animorphs fan an average reader either, they were prepared for a realistic ending like that the entire series
Id say a fair amount of people didnt like the ending, maybe even half, but actually hated it, small percentage
I think I'm in the very small minority of people that absolutely loved the ending lol I wouldnt have wanted them to do a single thing differently
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I don't care that the ending was somewhat depressing, as that adds more realism. The main reason why I hated the ending was because it wasn't really an ending at all. They were going to be thrown into a battle that could haven been expanded into another series. We don't know if Ax survived or not, nor do we know what will happen to the others. It would be one thing if we were left with two possible yet definite endings, such as if either all of them died or they rescued Ax and returned home. But there were just too many factors.
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If KA wanted to go into a new series of books that happened after the liberation of Earth, then it would be easier to have them try to liberate the HB Homeworld. I always figured the start of the Free HB Valley was forshadowing something that could happen after earth was saved.
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this isnt going to change my opinion... Animorph has always been science fiction... why choose the ending to be realistic.
I think the people who choose to read fiction books want to escape from the real world, not having a sad ending reflecting what maybe teir trying to escape.
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Can't you have both? Believable reality-grounded science-fiction?
The complaining about the ending is ridiculous/
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So don't talk to people about it? People are allowed to have their own feelings about the ending of the series. If you don't want to discuss it, then don't. But stop trying to tell people they're wrong or bad because they feel differently than you.
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although I have to agree with xenomorph on this one. the complaints and the arguing are getting ridiculous.
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Yeah, that's a fair enough expectation. People shouldn't have to tolerate bashing of their opinions. I suppose I just wish people could be a little more specific with reasons and supporting logic when they say things, rather than "t3h ending suxx0red like cuz Rayshul died, lolol". It honestly infuriates me.
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Fair enough, how about if I say I disliked the ending because it seemed horribly rushed and that the big confrontation at the end of a 54 book series shouldn't amount to Visser 3 going "Oh ****, you guys were serious? I surrender."
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But...that's exactly what happens in war. It's not about grand epic confrontations and pose-striking, people do give up, things do end without big dramatic finales.
The ending basically illustrates that perfectly. It's like the anti-action movie. Plausible, grounded.
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I'm just saying 54 books of build-up should have had a better payoff than Visser Three throwing his hands up and going "Oh this is YOUR planet, ****, our bad."
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...He didn't.
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Again, I'm saying that's how it seemed to me. Visser 3 just gave up. You may like it, I don't happen to. I'm glad you do. That doesn't make me wrong, because it's my own feelings on the book.
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But the book shows that he didn't give up, and that's what I take issue with. Everyone's entitled to an opinion, except for when there's hard evidence to counteract it.
Like, I could say "in my opinion Katherine Applegate wrote these books all on her own!", but there's pretty concrete evidence to say that's not the case.
Just like the fact that the Visser could either surrender or be certainly killed, and the Visser's established personality, and the fact that the book's canon establishes that Yeerk's won't fight when they have no chance of winning, that all points to Visser Three not "giving up", rather being beaten.
Opinion's all well and good, just not when there's no grounds to hold it.
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I think at this point we should just let that go because I'm not going to change your opinion and you're not going to change mine.
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Well, yes, but that's a cop-out.
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No... it's just saying that you won't change my mind so stop trying to tell me that my opinion is wrong. I'm not saying that yours is wrong. Stop acting like the way I feel or think about something is somehow offending you. I don't have to answer any further than I have, so please stop pushing. Just step away from it. It's called an opinion, please learn to let people have them.
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I never said your opinion is wrong. Only that everything in the book points to the opposite of what your opinion is. You're still allowed to have it.
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But the book shows that he didn't give up, and that's what I take issue with. Everyone's entitled to an opinion, except for when there's hard evidence to counteract it.
Like, I could say "in my opinion Katherine Applegate wrote these books all on her own!", but there's pretty concrete evidence to say that's not the case.
Just like the fact that the Visser could either surrender or be certainly killed, and the Visser's established personality, and the fact that the book's canon establishes that Yeerk's won't fight when they have no chance of winning, that all points to Visser Three not "giving up", rather being beaten.
Opinion's all well and good, just not when there's no grounds to hold it.
I still don't get your logic on opinions. It's a FACT that KA didn't write all the books herself. Saying she wrote all the books herself isn't an opinion. it's fact...that's wrong.
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That's his point, he's trying to say that my saying what I said and calling it my opinion is as bad as saying that and calling it an opinion.
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...wait...what? I didn't get that.
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I was saying that my opinion was that Visser 3 just gave up at the end of the book when he shouldn't have after 54 books of build up. Xeno was trying to say that my stating that opinion was the same sort of thing as someone saying that K.A. wrote all the books, since the latter is obviously factually inaccurate.
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oh, now I get it.
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this isnt going to change my opinion... Animorph has always been science fiction... why choose the ending to be realistic.
I think the people who choose to read fiction books want to escape from the real world, not having a sad ending reflecting what maybe teir trying to escape.
I know this has gotten a bit debatish, just judging from the few posts I've read. (Because I am honestly too lazy to read through 20thousand or so posts to see what's been going on.)
But I have to say I agree with xoxogabyxoxo. I do tend to read books to escape reality. That's why I like fiction.
However, my reasons behind not liking the Animorphs series don't simply stem from that. I've read plenty of books where characters die. And, yes, while I may get annoyed or cry or whatever, if the story's still good, I'm going to keep reading it. (F.E. Death Note)
But, I'm saying this now. After 18 years of life, I've realized that the world isn't full of rainbows and idealistic things from childhood. I didn't quite have the same understanding roughly 7-8 (maybe more, I honestly don't remember exactly how long ago it ended) years ago, when the series ended.
I was upwards of 11. You know the time. When you're full of optimism (despite the fact that you are, in fact a pessamist). When you think that everything is going to have a happy ending. When you get overly upset when it doesn't. (Old Yeller. A.I.) You don't really understand things like war tearing apart people, tearing apart relationships, tearing apart families. You think that everyone will survive and be happy. You think, incorrectly, that Jake and Cassie are going to get married. Or you're expecting Cassie to die, since it was constantly forshadowed. You think that Tobias and Ax and Rachel and Marco will all be happy doing something.
You don't expect to get harshly dumped into reality at the end of the series when everything else seemed to be, well, formulaic. There's a problem, problem gets worse, an Animorph or more may get captured, everyone gets out alive, everything's at least marginally ok. You expect that in the end of the series everyone will be fine. No one will die and everyone will be happy. Yes, you'd be ok with maybe a hint that the Yeerks are still out there. That maybe others will have to fight them.
You do not expect "Ram the Blade Ship" to be the last thing you read. To be left with everyone pretty much going to die, in your opinion, except Cassie, who is going to marry some guy you don't care about because she's suppose to marry Jake. Right?
Only nothing happens the way you expect. And you find yourself sitting in your room, crying.
And then you read the letter from K.A. herself. The letter that, in your opinion, sounds more like a cop-out. Like "sorry guys, but I couldn't think of a good ending, so I'm going to leave it up to you."
No one has to agree with my opinion. (And I'm honestly not sure what made me switch from first person to second, but once I started I couldn't stop.) This is just what I feel.
About the letter at the end: that's honestly all I can remember of it. It may be completely wrong, but considering I haven't touched that book since, except to shove it in a plastic bag for donation, I'm having to work from very faulty memory. And I really mean no offense to K.A., but that's just what it felt like. To me.
You can agree, you can disagree. I just felt that I needed to get it out. Mostly because if I didn't, my mind would bug me about it for the next couple of months until I did.
And as for K.A. not writing all of the books...Oh. I didn't know that. Well, actually I sort of read something about ghostwriters on the forum earlier, but I guess it's just that stupid 11-year-old in me going, "lalalalala I don't want to hear it lalalalalala".
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I think the point some of us are trying to make is that... most of us first read these books as young early teens. Some of us grew up with them and some got into the series after it was over, or almost over. But in any case, the vast majority of us were in our early teens when we were brought into the wonderful universe of the Animorphs, a universe where children could stand up for themselves, and for the world. It was a universe where we could be taken seriously, where people just like us were risking their lives and fighting, and even if what we did meant nothing in comparison to that, at least one author was taking us seriously and letting us believe that we weren't a joke, that kids like us weren't a joke. Reading the books we could transfer part of ourselves to Jake, Tobias, Cassie, Rachel, or Marco, and have hope.
Maybe you say I'm taking it too seriously, but it WAS that serious to a lot of people. We spent... years growing attached to these characters, seeing them grow, seeing them fail and succeed. For some of us, it wasn't 'cool' to like Animorphs. We stuck with it because we loved the characters, and the story.
We grew up with them, and that's why we feel like we deserved a real ending, not just what we got. Maybe what happened was realistic. Maybe there never is a real final confrontation. Maybe people die and others lose their nerve and others can't go on after a war. Maybe one war always does lead into another pointless war.
But you know what? We didn't read the books to read a history of war. We didn't read the books to see the psychological effects of leaving a war behind. We didn't read the books to see all the characters we loved fail in the end. We read the books because we loved them. We loved the characters. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect a happy ending, but we were children, and teenagers. It's unrealistic, but we deserved it. We deserved the chance to maintain our optimism. We deserved the chance to see good win in the end. We deserved the chance to see Rachel be with Tobias. We deserved the chance to see Cassie be with Jake. We deserved the chance to see Ax avenge his brother.
In the end, we deserved the chance maintain the hope that what we did would matter. The series wasn't about a war story to me. It was about six kids doing the impossible and making a difference. It was about winning, even if you stumble along the way. It was about Jake, Tobias, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, and Ax.
In the end, I think K.A. forgot that and made it a story about war, more than characters. She wrote a very well written ending, with many twists I didn't expect, some I even liked. She wrote a good ending, for a war story, but I don't think she wrote a good ending for the Animorphs story, and I don't think she wrote the ending we, or they deserved.
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hmm...maybe that's the difference. I only spent a year reading the entire series, so maybe that's why I wasn't that affected by the ending...although the fact that I wouldn't do anything even if I don't like something also has something to do with it.
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I think the point some of us are trying to make is that... most of us first read these books as young early teens. Some of us grew up with them and some got into the series after it was over, or almost over. But in any case, the vast majority of us were in our early teens when we were brought into the wonderful universe of the Animorphs, a universe where children could stand up for themselves, and for the world. It was a universe where we could be taken seriously, where people just like us were risking their lives and fighting, and even if what we did meant nothing in comparison to that, at least one author was taking us seriously and letting us believe that we weren't a joke, that kids like us weren't a joke. Reading the books we could transfer part of ourselves to Jake, Tobias, Cassie, Rachel, or Marco, and have hope.
Maybe you say I'm taking it too seriously, but it WAS that serious to a lot of people. We spent... years growing attached to these characters, seeing them grow, seeing them fail and succeed. For some of us, it wasn't 'cool' to like Animorphs. We stuck with it because we loved the characters, and the story
Well said, Cerulean. This is exactly how I feel. When I was in middle school reading each book ravenously as it was published it was not the "cool" thing to do. In fact my seventh grade year was quite miserable as a direct result of my love for Animorphs. Spitballs being thrown at me, being tripped in the halls, isolated on the bus, the whole shebang.
I certainly did not stay with the series because it was the cool thing to do. I fell in love with it and had to see it through.
However, I think our similarities end there Cerulean. Initially I was torn up by the ending. I HATED it. I wanted to burn the book, and maybe all of the other ones as well. But KA's note at the end helped me give a little bit of peace to the situation.
Now that I'm older I guess I can understand what she was going for more. And I guess I've come to accept it. I do think that perhaps it was a bold (and definitely unpopular) move given her loyal reader base. But I do...respect her...for still getting her message across. I think the message has, to an extent, always been about war rather than simply a story about the characters. The two are intertwined, and it is hard to separate the Animorphs from the war from how the war affects them.
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I do see where you, and she at the time, are/was coming from... good god I just raped the english language into an unrecognizable state... But you get my point, I hope. I see your point, and I do see hers for doing what she did, in ending the series the way that she did. But seeing a point and agreeing with it are two different things. Since that is the way that K.A. felt she needed to end it, good for her, I admire her for sticking to her beliefs, but I still must stick to my own in saying I feel that it was the wrong ending for the series, after reading for upwards of 6 years, to have every character die or fail or leave just... it felt... wrong, and it still does.
My opinion is, and probably always will be that I think KA should have given the series a different ending. I'm really glad that a lot of people did enjoy it, and I still enjoy the entire series up to the last couple books.
However, I will probably always disagree with the way it ended, which is why I prefer to read alternative endings. But that's just me, and my choice that affects nobody else, thankfully.
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In the end, I think K.A. forgot that and made it a story about war, more than characters. She wrote a very well written ending, with many twists I didn't expect, some I even liked. She wrote a good ending, for a war story, but I don't think she wrote a good ending for the Animorphs story, and I don't think she wrote the ending we, or they deserved.
I don't agree. I think the ending was very appropriate to the sort of story we'd been reading for years. The series opens with Elfangor's death. From the start, the characters question whether they'll end up killing their own family members. Book one ends with Tobias trapped as a hawk. That's the starting point of the series.
Consider the nature of the messages and dilemmas that resonated throughout the series. The tragedies the characters face in The Andalite Chronicles or the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. These fantasy space-opera stories get harshly realistic endings yet the storyline set in our world is supposed to get a fluffy fantasy ending?
One of the reasons Animorphs resonated so much with me was the way the characters consistently had to come to terms with the not-ideal realities of their lives. They weren't handed miraculous escape ropes that would make all the crappy dilemmas go away. When their lives sucked they had to adjust.
Even now no easy answers leaped to mind. I
could not easily have stood the bullying. I could
not easily have survived the loneliness. In my
fantasies I could construct fantastic escapes, but
in reality there was no easy way. My life was non-
fiction, not some story where the endings are al-
ways happy. I couldn't simply become a different
person. I couldn't just have some great insight
that would save me from myself.
All I could have done, really, was wait. I could
have endured. I saw that now. It wasn't a dra-
matic answer. Wasn't exactly inspiring.
Endure. Outlast. Outwait.
"It's just so bogus," Jordan said. "I mean, he was just riding his bike
and then, like, all of a sudden his whole life is maybe over."
I nodded. "Yeah. Life isn't fair."
Jordan rolled her eyes at me. She knows a dumb cliche when she hears one.
"Sorry," I said. "Look, bad stuff happens. Doesn't mean it's going to
happen to you. Doesn't mean it's going to happen to me or Sarah or Mom or Dad."
"Yeah, but that's what's so weird and all. I mean, I feel like scum
because I felt kind of glad it wasn't me. You know? It was like 'Whew!
Close one!' But that's not right. I should just be sad. And I am. Only
it's not just sadness. It's also, like, 'Glad it wasn't me!' And then I
was all, like, 'I would never ride my bike like that.' You know, the guy
who ran into him is saying Saddler just shot out into the street without
looking. So I'm thinking Saddler got run over because he was stupid and
careless. But that's not right, either."
"It's not right, but I think it's probably normal," I said. "I mean, you
don't want to think it could happen to you. So you have to come up with
excuses. Ways it could never happen to you. You end up blaming the
person who got hurt. Because then you don't have to think about what if
it was you it happened to. You even start getting mad at the person it
happened to. Like 'How dare he drag me down into all this pit of
darkness? How dare he get hurt and make me feel bad?'"
Jordan nodded. "That's just so wrong, though."
I shrugged. "Yeah, probably. But it's also how people are. You don't
want to go around thinking, 'It could be me next. It could be my sister or mother or father.'
You're going to do anything you can not to feel that way. You have to
put up a wall between you and the fear. You have to cut yourself off
from it, tell yourself you're safe. Bad stuff only happens to people who
are careless or stupid or evil."
I spent a couple of days thinking about what my dad had said. About moving on with our lives. Making a new start. About our being a team.
