Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Blazing Angel on March 26, 2011, 09:16:00 PM
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I mean seriously "ram the ship" and then absolutely nothing the least she could have done is written a followup series.
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You aren't the first to think that. Not by a long shot.
Personally, I'm okay with the ending, as it leaves a lot of options for fan fiction writers. I've read at least two post-54 stories that really turn the narrative around from that "low" point and bring it back to... whatever quantitative values you'd apply to the storyline before that.
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I don't like the ending either but there' a perfectly good explenation for why she ended it the way she did. I'm just too lazy to look for it.
BTW
Threads like these have been done to death sooo...yeah, try looking for a thread regarding the ending next time before you start another one
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It left several of us with an empty hole in our hearts and minds but she stated that the ending was meant to be "up to us" to solve.
But... I NEED an ending. I never saw an ending to my satisfaction like the Harry Potter epilogue. Now if she did something like that, it would have been great.
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Frankly, I love ambiguous endings that demand from the reader/viewer more than just observation, absorption, and playing the witness to story.
People around me get eaten up about Inception (movie), arguing that the ending is This or That...
...no, it's deliberately an ambiguous ending. The fact that you're TRYING to resolve it defeats the purpose. Asking the writer to resolve it for you just misses the point of it.
I don't consider it a cheap shot... I consider it a nod to the reader, a way to say, "Hey, you've stuck around with me this whole time... why don't YOU imagine it how you want, instead of me ruining your image by giving you an inarguable, permanent final mental image? You can write the ending in your own mind, and I don't have to destroy that for you. It's your story, now."
By leaving it open-ended, the author gives us complete free reign to believe what we want about the results of ramming the Blade Ship... and for that, I'm grateful to the author. No epilogue can match that. :]
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Yeah, I actually liked the ending. It was a war story, plain and simple, and while I felt the last book was a bit rushed I think I would've been upset if everything had been resolved, and there had been a little epilogue with children's names, and everything was all hunky dory. In fact I hated that about [spoiler=random Harry Potter spoiler] the Harry Potter ending.[/spoiler]
Also, yes please keep in mind to search for a thread topic using the convenient search box before posting a topic--this one's been covered, uncovered, rehashed, and debated back and forth for about the last ten years :)
And with all that aside, welcome to RAF! Feel free to make an intro thread here: http://animorphsforum.com/index.php?board=7.0 and, if you'd like, post a personal profile thread here: http://animorphsforum.com/index.php?board=30.0
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It left several of us with an empty hole in our hearts and minds but she stated that the ending was meant to be "up to us" to solve.
But... I NEED an ending. I never saw an ending to my satisfaction like the Harry Potter epilogue. Now if she did something like that, it would have been great.
You're kidding right? I hated the Harry Potter epilogue ending. I didn't used to like the Animorphs ending either, but it's still better than the "and they all lived happily ever after" ending JK Rowling came up with.
I'm not a big fan of most post #54 fics though to be honest. I haven't read any in ages, but back when I did they were usually very unimaginative or badly written.
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Actually I liked the harry potter ending cause everything was pretty much done. The only thing I dont like os that their isnt much explenation about whos kid is who and what their doing for cash.
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The whole book, for me at least, was so epic and emotional.
Then, the Epilogue...It wasn't awful...It just happened. It was like J.K was out of ideas and wrote a quick ending.
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Good lord, the only way I was even able to remain sane after reading Harry Potter was to just pretend the epilogue never happened. It never happened, it never happened, IT NEVER HAPPENED. *rocks back and forth in a corner*
More to the current subject, I both like and don't like the Animorphs ending. I didn't used to like it AT ALL. Now that I'm older, I do like the ambiguousness (that's apparently not a word), but I still feel like it was artificial, you know? Like KA just went, "Hmm, this ending is too tidy, how can I mess it up?" rather than leaving a vague ending that feels like it should be vague. I would have liked to see a final life-or-death showdown against some known enemy like the Yeerks or Crayak, rather than some entity that we know almost literally nothing about. It kind of cheapens the potential sacrifice that the Animorphs are theoretically making when it's against something that nobody even knows what it is.
