Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Darth Zakryn on February 19, 2011, 06:15:05 AM
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Hoo boy, this is a tough one. I have a LOT of favorite moments. If I went into too much detail I'd be giving a blow-by-blow review of each individual book. However, I will say I truly loved Jake's fight with the Howler. Here is a kid, a HUMAN KID, against one of a species who has destroyed hundreds of races, comparable to the Mandalorians in Star Wars or the Jem'Hadar in Star Trek, and he defeats it by OUTWITTING it, leading him over the edge of the balcony to his doom, while, at the same time, ACQUIRING him for some possible future advantage. Say what you want about Jake, that moment was SWEET! Jake's pivotal Crowning Moment of Awesome.
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Jake and Cassie finally kissing in that book. The fact that their desperate kiss was also what defeated the Howlers was also a great moment for me.
When the kid with Cerebral Palsy first morphs a pigeon. I imagine there are a lot of people with similar disabilities who are as smart as this kid was. And it grates my nerves when their care takers treat them like idiots. So for me seeing that kid free for just two hours was a major bonus for me.
When Ax finally jokes about Marco being tied up.
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I think the last part of the title should be Wow, KA, Wow!
Favorite moments? Some choice comedic moments with Marco and Ax. I know I laughed a lot at the end of book 9 after V3 got skunked, but nowadays I think it was bad for his character to be humiliated. He's supposed to be frightening.
Much of TAC.
I do like how they established that not all Yeerks are evil in book 19, but I also have some problems regarding that book.
Book 7, where they really hurt the Yeerks for the first time.
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For me, basically all of the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. Not a moment missed, not anything overdone or brushed aside. A truly wonderful book.
And Chad, t-that's unbelievable! I was thinking something along those very lines myself, almost word for word! Have you been reading my mind? O.o
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"Rachel, Go."
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Yes, I have psychic powers. They're not as good when filtered through the internet, but they still work sometimes.
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Oh no! Now I must hide my thoughts on where the treasure of Atlantis is hidden...
Another favorite moment for me is when Dak realizes what the Andalites are doing. The poor guy, you really feel for him. Or when Toomin finally realizes he SHOULD have adapted his race all along.
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Yes, I have psychic powers. They're not as good when filtered through the internet, but they still work sometimes.
Resident Internet Psychic at your service. And no, the fact that RIP could be an acronym for those words is a complete coincidence.
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Nooooo! Why must it always be me?! :D
But seriously, no one else thought Jake outsmarting the Howler was a CMOA?
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First of all Animorphs is long and so I feel daunted looking at the series as a whole, and so I'd like to focus on my favourite book in the series, the masterpiece and pinnacle in my eyes [and I'm sure for many others too], The Andalite Chronicles. I'd just like to give a write-up of certain scenes and details which stand out to me:
-The false universe created by Elfangor, Loren, and Visser Thirty-two. I liked some of the descriptions for example the green lightning blasting across the sky, the harsh Yeerk landscape providing such a contrast with the waterfall and "Hala Fala". Like Elfangor I was also fascinated by the Visser's pets, Jarex and Larex, the Mortrons with their biological wheels and amazing capability to regenerate. Also the interactions with Loren's "mother", the effects of the vortex, etc.
-Quite exhilarating ride in a Skrit Na ship in the upper atmosphere of the Taxxon home world. Of course, Skrit Na ships can handle atmosphere better than their Yeerk equivalents as the Skrit operate in atmosphere alot in order to perform their inexplicable medical experiments, so they were able to reach some unbelievable speeds, so much so that "they were drawing a line of fire around the planet!"
-Of course the Mustang was another memorable ride.
-The attack of the living asteroids, the Jahar being drained and dying in the ensuing battle, the Visser boarding the ship in this mess and then claiming the emergency air hoods so as to acquire the Time Matrix.
True, Chad earlier said that as a whole... well.
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My ultimate favorite moment is all the way back in book #2 where Rachel and the others are trying out their raptor morphs for the first time. Just how innocent and so happy of being able to fly, feeling like no cares in the world.