I'd also thought about what Cassie had said, about having to deal with what "is," things as they are, and not how I wished they were.
And I remembered Jake's immortal words of comfort. "I don't care what your problems are. You deal with this, right now."
But mostly, I remembered what I've always believed. What my mom taught me. That while some things are just plain awful, most things in life can be seen either as tragic or comic. And it's your choice. Is life a big, long, tiresome slog from sadness to regret to guilt to resentment to self-pity? Or is life weird, outrageous, bizarre, ironic, and just stupid?
Gotta go with stupid.
It's not the easy way out. Self-pity is the easiest thing in the world. Finding the humor, the irony, the slight justification for a skewed, skeptical optimism, that's tough.
Anyway.
The past was over and done with.
Time to get on with my life.
Life would have been a lot easier for me if I could have been a simple,
ruthless animal. If all my decisions were straightforward. If everything
made sense.
But that's not the way it is for human beings.
Stuff like this is part of what really elevated Animorphs as a series. These characters had amazing fantastic lives, but I got to see how they struggled to cope with everything that makes life so confusing and difficult and complicated. The plot didn't hand them escape ropes, they had to rely on their various coping mechanisms. Some fared better than others. They all had their high points and their low points, and I could look at how they dealt with their problems, what worked and what didn't, and apply that to the way I live. If, after 62 books of this sort of drama, I had to read, "Everything worked out in the end, all these nasty problems went away, and they all lived happily ever after," I would have felt horribly betrayed. That's not how life is. These characters were so human because I watched them deal with life the way it is, and an ending that threw away that sense of reality to toss the characters into a new world where life goes the way you want it to would have hideously compromised the realism of the characters and my ability to relate to them.
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See that's where you mistake me. I was NOT saying everything should have worked out and everyone should have been fine. I was and am saying that Everyone shouldn't have Failed. They stopped the invasion, but that's it. For the most part, every last one of them failed at everything else.
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i just want to know what was with Ax? I mean, i know it wasnt him, but man that scene gave me the creeps. ???
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I love the debates about the ending of the book. I probably don't have much new to add, but I will anyway. xD
Stuff like this is part of what really elevated Animorphs as a series. These characters had amazing fantastic lives, but I got to see how they struggled to cope with everything that makes life so confusing and difficult and complicated. The plot didn't hand them escape ropes, they had to rely on their various coping mechanisms. Some fared better than others. They all had their high points and their low points, and I could look at how they dealt with their problems, what worked and what didn't, and apply that to the way I live. If, after 62 books of this sort of drama, I had to read, "Everything worked out in the end, all these nasty problems went away, and they all lived happily ever after," I would have felt horribly betrayed. That's not how life is. These characters were so human because I watched them deal with life the way it is, and an ending that threw away that sense of reality to toss the characters into a new world where life goes the way you want it to would have hideously compromised the realism of the characters and my ability to relate to them.
Exactly. I felt so betrayed by the ending of Harry Potter, for example, and it really changed my enjoyment of the entire series. Maybe I'm just strange, but I've always much preferred the depressing stories where everyone dies at the end.
I just read a book that said something like, "In real life, not only do the good guys not win, but there aren't any good guys." I know books shouldn't be like real life always (ooh, I remembered another quote: "Even the worst book is better than real life"), but the characters of Animorphs were so real to me that a fantastical ending just wouldn't have fit in my opinion.
traycon3 mentioned Death Note; I thought that ending did a brilliant job of showing that there really are no good guys. I liked that same aspect of Animorphs that, as KAA said, was more like LotR than Star Wars.
Uh...had a lot more thoughts about the ending but I need to reread it and I'm tired.
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You want fairness, go read something else. Thus far, nothing in any of the books really ended up fair. I admit, I hated the last book because it didn't fit with what I wanted to happen. People had to die, it was obvious, but still... I just didn't like it, but I agree that it was right. If you disagree so much, write your own version of the last book and post it up. I'll read it. But there are some authors who screw up endings, and there are some who make a true ending. If it had ended too happily I might have felt cheated. But I did feel cheated at the end of this book. I am complaining, but if you ask for vinegar, you shouldn't complain when you get it.
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It didn't need to end like a fairy tale, but it did need to end more happily than tragically. If KA had killed off Animorphs throughout the series, like what would have happened in real life, then it wouldn't have been that bad to kill Rachel off. But after so many books with them all living, they deserved better. I'm pretty sure most fans agree with me, since KA was shocked at how many people disliked it.
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since KA was shocked at how many people disliked it.
but wasn't that when the book just came out? 5 years later, I'm pretty sure at least some of the people have had a slight change of heart.
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i wasn't annoyed that K.A. let a realistic view of war seep in.
however, i am annoyed that she left off with a cliffhanger ending.
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Dear Animorphs Readers:
Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.
So I thought I'd respond.
Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.
That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.
Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.
I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.
Ok. She didn't want to end her series up with all the characters saying "yeah! now that we saved the world and the universe, what would you think of eating something? My stomach is crying !"
Maybe she should remember that lots of "her" (more or less questionnable) books ended up with all the characters eating french fries and hamburgers in a fast food... Maybe she could remember... if she actually had written "her" books..
So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.
I don't care about the fact that Rachel is dead, about the fact Jake is blocked in the past, that Tobias cannot get over it.. I DON'T LIKE the fact that on the ground that she wants to be realistic she is just covering up for the bad quality of her book!
She apparently doesn't understand (or doesn't want to understand) that most fans are not happy with the end NOT because they are stupid kids whose brains are being washed by some propaganda and video games in favor of war but because they are disappointed by the way she scamped it all... She rushed into things so suddenly while there were so many useless and badly-written books she could have just not published (or replaced with good books)....[/b][/i][/color]
If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.
K.A. Applegate
Yes... I'm glad she didn't end the book with a happy end in a Harry Potter way ! (Phew, we were spared that end).
Yet I think she has a very personnal and interesting way to express "the respect she has always felt for animorphs readers" ... Indeed, the ghostwriters, the way "her" books fell into low quality ... Some of them were just useless/ridiculous/pathetic/badly-written (choose the word you want there) and you could feel they were only there to fill in the space because of the "supply" (=to make money). It doesn't really fit what she claimed about "wanting to be honest and respectful to her readers...
Anyway, in the end you could tell that she was eager to get rid of the animorphs and I hate that. It's like me, writing an essay for a philosophy class, then getting tired of it and eventually finishing it with a general open question so that the teacher can sort it out themselves....
There is a word for that kind of work : slapdash work (as my dictionary told me)
And then if she was really honest... Why did she wait for 53 books to be written before killing ONE (and only ONE) of the characters? She sumed up 10 years or so in a few pages. She doesn't talk about James and the others. She doesn't talk about anything. The whole last book looks like an epilogue...
And then she cooks us a crappy end without real end cause "hey kids the end has no end".
Sorry but that's fast food...
This/These last books are like fast food to me untasty and unutrious.
It's all gross....
I am a disappointed fan cause i think animorphs deserved more attention...
I loved the first books, I liked the way she was trying to give a message in a subtle way and the 19th book is among my favorites... But as the series went the books lost their good quality (that's my opinion).
As for those who even dared to compare K.A. Applegate's work to Michaelangelo, Picasso... Just one thing : LOL
This end is not a masterpiece, it's a piece of s.h.i.t ! .
And as Escafil device said it, I also consider K.A. as arrogant and LAZY. Besides I think this message to us is just concupiscent.
I will certainly not buy and read another book by her... No way...
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I haven't even touched a Remnants book or ebook after the Animorphs ending. I got into Everworld before Animorphs ended, but left it. I won't be picking that one up either, especially since it only lasted twelve books anyway.
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Wow, that's a bit much. I get your complaints about a cliffhanger ending, I hate that too, but really, calling it rushed. So many people have that sense, but I don't see it. As for not picking up any of her other books, that's just stupid. So you didn't get the ending you wanted. I stand by my argument, I don't like the ending, mostly because Rachel died and Tobias got screwed over because of it, but that is no reason to avoid the rest of her stuff. I couldn't get into everworld, I admit that. but Remnants was pretty good. As for James and the others, they died. We know this. in the last book Visser 1 targeted animals specifically, removing them in clumps until there were none left on the battlefield.
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As for not picking up any of her other books, that's just stupid. So you didn't get the ending you wanted. I stand by my argument, I don't like the ending, mostly because Rachel died and Tobias got screwed over because of it, but that is no reason to avoid the rest of her stuff. I couldn't get into everworld, I admit that.
Then you didn't get my point ...
It's not the ending that I don't like. And actually I think Rachel is better dead... I hardly see how she could have coped with the dull life after the war.
I just got the feeling that K.A. was too "busy" to really focuse on Animorphs...
And, I repeat, I got the feeling that the last book was just a very long epilogue.
As for James and the others, they died. We know this. in the last book Visser 1 targeted animals specifically, removing them in clumps until there were none left on the battlefield.
When i said "the others" I also talked about characters such as Loren...
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yeah, i agree completely, no offense to harry potter lovers (myself included), but the ending was horrible.
he should have died. :-\
i just want to know what was with Ax? I mean, i know it wasnt him, but man that scene gave me the creeps. ???
i still haven't been able to figure it out.
K.A. should make one more book without a cliffhanger. "Ram the Bladeship!"...
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I have to agree, The Beginning felt rushed to me as well. As well as a form of ventilation for her....let me explain.
During the course of Animorphs, KA had tried to write Everworld (her supposed "Dream Project"), but just couldnt get it to take off. In a way, I think she felt trapped. She created a monster called "Animorphs" and no matter what she did, she just couldnt get from under it's shadow. So I think she wanted to end it, and I think she might have been left just a little bit bitter about it. Things like this happen all the time actually. Kind of like when a music artist gets trapped under such a successful single, that they cant get anything else to sell.
Such as with Neon Genesis Evangelion, the fans hated the ending of the series so much, that the overwhelming response almost demanded that he made a new one (he was even receiving death threats over it).
So he created a movie to end it, and everyone died. A lot of people said he did this because he was angry, and this was his way of revenge.
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I'd prefer to hate the way things ended and hate what happened to the characters then to have a happy ending that I didn't find realistic and that I could never really feel was real. Like harry potter, it wasnt just that it was such a happy ending, it was that it just didnt seem right. Animorphs felt right, no matter how many bad things happened.
I loved the ending lol
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And, I repeat, I got the feeling that the last book was just a very long epilogue.
I don't see how this is a problem. I like how KAA tends to make the penultimate book the huge climactic finale, then uses the last book to wind down the story and show how the characters move on. When I've stuck with a story for so long, I find this a more satisfying way to close things than the Final Battle followed almost immediately by the end, cause I want to be able to process that I won't be able to read about these characters anymore.
If KA had killed off Animorphs throughout the series, like what would have happened in real life, then it wouldn't have been that bad to kill Rachel off. But after so many books with them all living, they deserved better.
This was addressed in the series, just like the major coincidence of how the Animorphs group was formed. The Ellimist and Crayak's game was part of the canon of the story. The Drode informed the Animorphs that the terms of the game established that there was always a way out for them.
In the Ellimist Chronicles, it's said that the rules of the game prevent the Ellimist from saving the dying Animorphs. I imagine that Crayak would not forfeit the war without taking a consolation prize, so he arranged the death of his most hated Animorph. He had tried to do that previously with Jake. Book 48 implies that his new target becomes Rachel.
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The Drode informed the Animorphs that the terms of the game established that there was always a way out for them.
wait...so does that mean that in book 54, there was a way for rachel to live? Like i mean at that moment, had rachel done something different, she would have lived, not through a different plan.
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Maybe if she had accepted Crayak's offer right then she could have been saved.
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The way out for her would probably be saying no to Jake's command. Akthough, I think she could have lived through other means. I don't mean to say that Crayak and Ellimest are noncanon or anything. I just don't see the point in pushing for realism in the last book, in one of the most unrealistic areas. That being everyone lives through every battle somehow. I know there are people that love the ending, but those are the minority. You can say you're the "truer" fans if you want to. You can say the Animoprhs series is best ended tragically the way it was. But you're in the minority of Ani fans.
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Exactly.
When, exactly, did KA start to care about being realistic? NOTHING about Animorphs is realistic, that was half of the fun.
I was reading her interviews, and now Im starting to think she killed off Rachel simply because she didnt like her.
She's stated a few times that she loved writing for Marco, Cassie; she liked Tobias; and that she misses writing for Jake.
I wonder if it's a coincidence that the two people she didnt list that she liked writing for (Rachel and Ax) ended up totally screwed in the last book. Also that her 2 favorites (Marco and Cassie) ended up being the only prosperous ones. Also, Rachel seemed to be the one that all the ridiculous stuff happened to (such as her splitting into two personalities, and her allergic reaction). I wonder if this is all a coincidence?
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I hear that KA's favorite anis tended to shift around. Animorphs is fairly realistic, as far as towns and such go. However, there is a good amount of unrealistic stuff. Which makes the urge for her to write a realistic war ending hurt all the more.
I've mentioned before that if she wanted to write a war story, that had a realistic war ending, then she should go all the way. Not make a sci-fi fantasy world and try to make that as realistic as possible.
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I didn't mind the last book at all, apart from Jake and Cassie splitting up :(
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Her reaction seemed remarkably angry at our generation even. I think in her books she mainly wanted to use them as a vechicle to promote pacifistic ideals and used the Animorphs logo as possibly a way to attract readers. I man in today's society parents are more concerned about an imaginary friend on television patronising hallucinogens than violence and war. I think this might have been apart of the fuel for her dissatisfaction to criticism.
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When, exactly, did KA start to care about being realistic? NOTHING about Animorphs is realistic, that was half of the fun.
...You're kidding, right? Did you miss the whole slavery/genocide/war bit? Cause that's about as realistic as it gets in a sci-fi kids series. Obviously the whole concept of aliens and morphing is extraordinary and surreal, but the stories involving many of the characters were written realistically in the way any war would actually affect them, psychologically and emotionally. At the same time, it was also written in a way so that the silent invasion could believably be happening in our world too. I don't know about everyone else, but that was what hooked me onto the series.
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When, exactly, did KA start to care about being realistic? NOTHING about Animorphs is realistic, that was half of the fun.
...You're kidding, right? Did you miss the whole slavery/genocide/war bit? Cause that's about as realistic as it gets in a sci-fi kids series. Obviously the whole concept of aliens and morphing is extraordinary and surreal, but the stories involving many of the characters were written realistically in the way any war would actually affect them, psychologically and emotionally. At the same time, it was also written in a way so that the silent invasion could believably be happening in our world too. I don't know about everyone else, but that was what hooked me onto the series.
:)
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When, exactly, did KA start to care about being realistic? NOTHING about Animorphs is realistic, that was half of the fun.
...You're kidding, right? Did you miss the whole slavery/genocide/war bit? Cause that's about as realistic as it gets in a sci-fi kids series.
That's my point.
I just think that she let emotions get in the way of her story, rather than power it. Then again, this is purely estimation, and I could be very very wrong.
But why kill Rachel? Out of everyone, I wanted to see what her life would be like after the war. Cassie's was 100% predictable, Marco's was (if you pay attention to his dialogue throught the series, he's always talking about getting rich and going on Letterman, and dating models and stuff like that), too, and Ax's. I will admit, though, that I didnt see Jake and Cassie splitting up. That was a sad (yet definetly surprising) twist.
I was more interested in seeing whether Rachel and Tobias would last. Tobias seemed to enjoy being a hawk more than being a human at that point, and I was wondering how much longer would Rachel tolerate it, and vice-versa. I also wanted to see if Rachel could adjust to going back to being a normal person, now that the excitement that she loved so much was gone. I love Cassie, but honestly, I think it should've been her that died.
Also, if Cassie died (with her being still sort of engaged to Jake), I think it could've made a more profound impact on Jake that would allow us to see him go into deeper depression, and maybe even thoughts of suicide (yeah, that's sad, but dont lie; it would've been interesting.) I think KA didnt kill Cassie because she was her favorite and she even used her to relay some of her own feelings to us (such as her disdain for the internet). SOOOO many missed oppurtunities....