Lol, for a topic that's been discussed so many times, there are sure a lot of people still itching to discuss it, huh?
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I didn't hate the ending, but I didn't like it either. In my mind, if KA really wanted to leave the impression that another war was about to start, there were TONS of ways she could have done that. Have them narrowly survive and be marooned in space, have them travel back to Earth thinking they had to tell the government about them, there's many ways it could have been done without having the dreaded cliffhanger.
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"Ram the Blade Ship" is an epic closing line. It symbolizes so much - defiance, hope, self-sacrifice, boldness, desperation, defeat and success all at once. WAY better than "and all was well".
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I love it. It's almost as good as the ending to King's Dark Tower cycle, which is similarly open (not to give too much away...). I can certainly understand hating it, though. At the very least, it sucks having to find a new story. And, if you were planning out how things could have all turned out for the better, yes it's a bummer.
But then, isn't war usually a bummer?
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I didn't like the ending either. Almost no closure, killing off important characters because she knew she wouldn't have to pay any kind of consequences for doing it, and then throwing out strawmen when the fans complained. No we didn't expect a "And they lived happily ever after" ending. We, or at least I, wanted an ending with closure, where the Animorphs got some therapy and eventually became constructive members of society again.
Not this: Well Rachel was the most willing to fight, so obviously we have to kill her off. Tobias was about as willing to, so we can't let him end happily. Marco was one of the least willing, but still didn't despise it, so we'll give him what he wants but say he gets really bored and apparently doesn't just take a vacation. Cassie hated the war the most, so let's let her have a happy ending. All that can't be a coincidence.
since there weren't going to be any more books, KA could do whatever she wanted to with her characters. Not like it would effect anything for her. The series is over.
I hated the ending, and I will always hate the ending.
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"Ram the Blade Ship" is an epic closing line. It symbolizes so much - defiance, hope, self-sacrifice, boldness, desperation, defeat and success all at once. WAY better than "and all was well".
I liked it because it was the same order Elfangor had given after he returned from Earth.
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I'm certain it was supposed to be a shoutout to what Elfangor said.
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Now that I'm older, I do like the ambiguousness (that's apparently not a word)
It's "ambiguity"
And, just to add to the beaten-to-death topic....I agree with what...someone (Mike?) said. As I get older I enjoy the ending more and more for what it is: a war story. Happy endings are overrated and cliffhangers are a part of life. You don't always find out what happens in the end. Now, I think that it was a rather rushed ending and there are certainly some loose ends that could have been tied a bit neater, but overall I give K.A. props for going against expectations and remaining true to her original intent with the series.
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The ending was a hot mess, and you can defend the tone and thematic prerogative or whatever all you want, but that doesn't change that it was still a hot mess that was executed in a hot mess manner. Really, book 52 and 53 should have happened in book like, 48, and book 54 should have happened in books 49-54.
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I actually wished the Anis did get a happier ending than the one they got(and I'm also one of the few who liked the Harry Potter epilogue) I'm not talking this big cheery, diabetes inducing happy ending. But don't let Cassie be the only to actually move on from the war! My only beef with the ending was the fact that Jake and Tom(the real Tom) had not spoken to each ONCE since the series began and the whole introducing Lauren, only for her to be tossed on a bus (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PutOnABus), thing
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Yeah we all wish for a better ending but unless we can hunt down applegate then were stuck so..........
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Actually, some of us are pretty satisfied with the ending.
I might wish we'd seen a bit more of the parents and what happened to society, but "everyone hated the ending" is far from the truth.
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We don't actually know that they all died in the end... it could have turned out happy.
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How does one ram a blade ship and expect to come out alright?
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They don't. Not even Elfangor expected it, and there was an allied ship nearby when he did it.