But then some drunk high schoolers started shooting at them and Rachel got... IN. THEIR. FACE. :D
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I really do love it when Toomin Discovers Music for the first time...as an Ellimist scholar, that was an awesome moment for me.
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when Elfangor had his first real fight against Hork Bajir and went freaking nuts on them.
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#11 Jake square-dancing in school like a BIG HONKING GOOBER and Cassie dying of laughter watching him.
#5 Marco watching Jake's tiger morph and Cassie's wolf morph nuzzling each other on board the Blade ship and feeling jealous than they had each other.
#8 Ax's first trip to a movie theatre. "I just want the brown goblets!"
Todias reading Elfangor's letter.
All of the Andalite Chronicles
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The moment when Toomin has finished work on his quote unquote "body-slash-ship." Whever the heck THAT is, it still just feels and sounds so cool. ;D
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I like in number 18 where they get to see/explore the Leeran ocean. It sounded so beautiful.
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I like in number 18 where they get to see/explore the Leeran ocean. It sounded so beautiful.
same here
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Weirdly enough, for me it would be the last conversation between Rachel and David in #48 The Return. Maybe it helped that my expectations/enjoyment was low while reading it because while I loved the David Trilogy, his return seemed to be handled like a badly-written fanfic and made me feel like it was just a cheap attempt to bring back an entertaining villain for one last hurrah. But then I finally got to the last conversation they would ever have with each other, and it caught me totally off-guard.
It was very poignant and even if it was intentionally never confirmed, I am absolutely certain Rachel went through with the decision to end his life. A great way to end her last fully-narrated book.
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Weirdly enough, for me it would be the last conversation between Rachel and David in #48 The Return. Maybe it helped that my expectations/enjoyment was low while reading it because while I loved the David Trilogy, his return seemed to be handled like a badly-written fanfic and made me feel like it was just a cheap attempt to bring back an entertaining villain for one last hurrah. But then I finally got to the last conversation they would ever have with each other, and it caught me totally off-guard.
It was very poignant and even if it was intentionally never confirmed, I am absolutely certain Rachel went through with the decision to end his life. A great way to end her last fully-narrated book.
Its not weird at all, that's one of my all time favorite books because of the ending, and here's why.
That final scene, When Rachel's on down her knees gazing through tear-filled eyes at the rat that is David the traitor, David the nothlit, who pleads for death and tells her that if she didn't kill him, he'd come back to threaten Rachel and the Animorphs again and again...it's an beautiful, unforgettably haunting moment of Rachel fighting with herself.
She either kills a rat with a human mind and soul, kills someone begging for death, someone who's hurt her, someone who tried to kill her and her closest friends, someone that she trapped in the body of a rat,someone who's without a doubt, the most pathetic thing she's ever seen...or spares his life, allowing him to attack again, forcing him to continue living this wretched mockery of a normal life that she damned him to, to suffer… as a rat.
For me, the beauty of Rachel was always her humanness. It was seeing her being constantly weighed down by guilt and anger and hatred, and still fighting. She never really gave up, never surrendered, and she never stopped giving all she had, even if it was her own life, to protect the world and those she loved, and I know that in her death she at last found an escape from the inner darkness that had for so long overshadowed her inner brightness.
Rest in peace Rachel, and know that Xena would be proud.
Sorry if I got a little emotional and carried away.
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Sorry if I got a little emotional and carried away.
Not at all, not at all, that was wonderfully written! She was definitely a more complex character than people give her credit for.
There are subtle little moments with Rachel that I found myself re-reading several times for no strong reason. I would've liked to have listed a few, but I don't have my books with me and there's only one I remember at the moment, late in the second-half of #53:
"My brother left the bridge of the Pool ship. He would be taken by Bug fighter up to the Blade ship in orbit. The Pool ship lifted off, a slight vibration being the only evidence. Off the earth to the safety of the skies, or so Visser One believed.