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If Cassie died, I'd be almost as upset. Though it would have been quite ironic. The reason Rachel died is because Jake needed to make sure Toma and the box weren't taken. How ironic would it be that Cassie died because of her decision at the end of book 50?
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If Cassie died, I'd be almost as upset. Though it would have been quite ironic. The reason Rachel died is because Jake needed to make sure Toma and the box weren't taken. How ironic would it be that Cassie died because of her decision at the end of book 50?
EXACTLY!
You want to show realism? OK, show us how morals have no place in wars. I love Cassie (even though I know more than half of the board hates her), but her death would've been more tragic imo. Not because I would miss her more (because I like Rachel just as much), but because it would be a great display of how war destroys everything pure.
Not ONLY did she live, but she came out seemingly unscathed and prosperous from the war. In real wars, people like Cassie die, while people like Rachel are considered heroes, or monsters, but still live. I dont think K.A. cared how they died, just that it happened.
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Gee, I think what really happened is KA hated Animorphs all along. The cruel irony of it being a consistent best seller haunted her day and night. She probably hated every stupid brat that kept buying her books every month and decided to ruin their lives by trashing her series. That's because she's a really nasty selfish hack of a writer, right?
The attacks on KA here are getting a little ridiculous.
When, exactly, did KA start to care about being realistic? NOTHING about Animorphs is realistic, that was half of the fun.
Book one? When the first mission failed spectacularly. When Cassie told the others the policeman who'd captured her would no longer be a problem. When Tobias became trapped in morph.
This was the tone KA set right from the start of the series. On top of that, all four Chronicles had dark, bleak endings. Foreshadowing, much?
Animorphs was not a fun happy fantasy story that took a completely unanticipated left turn into dark, bleak reality in the last book. If that's what you think, you were not paying attention. Dark, bleak reality was present throughout the series, always keeping the wild fantasy story grounded.
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I guess I just wasn't paying attention. As serious as it was early in the series, I didn't think it was all that dark until around the final arc. There were moments like book 1, but there were also moments like book 9. They work to save skunks, and trick Visser Three into thinking grape juice gets rid of skunk stink. There were cute, funny parts in the beginning that balanced out the darkness. As the war went on, those moments faded away.
The Chronicles were a bit dark, and redundant. I don't know if I'd say visser was all that dark. Techinally, Visser kept going on until Visser 1 died and Eva was rescued.
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Even when it wasn't that dark, the books continuously dealt with the theme "Life may suck but you need to deal with it." Just like in real life, there are plenty of times when the heaviness of life is lifted and things are simply fun and crazy, but the overarching struggles of life always return to haunt the characters. Each of the Animorphs' coping mechanisms were discussed and explored a great deal.
Jake was putting on a strong face, but in book 37 Rachel notices how it's breaking him. He was holding on the entire time for his family. The loss of his parents ended the brave front he'd been showing the Animorphs and sent him into depression. Cassie's decision to protect him from killing Tom convinced him to abandon morality and do whatever it takes to win. Tom and Rachel's deaths break him just as the war ends. The immediacy of the war had always stopped him from looking back and second guessing himself, but that coping mechanism fails when the conflict ends. After a few years he starts to move on, and when a new war begins he's his old self again.
Rachel generally avoids introspection and deals with what needs to be done, but it gnaws at her on the inside. She is always willing to make sacrifices to help others, to be the one to do the dirty work. She becomes scared and lost and confused when she reflects on this, because she is losing herself and she doesn't know where this path is leading her.
Tobias relied entirely on Rachel early on when he had no self esteem of his own. He would frequently talk to her to sort out his own feelings and struggles. As the war went on he grew in confidence and became more comfortable with himself, but he loved Rachel and she was always his crutch. She was the strongest link he felt he had to humanity, so when he loses her he lives only as a hawk, broken on the inside.
Cassie remained firmly grounded in her morals. They helped her maintain a sense of stability as her world changed. She had strong support from her family and Jake. When she had doubts, she would talk things over with her loved ones and find reassurance. Her coping mechanisms allowed her to emerge from the war able to continue with her life. But book 41 showed that these mechanisms weren't infallible. When Jake refused to listen to her and offer reassurance, she went home a mess. Almost immediately afterwards Jake was killed and Earth was conquered, causing Cassie to throw away everything that had kept her grounded. She becomes disgusted with what she thinks is her weakness and changes into a completely different person, a hardened terrorist.
Marco rarely relied on others for support, since he had had to take care of his family by himself for a few years. He lives by the guy code, meaning he doesn't talk about his feelings. He lapses into depression, impulsiveness, and mental instability a few times, but he believes in trying to see the world as a comedy rather than a tragedy. That gives him a flexible world view, so when things are horrible he's still able to snap out of it with a quick change of perspective. He practices shutting down emotional ambiguity and focusing on what's necessary. The end of the war leaves him with a nagging sense of emptiness, but he doesn't hesitate to live out his life.
Ax had always been extremely disciplined, and he practices daily rituals to remind himself of his people and culture and their values. He is a faithful soldier, and after the war he continues serving his people as a wise, experienced leader. He selflessly serves something that is greater than himself, so in a way his being absorbed into The One is darkly appropriate.
The long epilogue that was the last book was necessary to the story in part to show whether the Animorphs' various coping mechanisms are able to carry them through the end of the war. A happier ending that didn't present the characters with some internal challenge post-war would have abandoned this theme, which had given the story so much resonance. It was an honest ending.
The fact of Rachel's death revealed as much about her as any of the other Animorphs' post-war stories. Jake had to choose one of them to sacrifice, and Rachel had stepped up to the plate. It was the natural culmination of her story. Someone needs to be the one to do the dirty work.
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:bestpost:
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::)
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Somehow, I know what she means about war. That it is bloody and brutal. It does not have a bad guys in the dirt good guys standing proud ending. Just look at WW2. My country killed hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of innocent people, innocent animals, children even in the bombing of Japan. All of this happened because one day a person rounded up his buddies and said "I want to take over the world." They got themselves elected for what ever postion it is they have in Japan and bombed Pearl Harbor and killed at least thousands of people, wounded even more. When we bombed them, we were protecting ourselves, but in the process we killed millions of innocent people and animals. I don't like that. I don't like the ending of the Animorphs series either. But, KA was right. Wars are ugly affairs. Usually over useless things. Things that could've been easiy prevented. She was just doing her best to not make Animorphs a Disney movie. She suffered the loss of great fans, but she was not going to make Animorphs a Disney movie. More like a Goosebumps book. You think everythings all right and perfect, then it goes KABLOOEY!!!
Speech over.
These are my imeddiate thoughts after reading KA's thing.
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If Cassie died, I'd be almost as upset. Though it would have been quite ironic. The reason Rachel died is because Jake needed to make sure Toma and the box weren't taken. How ironic would it be that Cassie died because of her decision at the end of book 50?
EXACTLY!
You want to show realism? OK, show us how morals have no place in wars. I love Cassie (even though I know more than half of the board hates her), but her death would've been more tragic imo. Not because I would miss her more (because I like Rachel just as much), but because it would be a great display of how war destroys everything pure.
Not ONLY did she live, but she came out seemingly unscathed and prosperous from the war. In real wars, people like Cassie die, while people like Rachel are considered heroes, or monsters, but still live. I dont think K.A. cared how they died, just that it happened.
Cassie's death wouldn't have made sense though. We know Cassie would never agree to kill Tom, or even to let Rachel or anyone else kill him. That's clear from her actions in #50.
Just like Jake said, Rachel was the only one who could have done it.
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She didn't have to make it a Disney movie ending to make it mostly a happy one. I'm not even asking for a totally happy ending, with no bitterness. I just wanted an ending where the Anis came out the other side positively well off. Somewhere in between what we got, and the notorious Harry potter ending. Coincidentally, I never saw the ending of HP. I watched a few of the movies, but not the last one or two.
The people who were unhappy with the ending are the same people that bought all those books. I know Everworld didn't last very long, and I'll bet Remnants didn't sell nearly as well as Animorphs. She needed to be more careful about how she ended her first series, if she wanted those same fans to buy her other series.
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:bestpost:
agree 99% (sorry. only 99. the last one percent is because I don't think it's necessarily the best, but it's definitely near the top)
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I'm not sure what kind of scenario would cause Cassie to go after Tom, but I'm just saying it would be ironic.
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Easy, if he killed Jake. Or hurt Jake. Or something like that.
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I don't think so...cassie doesn't seem like someone who would want revenge. Cassie didn't even want to kill david. the only person, I can recall, that she wanted to kill was visser three's twin.
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Gee, I think what really happened is KA hated Animorphs all along. The cruel irony of it being a consistent best seller haunted her day and night. She probably hated every stupid brat that kept buying her books every month and decided to ruin their lives by trashing her series. That's because she's a really nasty selfish hack of a writer, right?
The attacks on KA here are getting a little ridiculous.
When, exactly, did KA start to care about being realistic? NOTHING about Animorphs is realistic, that was half of the fun.
Book one? When the first mission failed spectacularly. When Cassie told the others the policeman who'd captured her would no longer be a problem. When Tobias became trapped in morph.
This was the tone KA set right from the start of the series. On top of that, all four Chronicles had dark, bleak endings. Foreshadowing, much?
Animorphs was not a fun happy fantasy story that took a completely unanticipated left turn into dark, bleak reality in the last book. If that's what you think, you were not paying attention. Dark, bleak reality was present throughout the series, always keeping the wild fantasy story grounded.
You dont think that it's a fantasy to picture that 6 kids would be able to stand up to an entire militant army that specialized in capture and had the best cloaking, technology, and overall experience around?
The fact that they even lived through the first mission at all is a fantasy. You're right, I agree, Animorphs did have some very dark moments. All of the character's have suffered in some way (some more than others), but I just dont think the ending did it justice. Too many loose ends weren't tied up. Make a story end as depressing as you like, just at least make it a complete ending.
I'd be all for it if she re-wrote the book, didnt make any changes to the core story, but just added more detail and went a more in-depth to what happened to some of the others (Loren for example), and I'd have liked her to go deeper into Jake's psych. W
As for what you said about Rachel being the one who does all the dirty work, I agree, but that doesnt mean sacrificing yourself. Sorry, but I just cant believe that that was her complete goal (or anyone's for that matter).
Also, as for Tobias getting stuck as a nothlit in the first book contributing to the theme, I think the point gets mooted when a supernatural being not only gives him his powers back, but takes him back into time so that he can aquire himself.
Also, I feel I need to say, I dont hate KA as a person or as a write (obviously, considering I keep reading her material), it's just for some reason talking about Animorphs kind of brings out something in me (I guess because they were my childhood heroes growing up). I realize that what I say sometimes comes out very harsh, especially towards KA, and I'm sorry. I do need to work on that.
To her credit I have read Remnants (not a lot of it, only the first 2 books), and I will say that I did enjoy it and if there were more available I would probably finish it.
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I don't think so...cassie doesn't seem like someone who would want revenge. Cassie didn't even want to kill david. the only person, I can recall, that she wanted to kill was visser three's twin.
Yeah, but she totally went bezerk in MM3. Well, sorta. First she was 'I'm a happy dolphin w/out a care in the world' then she was 'I'm gonna swallow your head dude!' then she was 'I'm not gonna kill you, you're never gonna be born!'. None of them are Cassie but all of them are done by her.
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eh...the "swallow your head dude" part...was what? you mean the guy who called her black?
the second one, she didn't exactly want to do it (and therefore, does count as being cassie), but felt that she was the one that had to do it.
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1. Yes, that's the one I'm talking about
2. Fine, I guess your right.
Listen. I posted my opinions and you contridicted them and it's 5:01 AM in my time zone and I still havent gotten to sleep because I'm sick so if I sound a little rude right now how would you feel if it were 5 AM aNND YOU STILL HADN'T GOTTEN TO SLEEP AND YOU WERE SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????
Sorry, bout that. I'm exhausted, I can't get to sleep and I'm a little annoyed. What can I say.
Anyway, how did this get from me stating my opinion to a conversation about whether or not Cassie did a couple of things. And she nearly swallowed his head, then Rachel walkied in with Marco.
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...I never said you were rude. I was just giving reasons as to why I disagreed...
that guy...well you're right she wanted to kill him, or at the very least teach him a lesson he won't forget anytime soon...but I don't know, that seems different somehow...somehow still cassie...call it a feeling if you will.
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I didn't say you said I sounded rude I said if I sounded rude
Sorry, as well. As I said, I hadn't slept all night it it was 5 AM. I'm very rude when I'm tired, trust me.
Now back on topic.
I just reread that part and she thought that not only was Jake dead, but so was Rachel, and Marco and Ax might have been. She had been in 3 wars since breakfast and was not having a very good day. I admit that I forgot most of it. Plus it was 5 AM and I was very very VERY cranky. I do apologize.
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apology accepted? (even though I don't completely understand why you're apologizing...)
anyway...killing that guy sounds like something anyone, absolutely anyone, would do...
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Please dont argue in threads. kthanks.
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It's also a messageboard, not a chat room. Don't feel obligated to respond right away if you're barely sane at the moment, lol. You can always come back the next day and post. :P
Anyways, back on topic.
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Well, I'm pretty new to this forum, only started visiting the actual forum what? A day ago? Any way, I stumbled upon this thread and I thought I'd just put out my thoughts of the last book right here and try to get... um, closure? lol, idk, just wanted to type this. I don't care if any one debates my post or if it goes ignored, but I just wanted to post it so I could get my thoughts of the series in order. So, here goes *takes in deep breath*
Honestly, when it comes to the books, I started reading them long after the series ended, so I didn't have to wait long for each book to come in. But that didn't change the fact that I fell in love with the series and each of their characters, no, I really did. I loved each and every one of them and I especially loved that KA took the time to expand not only on the story itself, but the characters. She allowed the characters to change for themselves throughout their personal narratives. So Jake wasn't just your every day leader, he was a leader who at most times didn't even want the title. Rachel wasn't a blond airhead, she was a war queen and she scared herself sometimes. Marco had problems with his mom, the one he thought was dead, being Visser One. Tobias was a boy who was stuck in a bird's body and most of the time, he didn't know whether to consider himself a bird, a boy, or both. Ax was far from home and often questioned his place among the humans. And Cassie, well, Cassie was the one with the conscience who was forced to kill. I liked that about the series, about how not every book ended "happily ever after", how some books it felt like things were going downhill, how tempers flared and relationships didn't work the way they were supposed to in the end. Honestly, I did. I liked that they weren't always winning because then everything would have been far too easy for them.
But still, even though I loved that, even though I loved that she did that to each of the characters, I still think she ruined it with the last book. Why? Well, because even though at times the relationships between the group weakened, it always strengthened in the next few books. But with the last book, she broke those ties with no intention of fixing them. I think the fact that she made the relationships of every one severed or not as tight as it once was was the wrong thing to do. After going through that war together, I would honestly think that their relationships would only grow. Like, after all that had happened, they'd be able to be together and reflect together instead of Jake being depressed, Marco being shallow, Tobias alone, Rachel dead, Cassie content. The ending left a bitter feeling inside me and I remember just being depressed for like a week after because all those relationships, all those characters, every thing that they went through out a good fifty books (minus the megamorphs) just felt like a complete waste in the last book. I mean, don't get me wrong, I knew some one had to die, I just wish that instead of KA showing Jake, Marco, and whoever else was with them going in to battle in the end of the last book and that permanent wall being between Jake and Cassie (who had, imo, the most obvious relationship of the series), she showed them being together somehow. Like, in stead of that, the characters would randomly somehow meet up at the same mall they were at in the beginning and then Jake would say something like: "Why don't we go through the construction site, you guys?" And okay, lol, that sounds like the worst piece of crap ever, but whatever, you get my point. The readers would read that and feel content knowing that the characters would be alright, that their relationship would be fine. That maybe Rachel had died, and maybe Cassie and Jake would never be together together like they were before, but they were all still friends, and they all still got together sometimes or something, you know? Blah, maybe I'm not making sense here lol.