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Basically my point :P
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So yeah I agree with lots of what was already said so I'll keep this brief and try not to get redundant:
I liked the ending. It made me incredibly sad and wanting more and I absolutely hated some parts. However, I think because it made me so sad and angry in some parts is what makes me love it. That's all regarding to the plot/outcome of the story. Like, I'm fine with the fact that K.A. decided to kill Rachel and Tom, make Jake depressed and the cliffhanger ending, blah blah blah. What pisses me off is the fact that Tobias and Ax each only got ONE chapter each. WHAT. THE. FUQ. As someone said it was a hot mess and should have been much longer and the details/plot much more elaborated on. Speaking of which, I think I remember reading once that there was supposed to be a MM5 which focused more on the aftermath of the war and stuff but IDK. I would have loved a book like that :3
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I don't know if there was going to be an MM5, but I've heard people say they should have done the ending like that. I think it would be good to make the ending an MM book. I agree that it should have been long, detailed, and at least tried to tie up loose ends. There are so many loose ends that it's obviously she didn't care about giving fans much closure.
It goes along with my theory that she was tired of the series, and once she gets tired of a series she gets sloppy. Just look at her other series.
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On the bit about the narration.
I recently read Megamorphs 3: Elfangor's secret, and was confused to as why 1) The first chapter is narrated by Tobias--who is the third in the narration line up-- and 2) how the narration works.
I mean...In Megamorphs 3, some characters would get another chapter after having narrated the preceding chapter. How does this work? Did K.A have a plan, or was it all loosey goosey?
The same for the Beginning and the other megamorphs books. Why not start with the usual line up? You know, the one that makes sense?
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Maybe it depends on what's going on in the story, and where the excitement and drama is. I'm not sure.
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I don't know if there was going to be an MM5, but I've heard people say they should have done the ending like that. I think it would be good to make the ending an MM book. I agree that it should have been long, detailed, and at least tried to tie up loose ends. There are so many loose ends that it's obviously she didn't care about giving fans much closure.
It goes along with my theory that she was tired of the series, and once she gets tired of a series she gets sloppy. Just look at her other series.
To the first part: apparently, her contract issued like...72 books, a chronicles book and a megamorphs book. But that never panned out.
To the second part: it's a good thing I never read Remnants or the other one...Everworld? Everquest? Whatever...
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'Kay after a bit of searching I finally found the thing I was thinking about with the MM5 off of Hirac Delest.
[spoiler](http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd114/sunsetblvd00/MM5.png)
[/spoiler]
Also, TMP I'd actually recommed checking out Everworld. I thought it was pretty good.
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Everworld is the bomb. I love that series.
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whats really stupid is that after the ending she wrote an explanation for it and in said explanation she actually advertised a book series she was writing. Does anybody fell that theirs something wrong with that.
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Nope. ^_^
I thought the letter was kinda' sweet, considering she didn't actually have to write it.
Adverting the new series is the standard for anything she prints through Scholastic. It would have been abnormal if there wasn't at least one book plugged before the back cover.
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The ending was a hot mess, and you can defend the tone and thematic prerogative or whatever all you want, but that doesn't change that it was still a hot mess that was executed in a hot mess manner. Really, book 52 and 53 should have happened in book like, 48, and book 54 should have happened in books 49-54.
I agree. The ending ending that people seem to hate ("Ram the Blade ship"/the One), I'm fine with, whatever. The final arc as a whole did seem rushed though, and yeah, 48 was unnecessary. At the very least 54 could have been two books, but from that Hirac Delest link it sounds like K.A. had to fit 53, 54, and MM#5 into just two?
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Well 48 showed us that Rachel hadn't totally gone off the deep end as far as being the bloodthirsty psychopath she had been protrayed as becoming. Though apparently she was still considered too "lost" to actually live through the war. Even after refusing Crayak, and her last thoughts being about shopping instead of something like wishing she could have killed them all, she was still portrayed as not mentally sound enough to cope after the war. That confuses me.
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It has been shown in hundreds upon thousands of books that it tends to be the little things that bother you. In the 7th chronicles of Narnia the king we beaten and tied to a tree by his own people, yet what most concerned him was a small trickle of blood that was tickling his chin that he couldn't scratch.And she has been shopping for pretty much her whole life. That could be considered one thing that kept her tied to reality. When your being heavily taxed by emotions little things like family, friends, and pets keep you sane instead of locking yourself and the bathroom and drowning yourself in the toilet.
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I didnt really like the ending either :// but here's K.A. Applegate's response to it:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150173253145512