Five Animorphs, twelve free Hork-Bajir, and one Chee were now aboard the Pool ship, unsuspected. The plan was on track.
<Doing good, huh Jake?> Rachel said, her thought-speak voice already fading with distance.
I couldn't answer."
It's the last thing she ever says to Jake directly. They don't specify what her tone was, and I originally thought it was sardonic. But considering the fact that in the final book she affirmed she didn't hold any grudge against him (indeed, she felt sorry for him), I think her tone was of friendly banter. I still can't explain what it is about that excerpt that makes me re-read it. There was no ferocity towards him, no bitterness. It wasn't even a forced attempt at being casual. It was just a throwaway comment.
Some people have the viewpoint that Rachel had deteriorated into a violence junkie and was irredeemable by the time the last story arc came about. That used to bother me, but I started to realize how their views pretty much reflected the way the other Animorphs (save Tobias) saw her by the end. If you look at the kind of lines she has during the series when the story is narrated by someone other than herself or Tobias, she does come off as a simple knucklehead looking for mayhem.
She can be bloodthirsty, yeah. But she was also sweet. And scared. I find it a little unfair how some people claimed her death was convenient because she would never have been able to live with peace. She would have had difficulty adjusting, but I doubt she would have nearly as much trouble as Jake had (who, much as I love him, never really did adjust). She would've found a way - maybe extreme sports like Collette told everyone.
She didn't die ferocious. In her final moment you couldn't see a hint of her blood-wrath. Aside from her last words to Tobias, I liked the way she identified her friends one last time. Again, only a subtle moment;
"I could see the viewscreen. I could see my best friend Cassie. Jake. Marco, funny Marco. Ax.
Tobias."
It's a nice nod to the kind of chemistry she had with Marco all along the series. And again, it was a throwaway comment.
This was a little off-topic, and I apologize. They're not necessarily memorable favorite moments in Canon, but lately on my re-reads the little moments are what sticks out to me. It's also a little funny to see 'subtle' and 'Rachel' in the same sentence without being followed by the words 'not' or 'complete opposites.'
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All of the Hork Bajir Chronicles. I have to look HARD to find ANY flaws in it. Favourite book of the series, in part because it doesn't shy away from making things truly alien, the way other books do -- it's not that I don't love the human characters, but it's weird when alien characters speak on totally human terms (like they often do in Andalite Chronicles). And yet it hits so many poignant themes, and is so well-written, and doesn't restrict itself to only one narrator... it's basically perfect.
All of #15. Another practically flawless book. But my favourite moment from it isn't one of the important scenes; it's the bit with Marco and the two bullies in the school pool. Rachel ain't the only one with a darker side!
The moment in #1 where Marco says that Tom is a controller, and Jake immediately punches him.
The bit in #25 with the kid who decides they must be spirits. I actually found it really sweet.
The moment where you find out what makes the Howlers such effective killers.
Surprisingly, a lot of Cassie's narration -- not so much her actual stories, as she often got the silly ones. But her narration style, I really liked.
Which was the one which jumped between a Jake narration and the diary of his great-grandfather? I really, really liked that one. That whole book was flawless, I swear.
The moment where Ax affirms, to other Andalites, that JAKE is his Prince, and he answers to JAKE now, thank you very much.
The bit where Tobias first morphs Ax.
The bit with Elfangor in Andalite Chronicles learning about human culture through Dr. Pepper, a bright yellow mustang, and cigarette ads. I loved it. It got so silly it shot straight through to AWESOME.
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I feel the same way about Book 26, Bea. Absolutely, positively no flaws, at least none that I can see. Drama, action, humor, some good sci-fi, and the involvement of the Ellimist, one of my favorite characters of the series. What's not to love?
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I feel the same way about Book 26, Bea. Absolutely, positively no flaws, at least none that I can see. Drama, action, humor, some good sci-fi, and the involvement of the Ellimist, one of my favorite characters of the series. What's not to love?