I don't think KA's defending argument for the way the series ended really makes for good argument, why? Well, it seems to me that her argument was that she was aiming for a more realistic look at war. And well, honestly? If she wanted the series to be realistic she never would have made the whole series about aliens and stuff. Yeerks, morphing technology, and Andalites don't exists. If she wanted these books to be realistic than the series wouldn't have been about kids turning in to random animals to defeat slugs who go in to your ear.
Another reason why I don't think her arguments are good? Well, as far as I can tell, this book series was for children. Children. Children who knew nothing of war and mostly followed the books for the cool book designs and children who loved the idea of becoming any animal they wanted to be. If she wanted to be realistic, than she has to realize who it is these books are being sent to. If she wanted to make it more realistic, then she would have made the book for teenagers or something.
Anyway, that's all I guess. I just wanted to put that out there. I read a few of the arguments you guys had in this thread from the first few pages and I guess that re-reading the last book now, I do understand why she did what she did, but that doesn't make the ending any less bitter. I still feel depressed for them and I still think the ending was a dumb thing to do since it imo, it killed the series in literally one book.
Like I said before, I don't care so much if any one argues with my post, same with I don't care if no one does argue. I just wanted to get my thoughts out. I loved the series to death and I still do. I just wish it ended differently.
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ok...can someone help me here? why is it that I did not feel one bit depressed by the ending? almost every person, after reading the ending for the first time, felt depressed. why not me?
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Because you've got an old soul, Morfowt.
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i figured it would end like this but i thought it was going to be after they were on the ship and Jake says "Battle morphs"
Marco "Just like old time fearless leader?"
*now morphed*
Jake <CHARGE>
All at once <FOR RACHEL!!!>
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Because you've got an old soul, Morfowt.
now that's weird seeing as how I"m considered immature for my age...
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I was tempted to just call you weird, but I decided to use an Animorphs reference. I don't know what's wrong with you. Did you really dislike Rachel and Tom? Did you care that little about the auxilaries, or the hope that the Anis would get something good out of all that?
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*insert text here*
haha, nice post.
stumble upon is great, ain't it?
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I was tempted to just call you weird, but I decided to use an Animorphs reference. I don't know what's wrong with you. Did you really dislike Rachel and Tom? Did you care that little about the auxilaries, or the hope that the Anis would get something good out of all that?
dislike? no.
care little? well...not exactly care a lot (after all it's hard to care for 20 something children if you don't even know the names of half the children), but I did care.
hope? I have lots of hopes but I don't care whether or not they come true
and I was expecting rachel to die because of all the spoilers you can find these days...there's a spoiler right on the main page of the official animorphs website...
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*insert text here*
haha, nice post.
stumble upon is great, ain't it?
thanks :D And, huh? XD
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ok...can someone help me here? why is it that I did not feel one bit depressed by the ending? almost every person, after reading the ending for the first time, felt depressed. why not me?
Possibly because I myself am a bit of a romantic at heart. I know that was a major factor in my not liking the book. But I don't know. Maybe you're head isn't up in the clouds or caught up in some fantasy that, even you know will never come true, a part of you still hopes that maybe, just maybe it will.
Either that, or you're just N-V-T-S nuts.
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Well, I'm pretty new to this forum, only started visiting the actual forum what? A day ago? Any way, I stumbled upon this thread and I thought I'd just put out my thoughts of the last book right here and try to get... um, closure? lol, idk, just wanted to type this. I don't care if any one debates my post or if it goes ignored, but I just wanted to post it so I could get my thoughts of the series in order. So, here goes *takes in deep breath*
Honestly, when it comes to the books, I started reading them long after the series ended, so I didn't have to wait long for each book to come in. But that didn't change the fact that I fell in love with the series and each of their characters, no, I really did. I loved each and every one of them and I especially loved that KA took the time to expand not only on the story itself, but the characters. She allowed the characters to change for themselves throughout their personal narratives. So Jake wasn't just your every day leader, he was a leader who at most times didn't even want the title. Rachel wasn't a blond airhead, she was a war queen and she scared herself sometimes. Marco had problems with his mom, the one he thought was dead, being Visser One. Tobias was a boy who was stuck in a bird's body and most of the time, he didn't know whether to consider himself a bird, a boy, or both. Ax was far from home and often questioned his place among the humans. And Cassie, well, Cassie was the one with the conscience who was forced to kill. I liked that about the series, about how not every book ended "happily ever after", how some books it felt like things were going downhill, how tempers flared and relationships didn't work the way they were supposed to in the end. Honestly, I did. I liked that they weren't always winning because then everything would have been far too easy for them.
But still, even though I loved that, even though I loved that she did that to each of the characters, I still think she ruined it with the last book. Why? Well, because even though at times the relationships between the group weakened, it always strengthened in the next few books. But with the last book, she broke those ties with no intention of fixing them. I think the fact that she made the relationships of every one severed or not as tight as it once was was the wrong thing to do. After going through that war together, I would honestly think that their relationships would only grow. Like, after all that had happened, they'd be able to be together and reflect together instead of Jake being depressed, Marco being shallow, Tobias alone, Rachel dead, Cassie content. The ending left a bitter feeling inside me and I remember just being depressed for like a week after because all those relationships, all those characters, every thing that they went through out a good fifty books (minus the megamorphs) just felt like a complete waste in the last book. I mean, don't get me wrong, I knew some one had to die, I just wish that instead of KA showing Jake, Marco, and whoever else was with them going in to battle in the end of the last book and that permanent wall being between Jake and Cassie (who had, imo, the most obvious relationship of the series), she showed them being together somehow. Like, in stead of that, the characters would randomly somehow meet up at the same mall they were at in the beginning and then Jake would say something like: "Why don't we go through the construction site, you guys?" And okay, lol, that sounds like the worst piece of crap ever, but whatever, you get my point. The readers would read that and feel content knowing that the characters would be alright, that their relationship would be fine. That maybe Rachel had died, and maybe Cassie and Jake would never be together together like they were before, but they were all still friends, and they all still got together sometimes or something, you know? Blah, maybe I'm not making sense here lol.
I don't think KA's defending argument for the way the series ended really makes for good argument, why? Well, it seems to me that her argument was that she was aiming for a more realistic look at war. And well, honestly? If she wanted the series to be realistic she never would have made the whole series about aliens and stuff. Yeerks, morphing technology, and Andalites don't exists. If she wanted these books to be realistic than the series wouldn't have been about kids turning in to random animals to defeat slugs who go in to your ear.
Another reason why I don't think her arguments are good? Well, as far as I can tell, this book series was for children. Children. Children who knew nothing of war and mostly followed the books for the cool book designs and children who loved the idea of becoming any animal they wanted to be. If she wanted to be realistic, than she has to realize who it is these books are being sent to. If she wanted to make it more realistic, then she would have made the book for teenagers or something.
Anyway, that's all I guess. I just wanted to put that out there. I read a few of the arguments you guys had in this thread from the first few pages and I guess that re-reading the last book now, I do understand why she did what she did, but that doesn't make the ending any less bitter. I still feel depressed for them and I still think the ending was a dumb thing to do since it imo, it killed the series in literally one book.
Like I said before, I don't care so much if any one argues with my post, same with I don't care if no one does argue. I just wanted to get my thoughts out. I loved the series to death and I still do. I just wish it ended differently.
girl, i agree. for me it was like, you guys remember power rangers? How they would win EVERY FRICKIN episode? at least in the beginning, and as a kid i didn't care or notice, but one day I did. and i said, I wish they would just lose for once. and then they did (temporarily when their machines were frozen), and I felt REALLY sad! i mean, realistically, it happens, but when it happens you don't want it to be realistic! THAT'S WHY WE READ THESE FICTION BOOKS! we're trying to ESCAPE reality!
And i get you on this point too. It just conjured up bad memories of graduation, separation, and the end of something good. After all that, the series ended, and things will NEVER be the same again. it just left a feeling of broken-heartedness and defeat even after the victory. like a tragic greek story. and knowing that' that's the way it's gonna be is heart breaking!
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*insert text here*
haha, nice post.
stumble upon is great, ain't it?
thanks :D And, huh? XD
oh, you meant it literally.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
it's a cool tool for finding websites.
i found this forum via dArt.
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still, it was a very bad ending. why rachel?
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ok...can someone help me here? why is it that I did not feel one bit depressed by the ending? almost every person, after reading the ending for the first time, felt depressed. why not me?
Possibly because I myself am a bit of a romantic at heart. I know that was a major factor in my not liking the book. But I don't know. Maybe you're head isn't up in the clouds or caught up in some fantasy that, even you know will never come true, a part of you still hopes that maybe, just maybe it will.
Either that, or you're just N-V-T-S nuts.
Heh, I'm quite the romantic myself and I really liked the ending, depressing as it was.
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*insert text here*
haha, nice post.
stumble upon is great, ain't it?
thanks :D And, huh? XD
oh, you meant it literally.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
it's a cool tool for finding websites.
i found this forum via dArt.
lol! Sorry, I guess I use words like "stumble" to sound smart :P I didn't know there was a website with a name like that XD Wow, I get how you'd think I used it. *bookmarks site* :D
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you should see bored.com and something.com ^^
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THIS IS THE REVIVAL, lol.
No seriously.
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still, it was a very bad ending. why rachel?
*Headdesk*
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Here's the way I see #54.
Yes, this is a war story, and it is accurate in some ways. But there's a lot I have gripes with. First and foremost is Rachel's death. It was totally needless. She was sent on an assassination mission against Tom when it wouldn't matter to the tactical or strategic situation if Tom lived or died. Then, since she was on the Blade Ship, she got massacred. She had no chance to get out alive, and killing Tom was pointless, making Rachel's death pointless. There are a lot of useless deaths in war, but Jake could have easily avoided this one if he was using half a brain at the time.
Yes, war puts strains on relationships. Heck, just being in the military puts strains on relationships. I have no grippe against Jake and Cassie breaking up. Stress on everything is the nature of the job of the warrior.
There are people who can't cope afterwards. I can dig up numberless examples. I have no problem with Jake and Tobias being empty shells afterward.
In war, I do believe that there can be winners and there can be losers. I know that I did not imagine the tapes of euphoria that were captured at victory parades at the end of WWII. Or at the end of WWI. The very nature of the Animorphs war would have been one where there would be great celebration at the end. In WWII, it was either the American Republic or the Japanese Empire that would be in ruins. By the nature of the war, neither could survive the end. So, when we won, we celebrated. By the nature of the Animorphs war, either the human race would be enslaved or the Yeerks would be kicked off the planet. The Yeerks were kicked off the planet. The simple fact is that you always celebrate when you manage to survive.
Well, that's what I got.
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Killing Tom wasn't pointless, since with him on the bladeship he would have destroyed the pool ship. Since he was killed, the pool ship and other Animorphs were not annialated.
And I do believe she could have gotten out alive. My favorite scenario would be Allaron using a code that could disable the weapons and engine of the bladeship, and render it useless. Just the kind of code that V3 might implement to control everything he has. Then use the tractor beam to draw it into the pool ship. Thus the Yeerks inside would have to hand over Rachel and Tom, as well as the other hosts and escafil device, just to live.
The other points you made I agree with.
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(Takes a deep breath)
. . . okay. I read through all of everyone else's post and I have to say I wish I'd joined the board and been here sooner because there's a lot of points where I wanted to say something and the time has now passed, I don't want to bring up old arguments so I won't . . . this is very hard to do, I so desperately want to say some things but no I won't.
One thing I do want to say, and won't bother to stop myself from saying though is that I personally don't see Animorphs as science fiction, Contact was science fiction. Star Wars, and indeed Animorphs are more like science fantasy, yes I'm one of those geeky people. I'll say no more on the subject.
As for my thoughts on the final book? I didn't hate it when I was a kid, but it made me feel kind of numb, I don't know how else to describe it. See I wanted to read them since I saw the first book in schoolastic's little advertisement thingy, but I'd only been with the series since the 5th book came out, because I was poor and they were never in stock at the library and then one day I saw book 2 and 4 sitting on the shelf and grabbed them while everyone else in my class was fighting for book 5. Yeah I'll never forget that moment, the feeling of triumph I had over getting what I could get even though everyone else thought I was an idiot for not getting what was newest . . . anyway I'd been following the series pretty loyally since the first time I opened the books, in fact I read books 2 and 4 in one sitting, breaking only when nature screamed (as opposed to called) and I was a kid so sure they're like a 1-2 hour read nowadays but it took me all day back then.
So anyway I followed the characters, saw them fail and succeed, grew up with them, saw close call after close call and I identified the most with Rachel, I saw myself having the most in common with her from aspects of her family life to her questioning her own self, I identified with it all and then finally . . . Rachel died, and I, a guy, cried. I don't cry over book characters, that was a whole new experience for me and at that very moment I realized that no matter what else happened I wasn't going to forget that book so how could K.A. be a lazy writer? Even if she didn't write the whole series the worst you can say is that maybe she shouldn't have been signing her name on the ghost written books, no lazy writer evokes emotion and a lot of you have admitted to feeling emotion on this book.
I felt numb at the end because we were told one of them would die, and it wasn't hard to guess it would be Rachel yet at the actual moment it was overwhelming for me, the power of that moment I really can't see how anyone could say K.A. didn't like Rachel either because let me tell you that death scene could have gone so much worse. Maybe Rachel wasn't K.A.'s favorite character, but I don't think she hated her, I don't think she hated any of them. I don't see K.A. as being the best writer out there but that moment was one of the best she's ever written and one of the best I've ever read.
The fact is the final book was powerful, at least to me at the time, that was how I felt as a kid reading the book, and like most others it depressed me.
But I think that was necessary, see it sticks with you, if it had all ended happily it wouldn't have been special, it would have been just like any other story, just like Star Wars where killing the emperor ends the war instantly and destroying Alderan has no political downside. It's only in the expanded universe that those two things failed to be true and frankly Animorphs could have used an expanded universe, it could have started with the Ghost Writers taking over, writing their own spinoffs and by now many of the writers could have been fans because we've all grown up and I'm sure some of us have writing talent.
They're rare, few and far in between but there are fan fictions out there as good as what you find in print.
K.A. left the ending open and nobody did anything with it.
She has humanity in a sort of alliance with the Andalites, the Yeerk empire is overthrown and humans are now, at least apparently, becoming a space faring species with a new, bigger war on the horizon. Instead of just one planet and one group of kids we have the opportunity to see a larger scale conflict, each of her ghost writers could have had their own world to write about and there'd still be plenty left over for the imagination, and since much of her audience had been growing up the new books could have grown up too, no more dumbing things down so much, no more complaining about school and dissing math.
Frankly I think the saddest thing about 54 is that that's where it all ends. We could have done so much more with it, as an aspiring writer myself I wouldn't be at all opposed to writting something for Animorphs, I think a lot of writers out there would have agreed, it could have gone on after 54 even with people disliking 54.
My main complaint with Animorphs' ending would be the cliff hanger though, and like I said if there'd been an expanded universe that wouldn't be a problem at all. Another reason I felt numb as a kid was that the story apparently wasn't over, but I wasn't going to get to see any more of it, K.A. had moved on and I had to too . . .
But I haven't, not completely anyway, I mean I read other books now, but I still think of Animorphs, I re-read the entire series (minus the books I don't have: alternamorphs and megamorphs 4 which I didn't even know existed until recently) once a year or so. I read the last book too, do I have problems with it? Yes, I have a few things I disliked about it, but do I consider it bad? No. Is it wrong? No. Tragic? Yes, but that made it different, powerful, memorable.
Now don't get me wrong because I actually agree that it's not the right ending for the series. I agree that it didn't feel the same way the rest of the series did, but even from the first time I read it, I've had the feeling, which gets reinforced every time I re-read it, that this wasn't supposed to be the END end, it was an ending yes, but it was also a beginning, a new arc, a new series maybe, I think that Animorphs would have continued and I used to wonder why it didn't, as a kid I thought K.A. must have just become bored, nowadays though I think it deserved an EU, and I kept wondering why it never got either a continuation or an EU.
Until I saw K.A.'s response to the criticism (I hadn't seen it before) and man, she comes off as being pretty ticked off as us, her readers, I can see her not being terribly eager to do anything more with Animorphs.
Still, the final book was memorable, it was powerful, it wasn't perfect but it was as strong as a children's book can be. Allow me now to make myself an even greater fool in everyone's eyes by comparing #54 to the quote in Dark Knight: It was the ending Animorphs needed, but not the ending Animorphs deserved.
I think that would have been #60.
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Very impressive JFalcon, very impressive!
I feel somewhat similar. Judging by her response, she is definetly a little pissed at us for the criticism of the ending, but then again, what did she expect? She ended it in a cliffhanger! She knew we were going to get mad, she even apologized in the Author's Notes! I admire her for doing it a little though, because that was very risky.
Also, I wonder why she's never let someone else write an Animorphs spinoff? Your post brought up several good points, but the main one that stuck out in my mind (besides how good Rachel's death scene was) was that she left the world completely open. Does anyone know if she would be down with letting someone else take over? Surely, she had to have been asked about this before somewhere.
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JFalcon should get a award for that. Not only did he cover everything possible without writing a book, he had an awsome childhood story to boot. anyway, Rachel was doomed to die a warrior. think about it, she lives to fight, she's always jazzed to kill some yeerks. Theres a moral there, - THose who live by the sword shall die by the sword. That IS Rachel's motto
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JFalcon should get a award for that. Not only did he cover everything possible without writing a book, he had an awsome childhood story to boot. anyway, Rachel was doomed to die a warrior. think about it, she lives to fight, she's always jazzed to kill some yeerks. Theres a moral there, - THose who live by the sword shall die by the sword. That IS Rachel's motto
I agree.
As a matter of fact, I even agreed with KA's reasoning for killing off Rachel. It makes perfect sense.
I STILL don't like the fact that she died though, but I have to hand it to her, if the story had a perfect happy ending, I probably wouldn't be on these message boards 8 years after it ended.
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It didn't really make perfect sense within the context of the series. It's been established that there's always going to be a way out, and they always survive. even if she was a warrior, and warriors tend to live and die by the blade, it doesn't mean she had to be killed off in the very last battle.
I guess different people have different thought processes. Some think it makes perfect sense, and some think it doesn't make sense at all.
I like how the Avatar: The Last Airbender developers did their show. Even though the show was about a war, they never let the war take over the show. They stayed within their demographic.
I think I would still be here at this board today, even with a happy ending. If I didn't enjoy the rest of the series so much, especially the beginning, then the ending may have just ruined the whole thing for me.
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It didn't really make perfect sense within the context of the series. It's been established that there's always going to be a way out, and they always survive. even if she was a warrior, and warriors tend to live and die by the blade, it doesn't mean she had to be killed off in the very last battle.
I guess different people have different thought processes. Some think it makes perfect sense, and some think it doesn't make sense at all.
I like how the Avatar: The Last Airbender developers did their show. Even though the show was about a war, they never let the war take over the show. They stayed within their demographic.
I think I would still be here at this board today, even with a happy ending. If I didn't enjoy the rest of the series so much, especially the beginning, then the ending may have just ruined the whole thing for me.
I might not have come across the way I meant to in my last post.
I understood her thought process on it, but I certainly felt differently. Actually, I'm more on your side on this matter. I think that there was definetly a way out of it, and if Jake had been thinking properly, I'm sure he would have seen it. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised that the reason he was so depressed now is because he's probably seen a million different ways to save everyone, but it's too late now.
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Agreed because many fans have seen ways out for Rachel, some of them far fetched but none the less I can see Jake coming up with far fetched ideas and believing them plausable, grief does that to people. I myself have something of a tactical mind and there are points where I'd think "no, that's wrong, do this instead" while reading the books, but it's easy to analize after the fact, much harder to think of the right plan at the exact moment its needed.
JFalcon should get a award for that. Not only did he cover everything possible without writing a book, he had an awsome childhood story to boot. anyway, Rachel was doomed to die a warrior. think about it, she lives to fight, she's always jazzed to kill some yeerks. Theres a moral there, - THose who live by the sword shall die by the sword. That IS Rachel's motto
Thanks, I'm glad it didn't just come off as rambling :)
But one of the things I like about Rachel was that she wasn't killing yeerks just because she liked it, she rationalized it with legitimate reasons. I think the reason a lot of people only see it as rationalizing is that she seemed to come up with a new reason each book, first it's because yeerks destroy families, then it's because her friends need her, then it's because they enslave teen pop stars and so on until it's simply because she's not afraid to do the dirty work, but I don't think it was ever Rachel making up excuses for the killing, reasons to get away with being violent, I think she was just constantly seeing more and more reason that the battles had to be fought, I think in some cases the ghost writers failed to grasp that, contrastly I think it's clever that none of the other characters ever did since the stories are from their perspectives, Rachel's mind was always just her mind.
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Yeah, I agree. Also, guys, Rachel's character was all but destroyed by the ghostwriters. She's not really a monster like some of the books painted her to be.
She seemed extremely human in book #54.
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well book 54 was written by KA herself, not ghostwriters...
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well book 54 was written by KA herself, not ghostwriters...
Exactly.
I love how she made Rachel die (I obviously don't love that she died, but it was written well).
Looking back, I'm glad she didn't just accept death and say something like "Well, at least I died fighting". I swear if she said that I would have flipped, and it definetly would've taken away the element of tragedy in the situation.
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dang JF. great post.
i agree with you 100%
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well book 54 was written by KA herself, not ghostwriters...
Exactly.
I love how she made Rachel die (I obviously don't love that she died, but it was written well).
Looking back, I'm glad she didn't just accept death and say something like "Well, at least I died fighting". I swear if she said that I would have flipped, and it definetly would've taken away the element of tragedy in the situation.
Now how do you explain that? You're happy she died, but you wouldn't want her to say that at least she died fighting? I don't understand what you're trying to say.
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well book 54 was written by KA herself, not ghostwriters...
Exactly.
I love how she made Rachel die (I obviously don't love that she died, but it was written well).
Looking back, I'm glad she didn't just accept death and say something like "Well, at least I died fighting". I swear if she said that I would have flipped, and it definetly would've taken away the element of tragedy in the situation.
Now how do you explain that? You're happy she died, but you wouldn't want her to say that at least she died fighting? I don't understand what you're trying to say.
Once again, I think I might have not expressed myself the way I was trying to.
I'm happy with the way that she died. She really seemed like a 16 year old girl who wanted to live, as opposed to a warrior who only lived to fight. I'm happy she didn't just say "Well, I went out like a warrior, what more can I ask for?". She sounded remorseful.
Just so we get this straight with everyone, I am absolutely not happy at all that Rachel died, but seeing as I don't control the story, I just deal with it.
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Ok, I see. It was just me, though. Not you.
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All I can say about 54 is that it was total love-hate situation and I'm glad that she left it way open for fan-fics. (Heck, she even called it "The Beginning", if that doesn't say "Write a sequel" what does?)
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All I can say about 54 is that it was total love-hate situation and I'm glad that she left it way open for fan-fics. (Heck, she even called it "The Beginning", if that doesn't say "Write a sequel" what does?)
LOL, exactly.
As a matter of fact, when I was younger, I used tho think the title of book 54 was like a hidden clue that there was going to be a sequel. But I guess it was just me not wanting to accept the end of my childhood heroes.
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They live on in your imagination, lol.
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They live on in your imagination, lol.
No kidding. My youngest brother, whom I've begun reading the series to, refuses to accept that even Elfangor died, he actually said "he's alive in my imagination" which was wierd coming from a kid his age, I didn't expect him to catch a concept like that :P
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Kids have a way of surprising you.
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She should retcon the title of the 54th book and call it "Really Really For Really Rizzle Reals The End." Just to shut people up. :(
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You know the words The End are such classic words at the end of a fantasy children's book. Since she always titled the main books The ___, I figured The end would be the perfect title for the last book. Of course I expected many things for the last book. Probably the saddest thing besides Rachel and Tom's death is that Marco and Ax got everything they wanted and she didn't just leave it at that. She had to make Ax a prisoner of the One, and Marco bored out of his mind. Why couldn't she at least leave Marco and Ax happy?
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Because it's a better ending the way she wrote it?
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Not in the opinion of most of her fans.
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Because it's a better ending the way she wrote it?
ilu.
What kind of crappy ending would "And Marco and Ax lived happily ever after" be?
But I guess that's a classic ending for a children's fantasy book...
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That's just the thing, though. I love that about K.A./Michael's series books. They don't bullshiz around and talk down to their audience, y'know?
Sure, the book was targeted at 12 year olds. But not to be gender specific here, but Animorphs had balls, man. When you think about some of the stuff in these books, it's pretty freakin' dark. Some of the stuff Marco and Jake specifically dealt with is like completely unheard of for books of this reading level.
Why would the ending be the "epic space battle, good guys prevail hallelujah" type of thing we've become so accustomed to? The books didn't really stay close to expected conventions for a kid's series in the first place. There are just so many more arguments toward the ending being effective than there are for it being a let-down.
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What kind of crappy ending would "And Marco and Ax lived happily ever after" be?
Well, I bet Marco and Ax would have liked it :P
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I swear I'm going to invent a word like Happyphobe. Someone who discriminates against happy endings with intolerance. I'll start smiting people, in in that explanation box, I'll put Happyphobe. Well, maybe not that last part.
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What kind of crappy ending would "And Marco and Ax lived happily ever after" be?
Well, I bet Marco and Ax would have liked it :P
Lol, I'll bet they would have.
Sheesh, honestly I kind of just lost a little respect for K.A. when I read that. I really think she overreacted. As an author, she should know that her fans won't always agree with her work and that there will always be some criticism. I don't think she should've lashed out like that at her fans, who consist mostly of children.... I think she was kind of harsh near the end of her letter. She should have just ended the books the way she wanted to and ignored people who didn't like it and simply left it at that. That's what I would have done, lol.
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I think she should have stuck to the demographic, instead of changing it to an older style just because the first fans undoubtably grew older with time. I think that any author that sells their work should always keep the fans in mind during a series, especially if she hopes those same fans will read her new book series.
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Sheesh, honestly I kind of just lost a little respect for K.A. when I read that. I really think she overreacted. As an author, she should know that her fans won't always agree with her work and that there will always be some criticism. I don't think she should've lashed out like that at her fans, who consist mostly of children.... I think she was kind of harsh near the end of her letter. She should have just ended the books the way she wanted to and ignored people who didn't like it and simply left it at that. That's what I would have done, lol.
Hm, I didn't think the letter was too harsh or overreacting. She did state her respect for her readers. I can't think of any other nicer way she could have said why she ended it the way she did.
And yes, I am very much a happyphobe, though to my credit I do like Disney movies.
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She's the author. There is no "should" or "shouldn't". It is as it is. Animorphs is what we got. If you've got an issue with it, that's what fan-fiction is for. I mean, yeah, K.A. was pretty harsh way back in the day with her retort to all of the whining, but you know what? Good for her. She's right in a lot of ways, the people who get so militant about the ending could be said to not really 'get' the series anyway, so more power to 'em. She explained her reasons, I'm sure you have yours for wanting it different. Fact is, though, Animorphs had an unhappy ending, and it seems pretty clear in hindsight she'd planned that for some time.
Ergo, a happy ending for Animorphs would no longer be Animorphs.
(Holy crap. I just said "ergo". What a smarmy smug a-hole. I dislike myself.)
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Now that I think about it, I wish an Animorph died halfway through the series. If its realism the author wants...
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Tobias. (!!!1!!1!)
;D *Runs*
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I'm actually inclined to agree. He was truly the heart and soul of the Animorphs. It would be cool to see them deteriorate in a group and morale sense after his death.
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He was the whinerbaby of the Animorphs, is what he was. He could have been taken down like a punk, by some random owl in the middle of the night in his meadow. >:D
Hey, at least then we'd get to see Rachel truly show some of the wussy readers what it means to lose it. Xena Warrior Bear Buffy Slayer Mallrat Bloodbath Princess! Mwahaha.
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It would have been somewhat poetic for Tobias to be the first and last casualty of the war. Not that I would have wanted him to die any more than the others. I just think that if I had to write the last book, and some gunman ordered me to kill someone off, it would be Tobias or Cassie. Cassie because of the irony that she died because of what she did in book 50.
Of course either one of those would set Rachel off.
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Hate to go against the grain, but Tobias was the pinnacle of "moody emo kid". His brooding used to annoy me as bad as Cassie's whining.
And there's a middle ground between "happily ever after" and "they all die at the end". There really is. It's called "bittersweet victory", and IMO, 54 was going great until the last few chapters. But hey, it's her series. If she wants to end it one way, then she should. Hate to sound like a broken record, but I'm just glad it's open for fan-fics. You could say 54 encourages kids to write stories of their own.
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Everyone is hating on Tobias, and frankly, he sickens me too. But he never complained, and was usually second to agree to action.
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I know. The sad part is I see so many ways I'd probably be similar to him. Nerdy kid, check. Attaches himself to people who are nice to him, check. Addicted to brooding, check.
The list goes on and on...
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I think she should have stuck to the demographic, instead of changing it to an older style just because the first fans undoubtably grew older with time. I think that any author that sells their work should always keep the fans in mind during a series, especially if she hopes those same fans will read her new book series.
I agree with you 100%.
And I actually did not have a problem with the ending of Animorphs. I thought it was pretty appropriate, fitting, and definitely an enjoyable read as always. I didn't, however, think that it was very dignified to talk down to readers who were simply expressing their difference in opinion. Besides, I think most Animorphs readers understood why it had to end like that so why should she have to give an explanation? She should have been confident in her ending enough to just leave it alone and let the readers who understood it feel special, Lol.
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A dude got bitten into little pieces in the first book! A schoolteacher issued an order to behead the main characters! Rachel screams obscenities!
How did the demographic change in the final arc? It was always a pretty disturbing series. Always always always. There's probably a vein popping out on my forehead right now.
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Wait, I've been up wayy to long so forgive me. I dont remember those instances. Who issued the order to behead people. My mind stopped working an hour ago.
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I guess Rachel thought the same thing. She slowed down just a little and began yelling and
waving her arms. "Come on, come on, you - " And then she said some words I didn't realize
Rachel even knew.
"No. No need to capture them. Whoever you find, kill."
The first voice had been Hork-Bajir. The second voice was human. And the weird thing was,
that voice sounded familiar. I tried to think. I knew I'd heard that voice somewhere. Where?
Where?
"Just save the head," the human told the Hork-Bajir. "Bring that to me and we can identify it."
and I'm guessing the bitten dude was reffering to the homeless guy who the hork-bajir ran into, although we never know what did happen to him...
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A dude got bitten into little pieces in the first book! A schoolteacher issued an order to behead the main characters! Rachel screams obscenities!
How did the demographic change in the final arc? It was always a pretty disturbing series. Always always always. There's probably a vein popping out on my forehead right now.
Because there was always other stuff going on besides the fighting. Other normal stuff that balanced the dark parts so the story wasn't all about the war. If the series had been like the final arc all the way through, I most likely would have stopped reading it. A shocking number of fans likely wouldn't have emailed Applegate with negative letters. The last books were tenser, at least to me. The characters were more bland. There were fewer and fewer things that happened unrelated to the war, like Ax going crazy in the foodcourt.