I'm not as much an action person, but 26 was pretty good, and off the top of my head I can't think of anything I didn't like in it. Weird... Wasn't it one of the first ghostwritten ones?
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As far as I know #26 is one of the few books after #24 whish is not ghostwritten
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In my last post on the "Depressing Moments" topic I included a quote from Marco involving Jake. Over here I'm going to include another quote by Marco this time involving Rachel from #37 The Weakness (certainly not one of my favorite books but it had the following golden quote);
"Listen to me, you mall-crawling psycho, we have one hour and ten minutes to get Cassie out of the Yeerk pool. Now, I can come up with a clever plan. I can work all the angles. I can see the perfect solution. But that all takes time. We don't have time, Rachel. We don't have time for clever and subtle. We need reckless, we need impulsive. We need dangerous. We need out-of-your-mind, pure adrenaline, butt-kicking, total out-there insanity. We could have used me back at the Community Center. But right now we need you. We have an hour to save your best friend, Jake's girlfriend, and the entire human race. You got us into this, now get us out."
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Sorry if I got a little emotional and carried away.
Not at all, not at all, that was wonderfully written! She was definitely a more complex character than people give her credit for.
There are subtle little moments with Rachel that I found myself re-reading several times for no strong reason. I would've liked to have listed a few, but I don't have my books with me and there's only one I remember at the moment, late in the second-half of #53:
"My brother left the bridge of the Pool ship. He would be taken by Bug fighter up to the Blade ship in orbit. The Pool ship lifted off, a slight vibration being the only evidence. Off the earth to the safety of the skies, or so Visser One believed.
Five Animorphs, twelve free Hork-Bajir, and one Chee were now aboard the Pool ship, unsuspected. The plan was on track.
<Doing good, huh Jake?> Rachel said, her thought-speak voice already fading with distance.
I couldn't answer."
It's the last thing she ever says to Jake directly. They don't specify what her tone was, and I originally thought it was sardonic. But considering the fact that in the final book she affirmed she didn't hold any grudge against him (indeed, she felt sorry for him), I think her tone was of friendly banter. I still can't explain what it is about that excerpt that makes me re-read it. There was no ferocity towards him, no bitterness. It wasn't even a forced attempt at being casual. It was just a throwaway comment.
Some people have the viewpoint that Rachel had deteriorated into a violence junkie and was irredeemable by the time the last story arc came about. That used to bother me, but I started to realize how their views pretty much reflected the way the other Animorphs (save Tobias) saw her by the end. If you look at the kind of lines she has during the series when the story is narrated by someone other than herself or Tobias, she does come off as a simple knucklehead looking for mayhem.
She can be bloodthirsty, yeah. But she was also sweet. And scared. I find it a little unfair how some people claimed her death was convenient because she would never have been able to live with peace. She would have had difficulty adjusting, but I doubt she would have nearly as much trouble as Jake had (who, much as I love him, never really did adjust). She would've found a way - maybe extreme sports like Collette told everyone.
She didn't die ferocious. In her final moment you couldn't see a hint of her blood-wrath. Aside from her last words to Tobias, I liked the way she identified her friends one last time. Again, only a subtle moment;
"I could see the viewscreen. I could see my best friend Cassie. Jake. Marco, funny Marco. Ax.
Tobias."
It's a nice nod to the kind of chemistry she had with Marco all along the series. And again, it was a throwaway comment.
This was a little off-topic, and I apologize. They're not necessarily memorable favorite moments in Canon, but lately on my re-reads the little moments are what sticks out to me. It's also a little funny to see 'subtle' and 'Rachel' in the same sentence without being followed by the words 'not' or 'complete opposites.'
No don't apologize. I think a lot of people (including myself) agree with you. Especially about what would have happened to her had she lived. I think KA Applegate just wanted to make Rachel's fans happy by saying she would have done poorly after the war.... I just don't buy it. I believe she is really strong and would have adjusted eventually.
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Marco's Dad discovering Zero-Space, a seminal movement in Earth's exploration of the stars!