I would be surprised if anyone read the first 10 books without any prior knowledge of the series, then tell me the stuff in the last ten were totally expected. The series changed over time, and I regret that.
Edit: The dude is Elfangor, I assume. You remember how Visser Three ate him?
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I also note, that the Animorphs didn't come in fighting. They came in RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES!
;D
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Because there was always other stuff going on besides the fighting. Other normal stuff that balanced the dark parts so the story wasn't all about the war. If the series had been like the final arc all the way through, I most likely would have stopped reading it. A shocking number of fans likely wouldn't have emailed Applegate with negative letters. The last books were tenser, at least to me. The characters were more bland. There were fewer and fewer things that happened unrelated to the war, like Ax going crazy in the foodcourt.
Well, in the last few books a full-scale war had broken out, so they had to stop going to school and doing "normal" things. I think it makes sense.
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First time I have ever seen this, but I am glad that K.A. addressed the reader criticism. I always felt like the series ended brilliantly. As a series aimed at young adults, it is pretty rare for a series in this age group to transcend age old customs of ending happily, with everything worked out in the end. I am glad that K.A. "went there" and I couldn't be more happy with what happened in the end. The series, and the way that it is structured always reminded me of great shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, because those shows, originally targeting a teen audience deal with dark themes, plots, complex characters, and don't always end happily. Especially Angel which saw 3 major characters die in the final season. Animorphs dealt with some serious themes, despite being a series geared for young people, which is why I love it so much. It still holds up, after all these years, when I am far from the target audience that the books first drew in.
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I guess Rachel thought the same thing. She slowed down just a little and began yelling and
waving her arms. "Come on, come on, you - " And then she said some words I didn't realize
Rachel even knew.
"No. No need to capture them. Whoever you find, kill."
The first voice had been Hork-Bajir. The second voice was human. And the weird thing was,
that voice sounded familiar. I tried to think. I knew I'd heard that voice somewhere. Where?
Where?
"Just save the head," the human told the Hork-Bajir. "Bring that to me and we can identify it."
and I'm guessing the bitten dude was reffering to the homeless guy who the hork-bajir ran into, although we never know what did happen to him...
Oh dear me, how could I forget those. They were pretty sweet. Just save the head, for the files of other beheaded people in visser 3's closet
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Wait, I've been up wayy to long so forgive me. I dont remember those instances. Who issued the order to behead people. My mind stopped working an hour ago.
Elfangor's described as being not only eaten, but bitten into little pieces, some of which fall to the ground and are munched on by giant sentient worms. Chapman authorizes the Hork-Bajir to kill Jake when he chases him into the abandoned store/gas station/whatever, telling him to only save the head for identification. Leading one to a pretty good assumption that homeless guy was sliced up pretty good around the neck. Rachel screams words at the pursuing Hork-Bajir "that I didn't even think Rachel knew", according to Jake. Pretty fair assumption she's not calling them "silly-heads".
Like, really, she wasn't allowed to specifically detail some of this stuff, but how can you not pick up on it?
The very first book was intense as hell. Saying "Animorphs wasn't always a war story, not 'til the very end anyway! They changed!" is so ridiculous.
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Hahaha, I agree, I mentioned it to someone who knew of the animorphs and we were talking about violence in some movie. I forgot about Elfangor being bitten into tiny pieces, though I hope thats what happened when he was swallowed. I like to think Visser 3 chewed his food. Thanks for the memory jog.
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Well, the first book was more tense than the slightly later books. Besides, I didn't even start reading the series at the first book anyway.
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Well then isn't it a little unfounded to be on the side of the argument she changed demographic?
The second book took a smaller more intimate scale, focusing on a few characters and the effect of the invasion on family, and I suppose three was somewhat Tobias-centric too, but most of those early books (say #1-#20) definitely had their fair share of too dark for what you'd expect of kid's books. I mean, these made Goosebumps look like Yo Gabba Gabba, and Animorphs wasn't even trying to be kids-horror the way that series was.
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Edit: The dude is Elfangor, I assume. You remember how Visser Three ate him?
oh yeah... I couldn't register elfangor as a "dude", that's why I didn't think of him...
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Dude, alien dude, Andalite homey, like whateverz.
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Show more respect for the Great Elfangor! He is not a "dude"!
Joking. lol.
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Warrior Prince Dude-Guy. :P
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That's better! ;D
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I just call him Al. Sometimes he liked to be called Mr. Fangor though. :P
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:( Ugh. The cheese, the cheese.
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I love rereading the books now, and without even thinking about it, I think. Oh thats graphic. Like Marco holding his slit open stomach to keep his guts from falling out. Thats like Saving Private Ryan imagery.
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LOL I have a weak stomach, and as a result, I find myself distancing myself from vividly picturing such scenes, like I'm watching it through special glasses or something. I bet they distanced their perceptions and their morphs to prevent shock when possible. (An example would be: hey, i'm injured, but it's not like a real injury, since I'll just morph out).
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I always just figured they put it all deep down inside hoping it would never resurface, along with the rest of their individual decisions.
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You know what I thought was sick? In a totally "whoa, she actually went there!" way? The book towards the end where Jake's narrating, talking about walking away from a battle and slipping on the blood-slick floor. So gross. And the dying human-Controller begging for a blanket or whatever, "I'm so cold!", Jake just turns and walks away without saying anything.
I mean, really. What other kid's series could get away with THAT? :o
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I don't know how she got away with it, really. I suppose I distanced myself from those scenes too, and focus on the funnier and lighter parts. Except that it got harder and harder as the series went on, then she shoved it in my face with the last book.
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I'm stealing this from an article I just read about making video games more artsy:
Sadness sticks with you longer than happiness
Aeris.
That’s all I have to say. One name. That one name, more than any other name in video gaming, brings back memories of tragedy and loss and regret and anger and horror and vengeance. Despite the fact that Final Fantasy VII was released a decade ago, many gamers still mark the death of Aeris as one of the saddest, most emotional moments in video gaming history.
The death of an innocent flower girl who healed your party and was (some would say pointlessly) murdered by Sephiroth in the middle of the game really has a way of sticking out in the collective gamer subconscious. And that is a very, very, good thing.
While we all have moments we enjoy from our favorite games, the sad moments tend to be the most oft-remembered amongst in our community. Whether it’s the death of Aeris or the end of Fallout, tragedy has a way of standing out in a way that happy endings and jokey one-liners never will.
This trend is not solely relegated to video games, of course. Some of the greatest works of literature ever written have unabashedly negative endings -- hell, most everyone would agree that Shakespeare’s tragedies were immeasurably greater than his comedies.
Misery is friggin’ awesome
Happiness is, in my opinion, overrated. Happy people are seldom interesting for very long. Things that consistently make people happy are usually transitory and intrinsically meaningless. Happiness is rare, and fleeting.
But misery? Misery, as said above, sticks with you forever. Misery can ruin your life, and fuel your creativity. Misery can give you purpose and drive where simple happiness and contentment lead to stagnation. Not to get any more philosophical or condescending than I already have, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see that misery present in video gaming, as well?
Imagine you play a video game that takes place during a war. Throughout the entire story, you have to lead an innocent child through a battlefield, protecting her while trying to find her parents. After hours and hours of getting to know and care for this child, you finally reach her home -- only to find that the enemy combatants have quartered themselves in her house, and the little girl is shot to death upon entering.
Now, while the above scenario would be admittedly more than a bit manipulative, it’s the sort of thing you’d remember for the rest of your life. As games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus prove, accompanying a helpful character throughout a game is an original and fantastically effective way of connecting the player to a character. If the player loses someone he or she cares about due to the atrocities of war, then it will hurt so much more than if the player had watched a movie or read a book with an identical plot. Even ignoring the thematic implications of such an ending, it would be insanely effective, and, if done well enough, could change the way the player thinks about video games, war, and the world in general. That is what great art does.
Simple is boring
If you put together all the WWII games in all of video gaming, their combined amount of play time would probably exceed the actual length of WWII. When this strange influx of Nazi-stomping games appeared, many gamers (myself included) didn’t know how or why the industry had suddenly chosen to create dozens upon dozens of games about the same war.
I would argue that this happened for two main reasons: firstly, the gameplay opportunities WWII presented (on land, on sea, in the air, across the entire globe), and secondly, because of how easy it is to oversimplify the morality of that war. WWII was clear-cut: Nazis bad, Allies good. Unlike WWI or Vietnam (to my knowledge, not a single WWI game has ever been made, and only a handful of Vietnam games have been produced), very few people in modern America would argue in favor of the enemy’s side. While, to a degree, this method of viewing WWII is not entirely false (though films like Das Boot do an awfully good job of humanizing the Nazis), it provides game developers with often unfair opportunities. Instead of looking at WWII as the horrific loss of life than it was, in video games the war is frequently depicted in much the same way it was in the 1940’s: a heroic, unambiguous fight against evil. Good guys die in large numbers, but their deaths are not terribly violent (not a single WWII game I can think of includes blood, much less gibbing). The enemies we fight are faceless and without personality (Call of Duty 2 seems to have about twelve different Nazi models, total).
Now, are these WWII games fun? Undoubtedly. But through the genre’s inability to reinvent itself -- to take the war setting and apply actual concepts of morality and loss and horror -- gamers quickly grew tired of the flood of differently-playing, but identically-themed WWII games. Even though each new WWII game brought something new to the table (whether it be commandable vehicles, epic multiplayer, or a different gameplay structure), not a single one of them chose to innovate in an emotional or thematic way.
“Simple” is boring. “Good vs evil” is boring. The world is in shades of grey, so why not make the player experience that same moral ambiguity in his gameplay? Why not move beyond simply making a game “fun” or “entertaining” and present real, moral dilemmas? Dick and I have talked about this before, but most video games tend to make their moral choices far too clear-cut, or altogether meaningless in the overall scheme of the game.
Source (http://www.destructoid.com/fun-isn-t-enough-why-video-games-have-to-move-beyond-simple-escapism-30905.phtml)
Agree? Disagree? Any thoughts on relating this to Animorphs?
I really couldn't disagree more with the sentiment that Animorphs should have been watered down and diluted so as to be more "considerate" to its audience. Don't shock anyone. Don't make them squirm. Don't punch them in the gut and leave them reeling afterwards. Just entertain them until they discard you and move on to something else.
No. K.A. knew her audience well and treated us with respect. Throughout the series she challenged us to think about the story's conflicts on deeper levels and see the shades of grey. She treated us more like students than like consumers. That's probably why the tone of her response to the criticism of the ending was rather harsh. She had seen our potential, but most of our class failed the final exam and whined that it should have been easier.
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Preach it, brotherrr. Can'I'getta'Amen?
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I disagree with you. [/shocker]
The death of Aeris is one of the most memorable points in the game, and also one of the things I hate the most. Why did they have to kill off my healer?
Shakespear wrote comedies? I did not know. I was made to read Romeo and Juliet, and the tragic ending was completely stupid. I told the teacher that. She said R&J was one of the greatest romance stories in history. I said no, Walt Disney's Cinderella is. That got a few snickers from the class.
At this point I really am repeating myself. Rachel dieing was unrealistic in the context of the series, where all the main characters always live, and a super cosmic being ensures there's always a way out for them.
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So Rachel died. It made total sense to me. KA had that plot point outgunned, surrounded and low on resources. Rachel had to die? Okay, she died doing something vital to the mission and when it comes to one-(wo)man berzerker attacks on an entire blade ship, she's your Rambo.
That's not what I didn't like about the ending at all. It's just... Is it possible for the person who imagined the characters to write them... out of character? Everything after Visser Three's trial seemed ghost-written.
I was expecting the Drode to pop up like: "Jake no longer has leadership ability, Cassie sympathizes with none of her former teammates, Marco is cashing in on everyone's misery and... where the heck is Ax- well at least one thing is the same. Yes, Animorphs, beg Crayak to give you your spines back, just say please..."
And I know it's childish to say this: Endings are supposed to end the story. "The End." Otherwise it implies that she intends to continue the story. There is more. She is the storyteller. Ok, so what happens next? OH we're supposed to imagine what happens next? That's okay. I can do that.
But really... You're gonna tell us what happens next right? Oh, go read Remnants.
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My problem wasn't with the downturn aftermath. It was with the cliffhanger, but I'll leave it at that.
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So Rachel died. It made total sense to me. KA had that plot point outgunned, surrounded and low on resources. Rachel had to die? Okay, she died doing something vital to the mission and when it comes to one-(wo)man berzerker attacks on an entire blade ship, she's your Rambo.
That's not what I didn't like about the ending at all. It's just... Is it possible for the person who imagined the characters to write them... out of character? Everything after Visser Three's trial seemed ghost-written.
I was expecting the Drode to pop up like: "Jake no longer has leadership ability, Cassie sympathizes with none of her former teammates, Marco is cashing in on everyone's misery and... where the heck is Ax- well at least one thing is the same. Yes, Animorphs, beg Crayak to give you your spines back, just say please..."
And I know it's childish to say this: Endings are supposed to end the story. "The End." Otherwise it implies that she intends to continue the story. There is more. She is the storyteller. Ok, so what happens next? OH we're supposed to imagine what happens next? That's okay. I can do that.
But really... You're gonna tell us what happens next right? Oh, go read Remnants.
Exactly!
The cliffhanger left a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like it's not finished, and since it was the last book, that makes the series feel unfinished. At this point, was "The One" really necessary if you were ready to be done with it forever?
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and a super cosmic being ensures there's always a way out for them.
Unless an opposing super cosmic being who is about to lose everything else (in the context of this conflict) claims one of the Ellimist's heroes as a conciliatory prize. Crayak had tried this move before in MM3, making a deal that would result in a despised Animorph's death, but the Ellimist squirmed out of the corner and made sure there was a way out for Jake. Now, the stakes are much higher. The war is about to be decided, so the terms of the game have shifted. And Crayak says, "Okay, I'll concede the war, but I'm holding on to Rachel. She doesn't escape." This time Crayak makes sure there's no way out for the Ellimist.
At this point, was "The One" really necessary if you were ready to be done with it forever?
The One appeared right at the end to emphasize one of the major messages of the story: Your freedom and identity matter. Individuals matter. That's why K.A. made it such a big deal for the Animorphs to not morph sentient beings. That's why every book starts with "My name is..." That's why the Animorphs described the experience of morphing ants as being so horrifying, because ants have no identities. That's why the villains are known by numbers instead of names. That's why Jake always forced Ax and everyone else to vote on group decisions. That's why it was a big deal for the Animorphs to erase Visser Four's host in MM3. That's probably why we never learn the name of the Yeerk who steals Tom and becomes the primary villain at the end. That's why voluntary Controllers were described in book 1 as scum. That's why Rachel's last question was "Did I make a difference? Did my life matter?"
The whole series the Animorphs were fighting a force that was erasing people's individuality and identity, making them part of something greater, controlling their brains. That's why Marco describes The One as representing every evil, every corruption, and as causing people's brains to shut down. The One absorbs individuals, erases any control or significance they have, and makes them part of a greater being. The One itself has no name, it is simply The One.
Ending the series with the Animorphs encountering The One, who tells them to surrender their selves, and deciding to "Ram the Blade ship" reminds readers at the end of the story what the story was about. It's also completely badass, and the Animorphs (and Rachel in particular) had always been totally badass.
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I never really believed that all voluntaries were scum, or that morphing sentients was wrong. I never really understood why ants would be so horrifying.
But I can see that's a message KA wanted to push. I still hated the cliffhanger, though.
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I never really believed that all voluntaries were scum, or that morphing sentients was wrong. I never really understood why ants would be so horrifying.
But I can see that's a message KA wanted to push. I still hated the cliffhanger, though.
Fair enough. But that's the reason the series ended that way. There was a purpose to it, it wasn't lazy writing. As to how well-executed it was, your mileage may vary.
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Gotta love the borg.
Unless an opposing super cosmic being who is about to lose everything else (in the context of this conflict) claims one of the Ellimist's heroes as a conciliatory prize. Crayak had tried this move before in MM3, making a deal that would result in a despised Animorph's death, but the Ellimist squirmed out of the corner and made sure there was a way out for Jake. Now, the stakes are much higher. The war is about to be decided, so the terms of the game have shifted. And Crayak says, "Okay, I'll concede the war, but I'm holding on to Rachel. She doesn't escape." This time Crayak makes sure there's no way out for the Ellimist.
The One appeared right at the end to emphasize one of the major messages of the story: Your freedom and identity matter. Individuals matter. That's why K.A. made it such a big deal for the Animorphs to not morph sentient beings. That's why every book starts with "My name is..." That's why the Animorphs described the experience of morphing ants as being so horrifying, because ants have no identities. That's why the villains are known by numbers instead of names. That's why Jake always forced Ax and everyone else to vote on group decisions. That's why it was a big deal for the Animorphs to erase Visser Four's host in MM3. That's probably why we never learn the name of the Yeerk who steals Tom and becomes the primary villain at the end. That's why voluntary Controllers were described in book 1 as scum. That's why Rachel's last question was "Did I make a difference? Did my life matter?"
The whole series the Animorphs were fighting a force that was erasing people's individuality and identity, making them part of something greater, controlling their brains. That's why Marco describes The One as representing every evil, every corruption, and as causing people's brains to shut down. The One absorbs individuals, erases any control or significance they have, and makes them part of a greater being. The One itself has no name, it is simply The One.
Ending the series with the Animorphs encountering The One, who tells them to surrender their selves, and deciding to "Ram the Blade ship" reminds readers at the end of the story what the story was about. It's also completely badass, and the Animorphs (and Rachel in particular) had always been totally badass.
Your well-thought makes 54 sound great. Makes me think you've given more thought to 54 than she did. Still have the aftertaste, tho.
I note, just because something is well-thought out in theory and makes perfect sense in your mind doesn't mean it works out in practice. I'm sure Sam Raimi will defend Spiderman 3 until the day he dies, but you don't see everybody going "well at least he stuck to his guns when everybody said sandman was a bad idea". Then again, you also don't see him jabbing an evil finger at the fans for wanting escapism in their young adult book series.
EDIT: God, I'm bitter. Sorry guys, I try to hide it when I can.
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It wasn't even really a cliffhanger. We all know there's like a 99.999999999% chance they all suffocated and died. Which is a pretty fitting ending, too, for those three. Jake and Tobias especially, but even Marco's said to be bored out of his brain with the Hollywood life. Cassie's basically the only one with anything to live for, and that's how it ended. So what? Makes perfect sense.
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Half of life is finding something or someone to live for. And tho I can't remember the last few books, doesn't Jake still have parents? Marco still have his dad? That's more than enough to live for.
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That's not what I meant. Jake found purpose in doing what no one else could do. Jake's basically the archetype of the most capable human in existence, regarding the inter-species conflict. He was the only one with any experience in it, and he felt empty without doing his part post-war.
Tobias was in it for Ax, so there was no way he was going to stay back.
Marco decided to go along because he's not a total deadbeat.
The Animorphs came in fighting, they had their respite after the war, and realized this new thing with Ax was what they needed to be doing, where they needed to be.
There's really nowhere else to take the characters, after all that progression.
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I'd argue that there's a very strong chance the characters lived after 54, or that K.A. intended for them to live. There are enough variables in the Animorphs universe (The Ellimist, Elfangor surviving ramming the Blade ship, all the previous stunts that should have killed the Animorphs) that the Animorphs don't need to be dead.
As further evidence, during summer 2007 K.A. told fans at Livejournal that she'd be willing to write books 55-60 if Scholastic offered her the contract. If she's open to the idea of writing more, I'd have to imagine she intended for her characters to live. (I'll try to dig up the exact quote and source soon, but I don't have the time tonight.)
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http://community.livejournal.com/animorphs/333855.html
We'd love to do book #55. Or #55 through #60, even. But that's not our
decision to make. The publisher would have to make that call.
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It wasn't even really a cliffhanger. We all know there's like a 99.999999999% chance they all suffocated and died. Which is a pretty fitting ending, too, for those three. Jake and Tobias especially, but even Marco's said to be bored out of his brain with the Hollywood life. Cassie's basically the only one with anything to live for, and that's how it ended. So what? Makes perfect sense.
But then what? Would the One just keep absorbing all life? Who would combat The One? Would Cassie have any part in it? Would she just keep living her life as normal if all of her best friends just died?
I just think that ending with a cliffhanger, and an entirely new, unexplained being and situation is absurd. It just pains me that it seems like KA doesn't understand this. But on the contrary, even if she did realize how much she screwed her fans over by leaving us with a cliffhanger, there isn't much she can do about it. She can't write any additional story to resolve the situation due to legal complications, and blatantly admitting to ending the series poorly would damage her reputation as a writer. That's why I feel guilty about feeling upset towards her, especially since she probably had good intentions about it all, and even took the time to respond to us fans, even if it was intended to criticize us on our criticism. At least she listened to us.
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Rachel dieing was unrealistic in the context of the series, where all the main characters always live, and a super cosmic being ensures there's always a way out for them.
Going out on a limb here to help out one/two of my fav childhood authors.
Being that the Ellimist was a gamer, and knowing how miniscule things could help overall and see the broad picture like no other, one could make a case for the fact that he picked people that had the exact qualities to keep them alive. Rachel was serendipity, and thus could not be accounted for initially when the Ellimist preset the battlefield.
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Did The One really sound like an entity that needed to be defeated in-canon, or just a cool device to end the series with that whole concept of "going out just like they came in?" Think about it.
Crayak and Ellimist didn't need the Animorphs anymore, Crayak had taken his trophy, Ellimist had won his battle. The war between them continues, but Jake/Marco/Cassie/Tobias don't seem to any longer be a part of it. The One assimilates the Ax-Man, and Jake takes his crew down fighting. At the very least stopping the Blade Ship's rampage, maybe destroying/hurting The One, we don't know.
But it's pretty clear it's just a way to end the books. The One doesn't need any more characterization, he's just a crazy zero-space nth-dimensional wacko like Ellimist/Crayak who likes to eat people.
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I'd argue that there's a very strong chance the characters lived after 54, or that K.A. intended for them to live. There are enough variables in the Animorphs universe (The Ellimist, Elfangor surviving ramming the Blade ship, all the previous stunts that should have killed the Animorphs) that the Animorphs don't need to be dead.
As further evidence, during summer 2007 K.A. told fans at Livejournal that she'd be willing to write books 55-60 if Scholastic offered her the contract. If she's open to the idea of writing more, I'd have to imagine she intended for her characters to live. (I'll try to dig up the exact quote and source soon, but I don't have the time tonight.)
GARGH! Beat me to it again!
But yeah, if it's one thing the Animorphs are known for (besides morphing into animals), it's surviving impossible situations. I could easily see them living through this.
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What if you ordered a pizza and when you got it there was no cheese and the delivery guy said the cook was an artist trying to teach you minimalism?
KA is an author. She gets paid for people to read her stories and if she doesn't get paid then she doesn't write the story. She's very good at what she does, so lots of people read her stories and talk in depth on forums and tell other people about her stories. (Also Antonio's pizza next door has the BEST BBQ pizza, he uses three kinds of cheese and some special spice, tell everyone)
I'm just saying that (imo, of course) scholastic is never going to revive the Animorphs. So why isn't the artist still writing Animorphs? There's a formula. A magic secret formula to her stories. Those ff writers who have found the formula, we call "KA in disguise." In the last book she decided not to use the formula. So instead I have to try and imagine what the book would be like if she did, instead of just reading and enjoying what she actually decided to send to the printer.
...I'm gonna catch heck for this.
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What if you ordered a pizza and when you got it there was no cheese and the delivery guy said the cook was an artist trying to teach you minimalism?
KA is an author. She gets paid for people to read her stories and if she doesn't get paid then she doesn't write the story. She's very good at what she does, so lots of people read her stories and talk in depth on forums and tell other people about her stories. (Also Antonio's pizza next door has the BEST BBQ pizza, he uses three kinds of cheese and some special spice, tell everyone)
I'm just saying that (imo, of course) scholastic is never going to revive the Animorphs. So why isn't the artist still writing Animorphs? There's a formula. A magic secret formula to her stories. Those ff writers who have found the formula, we call "KA in disguise." In the last book she decided not to use the formula. So instead I have to try and imagine what the book would be like if she did, instead of just reading and enjoying what she actually decided to send to the printer.
...I'm gonna catch heck for this.
Yeah, Scholastic probably wont revive Animorphs........no t without a reason, at least.
Like if they were to create a movie for Animorphs, maybe they can have KA write one more book, sort of an extended Prologue. It could be MM 5.
Lord knows I'd buy it.
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Yeah, Scholastic probably wont revive Animorphs........no t without a reason, at least.
Like if they were to create a movie for Animorphs, maybe they can have KA write one more book, sort of an extended Prologue. It could be MM 5.
Lord knows I'd buy it.
Who wouldn't? We're desperate, here.
Crayak and Ellimist didn't need the Animorphs anymore, Crayak had taken his trophy, Ellimist had won his battle. The war between them continues, but Jake/Marco/Cassie/Tobias don't seem to any longer be a part of it. The One assimilates the Ax-Man, and Jake takes his crew down fighting. At the very least stopping the Blade Ship's rampage, maybe destroying/hurting The One, we don't know.
Who says Rachel dying was Crayak's doing? It'd be cool if she was, but it might just have been a necessary accident. And not to mention, physical damage doesn't do jack to hive minds. You can't kill a bee and expect the hive to go down. Hence it's futility, and a need for more.
And I repeat, the Animorphs didn't come in fighting. They came in RUNNING AWAY.
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...Aleron, I don't want to sound like an ass here, but did you read the books? I know #48 was ghostwritten and all, but K.A. still wrote the outlines. Crayak had a personal beef with both Jake and Rachel, and all along both he and the Drode were characterized as wanting to basically rip their heads of and feeeed on their sooouullz. The whole trophy thing with the time-travel part, Jake's dream of the Eye, I'm pretty sure Ellimist mentions it at least once.
It was always going to be Jake or Rachel. All orchestrated by Crayak, the way Ellimist orchestrated them all meeting at the mall (sans Rachel) that fateful night.
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Actually, I did read the books. I remember those parts. It's still an inference tho, your inference, and can be doubted, just like whether they lived or died at the end of 54.
And you do sound like one.
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I'm deducing that they all died in #54 on interpretation, yes. But agreed, there's evidence that can be made either way, for the death or the survival. But seeing as K.A.'s basically said as much as The One being a convenient way to end the series with a brutally succinct action scene... Hmm.
The Rachel/Jake/Crayak aspect is more than an inference, as there are specific instances where it's mentioned in the book. By all three characters. That's about as concrete unshakable evidence as you can get.
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It agree with unhappy and realistic endings but not unfair endings, like the way Marco and Cassie weren't all that affected. If K.A.A wanted to stick with the philosophy of "war doesn't end happily", then she should have written it in a way whereby all the major character were scarred for life in different ways. She did mention in an interview that Marco and Cassie were her favourite characters so I guess that's why she chose to give them "happy" endings while everyone else suffered. So yeah, I agree with her that wars don't end happily but the ending was vary unfair. She is a good writer so, I'm sure she's capable of writing tragedy that couldn't have been prevented and not tragedy that happened simply because you wanted it to happen, that's what saddens me most about the #54 book.
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I'll probably edit this post tomorrow, and add more, because I'm starting to drift into "too tired to post coherently territory."
But one thing I will say that INFURIATES me about that letter, as a writer, is that she absolutely DID NOT give us 60 books. She gave us maybe 30, and ghost writers gave us the rest. What an absolute smack in the face. I can honestly say I have a beef with a lot of the ghost written material, but THEY wrote it, not her.
And if she really did say "If scholastic offered me money/a contract I'd write more books," then my opinion of her as a writer just went down the tubes. A writer writes because they love to write and they love their books. You write your book, THEN you sell it. If all she was doing was using the animorphs series as a cash cow then...pffft, don't bother with the self-righteous letter, I don't understand why you really care whether or not we liked the ending or not.
Well, maybe she cared because the angry animorphs crowd would be less likely to buy the rest of her books, and she felt the need to try to reign them in. I know I personally avoided her other books because I heard they had endings like this one.
This probably came off as more angry than I intended. I'll edit after sleep.
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Yeah, I also agree. She should be writing for pleasure, not just for money.
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Just as a final thought for the night (or...morning) before I head to bed.
I'm really really hoping that she doesn't actually have more books planned in her head, and she's holding out for money, or she can't be bothered to write them unless she gets money...if that's true that's just...tragic.
I mean, when I think about it from a writer's perspective (And I don't mean I'm any good or that I am published, I am neither, I am speaking ONLY from the perspective of someone who really enjoys writing,) How sad is it that an artist become so thoroughly disenchanted with their own work that they simply cannot bother to finish it?
I mean, it's like Vincent van Gogh painting half of Starry Starry Night...and then just stopping and saying 'eh, i'll finish if someone tosses me a couple bucks.'
Its YOUR ART, don't you LIKE it? Don't you WANT to see it finished? And I don't mean unicorns and fairies and glitter happy for all ending, I mean, just finishing it, period.
I don't know, if animorphs was my series (or, if any book was my own), I don't care if only two souls bought my copies, I would want it to be finished and complete, I don't think I'd be able to NOT write the ending. I'm not saying she should obsess over it or it should run her life or anything, but how can she truly be so un-invested with something of her own creation that she can't even be BOTHERED to finish it?
That's really sad. I really thought Animorphs was a series that was good enough that it deserved a proper ending. I think a lot of people did.
Know what's even more sad? There are lots of fan ficers out there that have made attempts to finish the series themselves, how can it be that your fans are more invested in YOUR work than YOU are?
Tragic. (Ok, maybe tragic is a rather melodramatic word, but I can't really think of any other word to describe it except sad, and I've already used that word fifteen times.)
It really makes me question the quality of the ending. If she really is so disinterested in her own series, can I really interpret the ending anything more than just a throw-away? A way to kill off all the characters in a way that looks psuedo-interesting so she can attempt to make us believe that she didn't just want to hurry up and be done with animorphs? I mean, if that was all it was she should have at least had the courtesy to write "and then they all killed themselves because they couldn't get over it the end. Except for Cassie because she's special." At least it would have been more closure than "wait...what happened to Ax? And how, exactly, is ramming the bladeship going to fix anything?"
I'll make my attempt to debunk or confirm in the morning. I think its bed time.
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And if she really did say "If scholastic offered me money/a contract I'd write more books," then my opinion of her as a writer just went down the tubes. A writer writes because they love to write and they love their books. You write your book, THEN you sell it. If all she was doing was using the animorphs series as a cash cow then...pffft, don't bother with the self-righteous letter, I don't understand why you really care whether or not we liked the ending or not.
I could be wrong, but iirc Scholastic owns the rights to Animorphs, so Applegrant can't really write more books unless they get a contract. I don't think they even had a say in the reprint.
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If that's true, that scholastic has such a tight restriction on the intellectual property of another individual that she is legally not allowed to release more animorphs books...that just makes me kind of sick. I think I'd rather die than let someone tell me what I can and can't write/release. :o
When I get some time, I'll look up the laws for that. If it's true, this is definitely a valuable lesson to watch your contracts and be careful where you get published. At least for me.
Edit: I will still look for the law, but as far as *I* know, I look at the cover of the book, even the new relauches, and it says that it is Copywrite Katherine Applegate.
Though, it does say that Animorphs and it's trademarks/icons, etc belong to Scholastic. I'm looking in all my other books and I cannot find that anywhere. Unfortunately I can't find any other book series to compare (since when did text books take over my shelf?)
If that's true, that she is barred from writing her own story...that's just nightmarish. If it was me I'd fight tooth and nail in court for the right to write my own story. And I'd probably still lose if I signed a contract
Goes to show, READ BEFORE YOU SIGN. lol
Also I would hope she would tell her fans if she were barred from writing more but wanted to, though I suppose there's something against that in the contract as well. But, I guess there's always ff.net for her. *silently wonders if she's secretly on there...*
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I think it's similar to what happens with a lot of movie scripts...whoever writes them sells them to a studio to make into a movie...although a book series isn't quite the same, I still bet there's an element of that...the writer pitches an idea and a publisher buys the rights from them. The author's still writing and getting money for it, that's all in the contract, but they do often give up the direct rights to the whole thing...ie they couldn't just take it to another publisher or something.
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That makes me wonder how books get published at all, since most writers don't make a lot of money and the publisher has more rights to their work than they do.
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If that's true, that she is barred from writing her own story...that's just nightmarish. If it was me I'd fight tooth and nail in court for the right to write my own story. And I'd probably still lose if I signed a contract
Goes to show, READ BEFORE YOU SIGN. lol
She's not barred from writing more Animorphs. Considering how popular the series was I'm certain Scholastic would have loved for her to continue writing and publishing more novels than she already did until the series finally ran out of steam. But she ended it on her own terms. I mean really, we have 60+ books in the complete series.
Also I would hope she would tell her fans if she were barred from writing more but wanted to, though I suppose there's something against that in the contract as well.
. . . I seriously hope people don't actually believe this.
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Yeah, me too. I know there are other instances of such a thing...The Cheetah Girls franchise is a notable one.
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I definitely disagree with the ending of the series. K. A insists that a war story shouldn't end happily, point taken. If that's the case then everyone is supposed to lose something one way or another. How come Rachel dies, Tobias is forever depressed, Jake never recovers but Cassie got over it all within a few years despite the fact that she waz the weakest during the war? Oh and not to mention that Marco got the perfect life he always wanted with both parents intact. Really i just think that K. A was biased towards the characters afterall she said it herself that Marco and Cassie were her favourite characters so only they get to have happy endings.....so wrong and unfair.
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This may be strange, but I don't really understand, if she was happy with her ending, why she seemed to feel offended/felt the need to address it.
I mean, writing is an art, and enjoyment of art will always be subjective. There will always be a portion of people who hate your story no matter what, just like there will always be people who like your story no matter what.
If people want to rant about the ending, whatever, let them, their right and their loss if they didn't like it. (And I will probably be the first to rant about the ending.)
What struck me as a little off-color about the letter (other than what I stated earlier) is that she just seems really unfair to certain sects of her audience, like the audience that was sad they did not get a happy ending. It seems as though she is basically talking down at them like children. We know wars happen, we know we will someday be voting age, we know wars suck, um, hello, we read your books. We know happy endings aren't always true.
I personally like sad endings. Some people don't. No reason to fault them. Some people want to read happy endings because if they wanted a sad ending all they have to do is turn on CNN.
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What struck me as a little off-color about the letter (other than what I stated earlier) is that she just seems really unfair to certain sects of her audience, like the audience that was sad they did not get a happy ending. [...] We know wars happen, we know we will someday be voting age, we know wars suck, um, hello, we read your books. We know happy endings aren't always true.
I don't think she was addressing the people who were just sad about how the ending turned out. I think the letter was directed at those who were very vocal about how they thought it was a dreadful ending and who went as far as to not consider it canon. Not liking a downer ending is totally justified, I agree, but you don't have to go on and on about how much of a travesty that ending was to such a good series. And unfortunately the fans who hated the ending are much louder than the ones who liked it/didn't like it but understood what she was going for. You couldn't expect her to just ignore that.
I guess you could say the whole "War is bad" part of her letter is condescending, but she pretty much had to repeat it to justify the way the ending turned out.
It seems as though she is basically talking down at them like children.
I personally thought she avoided this; she didn't pander to her fans. She didn't apologize and say "I guess you're right guys, but it's already written..." She was straight to the point and didn't beat around the bush. I thought it was admirable how she stood her ground.
And it was pretty much the nicest way she could say "Suck it, 12-year-olds."
On a slightly unrelated note, the only contradiction I could see regarding her justification and the ending is the fact that Marco joined Jake and Tobias for the last mission. Jake was just lost after the war, and Tobias made the decision to sever his remaining ties to humanity. But Marco had his parents reunited (and what of poor Nora, eh?) and was enjoying the spoils of war. No matter which way I try to see it, I think it was out of character for Jake to convince Marco to join.
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Marco had been keeping an eye on Jake for a while. He really cared about the guy, and didn't want to let him go off without Marco. I thought it was much better than what Cassie did.
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On a slightly unrelated note, the only contradiction I could see regarding her justification and the ending is the fact that Marco joined Jake and Tobias for the last mission. Jake was just lost after the war, and Tobias made the decision to sever his remaining ties to humanity. But Marco had his parents reunited (and what of poor Nora, eh?) and was enjoying the spoils of war. No matter which way I try to see it, I think it was out of character for Jake to convince Marco to join.
I do kind of actually see your point there. I agree that Marco took care of Jake. But Jake was kind of better because he was going on a mission.
Jake had a military past, while I don't think he really liked the war he fit the role of a military member/leader. Tobias didn't have anything left in the galaxy except Ax, I can see why he'd go.
Marco...all throughout the series he talked about wanting to be done with the war and do exactly the things he was doing, chasing chicks and being rich. He had everything he wanted.
I guess the one way I can justify it is, even though throughout the series, he talked like he was selfish, he really was one of the most selfless. He killed his own mom, he fought the war even though he had really little desire to do so.
What I definitely don't understand about Marco is why he went with the plan to go ahead and ram the bladeship when he had so much fun stuff going on at home. I can see Tobias and Jake being ok with a suicidal plan. But Marco had a reason to live, and from what I can tell in the novel they had a way out (just running away, they said the ship was fast enough.)
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And it was pretty much the nicest way she could say "Suck it, 12-year-olds."
Who's the target audience of the series, agewise?
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That certainly wasn't the only out of character moment in the series, and I'm sure the only reason jake said that was to call back to when Elfangor did it. Like KA wanted us to think Jake was being cool like Elfangor, even though ramming the ship made no strategic sense.
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That certainly wasn't the only out of character moment in the series
Never said it was. But in my opinion it was the only out-of-character moment in the last book.
Like KA wanted us to think Jake was being cool like Elfangor, even though ramming the ship made no strategic sense.
Kind of a moot point, because going out into a vastly unknown and uncharted territory in that one ship didn't really make much strategic sense to begin with. I thought it was implied that Jake took it on as a suicide mission, and just wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. Hence why it bothered me that Marco readily agreed. Yeah, he's Jake's best friend and that didn't change at all after the war when most of the insight on Jake's state of mind was voiced by Marco. But he didn't have a death-wish as strong as Tobias nor Jake. Doesn't feel like Marco to end his life out of pure sentiment. He even admitted that he legitimately enjoyed living life as the king, and that it didn't feel empty/unfulfilling.
And it might have made for some interesting conversation between the two aboard the Rachel if Tobias and Jake went on that last trip alone.
Marco had been keeping an eye on Jake for a while. He really cared about the guy, and didn't want to let him go off without Marco. I thought it was much better than what Cassie did.
The loss of his wife sent Marco's dad spiraling into a deep depression. How do you think he'd react to the news of his only child's death? What if it permanently split up Marco's parents after just so recently being repaired? What if one/both of them committed suicide out of grief? All questions I believe Marco would've asked himself once he realized there's very little chance he'd return home. And Jake would've known better than to bring him along.
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You bring up good points. I wouldn't put it past Jake or Tobias to use this as a suicide mission, and after seeing what happened to Ax, Jake might have thought just screw it and kill them all. They all deserved better. Especially since just before this, Jake was just starting to improve. He came out of his funk enough to get a job, which at the very least was a step in the right direction.
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They all deserved better.
In the end this is pretty much the one sentiment every single Animorphs fan can agree upon. I praise Applegate for not pulling any punches in the finale and playing it as realistically it could have been played aside from a few minor complaints, but dammit, they deserved to enjoy what Marco enjoyed for their services to Earth. It really is nothing short of a miracle. They earned their happy ending! ;_;
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Yeah. Before the series ended, I thought about what they might do. Marco would do exactly what he did. Tobias would become Human and date/marry Rachel while becoming a pilot. Marco could buy him whatever he would want to fly in. Cassie would be a zoologist, using her morphing power to gain information that no one else could. Rachel would join the military or police force, or something like that. I imagined Jake might just take it easy, or perhaps join the military as a trainer. He wouldn't be on the front lines, but he'd teach new recruits. At the very least the military would want him on board. Yes they'd still have some issues, and it could take years to fully recover, but surely none of them would be forever broken.
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And it was pretty much the nicest way she could say "Suck it, 12-year-olds."
Who's the target audience of the series, agewise?
Its in the 8-12 zone in book stores. So I'm guessing around there.
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Yes, KA is screwing over her demographic because the people who originally started reading the books have gone above the young reader demographic that the books are for. I would like to think most 10-14 year olds are still innocent enough that they want a happy ending. It's like films made by Don Bluth. Land before Time was made for kids, and it was really dark, but that was ok because there was a happy ending at the end. Same with Secret of NIMH. This is part of the reason why I hated the ending so much. Yes the series was dark, but it was originally for young readers and the biggest theme was hope. This is an idealistic viewpoint that is relevant to children.
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Yes, KA is screwing over her demographic because the people who originally started reading the books have gone above the young reader demographic that the books are for. I would like to think most 10-14 year olds are still innocent enough that they want a happy ending. It's like films made by Don Bluth. Land before Time was made for kids, and it was really dark, but that was ok because there was a happy ending at the end. Same with Secret of NIMH. This is part of the reason why I hated the ending so much. Yes the series was dark, but it was originally for young readers and the biggest theme was hope. This is an idealistic viewpoint that is relevant to children.
As far as I know, this is really the only American-made book series aimed at children that had a downer ending. The others were bittersweet at worst. Plenty of other series that children could've read for an idealistic/optimistic ending, and probably were reading at the same time.
I do feel bad for those who were reading this series exclusively, outside of their school curriculum. It must've been absolutely soul-shattering for them after ~60 books of emotional investment.
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It was pretty soul shattering even for people like me who was used to reasonably happy endings who thought it came out of nowhere. It's like KA and others think there's no gray area between what we got, and "they all lived happily ever after". We all know war is bad. You don't have to kill all most of the main cast to grind it in. And yes I do go ahead and say Jake and the others died, since the series is over anyway. If I felt like making a fan fic where they survived, I would have just changed the ending (and other things) altogether.
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Mm, very true... Jake being depressed is one thing, and I'll always argue that him and Tobias agreeing to the suicide mission was all in-character. But having all of the boys dead by the end of the book was hammering the point a little too blatantly, I think. Applegate was always good at subtlety - it's what made the books so much easier to enjoy on a 2nd/3rd read-through, so I have to admit I was disappointed that she simply killed the majority of them off, Marco's being absolutely illogical and Ax's totally out of nowhere.
You can stop reading here, because now I'm just ranting. A small part of me thinks she had Marco agree to the mission because she felt he would have to be punished for agreeing with Jake about that momentary feeling of satisfaction at the knowledge of flushing out 17,372 Yeerks into space, (an order that was carried out by Ax, who met a cruel and unusual fate some time later) a statement which clearly horrified Cassie and was probably the straw that broke the camel's back in the possibility that she could ever marry and settle down with him. Maybe it was Applegate's way of ensuring that she won't ever be tempted to come back to the series.
It makes me a little sad. I earnestly wish I could justify why she did what she did.
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I do feel bad for those who were reading this series exclusively, outside of their school curriculum. It must've been absolutely soul-shattering for them after ~60 books of emotional investment.
*sniff* thanks XtheoniongirlX for understanding how people like me feel. :-[
To reiterate other posters point of view, if I wanted realistic, I wouldn't be reading fiction. From now on, before I invest my emotions in another series, I'll ask around if it has a happy ending. So, I don't end up mourning for another long period of time.
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At least we have fanfic. But what always strikes me as sad about the series is it seems like a lot of the GOOD fanfic is aimed at fixing the series/ending, not just for love of the series.
I have always wondered, it is EXTREMELY rare, but if the KA's would give the blessing for a writer to continue the series, since it still has a decent fandom going on today. (At least it seems so, could not be.)
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Yeah, it'll be pretty cool if you wrote another series that continued animorphs.
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Yeah, it'll be pretty cool if you wrote another series that continued animorphs.
I'm not that talented, but I'm sure someone out there is. Maybe one of her ghostwriters would be interested.
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Well if Animorphs was realistic, all the kids would have been killed in the first book. Or they would have been caught by the yeerks with many of their near cover blowing antics.
I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.
Besides we got some pretty silly books in the series. (Atlantis, alergic morphing, helmacrons)
I was kind of disappointed that Rachel died. I was most curious to see how the war affected her when it was over. Jake or Cassie dying could have been more affective. Jake because he was the fearless leader and the one breaking down, and Cassie because she was the moral compass of the group. Though if she were the one to die, I'd probably start hearing Aerith's theme. Cassie was also kind of untouchable.
That said, I didn't mind the downer ending. I just didn't like the cliff hanger. Would it be so unrealistic if all the characters had retired from fighting in wars? Ax included? They could have just mentioned that another war was coming and now the next generation would have to fight. Plus it felt like a very annoying sequel hook. It also sucks that we didn't have any girl characters left.
I guess on top of that, if felt a little rushed.
I also didn't like KA's attitude in the letter.
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Well if Animorphs was realistic, all the kids would have been killed in the first book. Or they would have been caught by the yeerks with many of their near cover blowing antics.
I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.
Besides we got some pretty silly books in the series. (Atlantis, alergic morphing, helmacrons)
I was kind of disappointed that Rachel died. I was most curious to see how the war affected her when it was over. Jake or Cassie dying could have been more affective. Jake because he was the fearless leader and the one breaking down, and Cassie because she was the moral compass of the group. Though if she were the one to die, I'd probably start hearing Aerith's theme. Cassie was also kind of untouchable.
That said, I didn't mind the downer ending. I just didn't like the cliff hanger. Would it be so unrealistic if all the characters had retired from fighting in wars? Ax included? They could have just mentioned that another war was coming and now the next generation would have to fight. Plus it felt like a very annoying sequel hook. It also sucks that we didn't have any girl characters left.
I guess on top of that, if felt a little rushed.
I also didn't like KA's attitude in the letter.
Karma for you ma'am. It appears you had none and now you do.
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I was fine with most of the ending.
I had no issues with Rachel dying. I thought the notion of everyone getting through was completely unrealistic and it wouldn't feel right if the war ended without a personal sacrifice of some sort. Rachel, being the one most clearly and absolutely defined by the war, seemed the right choice.
I had no issues with post war drama with respect to Jake and Tobias, either. Anyone who expected this to end gloriously given the path we took simply viewed the series in a much different way than I did. This war was anything but glorious and always ambiguous. Why would anyone expect it to end differently?
As for the Jake/Cassie relationship, I dunno. Maybe I simply didn't have as much invested in that as some other people did. I wasn't upset.
As for the ending with The One: Well, I said I was fine with ALMOST all of the ending. Sure, I get that war sometime leads to more war. But I can't see any reasonable rationale for introducing a brand new character in the finale pages of the book, providing almost no explanation for its existence or nature, and having it be the core of the "endgame" for this book. That was jaw dropping.
Overall, I wasn't nearly as put off by the finale as others were. The only part of it that really, really bothered me was The One.
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I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.
Exactly. Totally agreed.
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I think that it would have been better to have killed a character in the middle of the series. It would have been shocking, jarring, and more "realistic" as opposed to the character that dies in the climatic final battle.
Exactly. Totally agreed.
Yeah, I'll buy that.
I don't doubt that there would be detractors of that decision as well, though.