Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Darth Zakryn on December 07, 2011, 09:41:58 PM
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Well, this is, quite simply, where we write down what we think to be the top 11... well, the title says it all. ;D Why top 11? To quote the Nostalgia Critic: "Because I like to go one step beyond." But since I can't think of any right now, at least any more than two, I won't be listing mine right now. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide the Top 11 Saddest Animorph moments, and when we get enough popular ones, I'll add mine. Enjoy. XD
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Ax crying over Estrid ranks up there.
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1 Rachel taking Cassie in book 19
2 Rachel's Death
3 Jara's Death
4 Elfangor's death
5 When Marco was stopped by Jake in book 30 and had to hold on after thinking he'd seen his mother die, again
6 Jake's Death until the end of MM3
7 Tobias's panic & suicide attempt in book 3
8 The release of the virus in HBC
9 The death of all the Andalites on the ship in 18
10 You may now demorph
I'm not doing 11.
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Fine, RYTX, you don't have to. Really, it was just a joke. But which is the number one saddest, is it 1 or 10?
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1
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8 The release of the virus in HBC
10 You may now demorph
Those would be in my top saddest moments
The saddest one though, was when the ellimist took elfangor away from Loren and erased her memory of him.
Also in my top 10, there would be:
The moment when the buffaman was killed (I know, it's the worst book, yet it made me cry :s )
The moment when Cassie realizes that the old Australian man was seriously injured by the something from the ship explosion (also an overall pretty bad book).
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Um... that's only six. What are the othern four (or five)?
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1. When the Ellimist took Elfangor away from Loren
2. When Elfangor found out minutes later he had a kid. (This made me think the Ellimist was scum for the rest of the series.)
3. Arbron being trapped in Taxxon morph.
4. When the only reason Tobias lived after finding out Elfangor was his dad was because he forgot out to show emotion. (I got teary eyed over that.)
5. When the Andalites told Ax to take the blame for giving humans morphing power.
6. Ax crying over Estrid.
7. Rachel's death.
8. Ax being assimilated...and then the series being over.
9. Tobias taking away Rachel's ashes.
10. Arbron being killed by poachers.
11. Melissa crying over her parents not loving her anymore.
I could probably think of more, they aren't in any particular order. So I guess its not really a top 11, I don't think I could decide on that.
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One wasn't really a single moment but still deserves mention was all the scenes in #50 The Ultimate involving the Auxiliary Animorphs. Considering how effective James and his subgroups turned out to be, it never fails to make me fantasize about how much sooner the war would've ended if they received the morphing power in place of David. Their collective death scene was hard to read through, particularly how effortlessly Visser One pulled it off (VO having one of them get incinerated mid-morph will never stop bothering me).
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1. Rachel dying
2. Elfangor taken away from Loren
3. The ending for HBC
4. ...Um...I'll post the rest when I think of them...
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Typed up a post and it went missing. Too annoyed to remake it. I dunno where it would go on this list, but this moment scores pretty high for me.
"You ask me to kill my own people today and to lead my people in killing their brothers,"
Dak said. "You say they are not Hork-Bajir, but Yeerks. But when the dead have given up
their souls to Mother Sky, there will be Hork-Bajir bodies lying dead."
<Dak, we've been over this and over this!> I exploded. <lt's too late to be worrying about all
that. This is a war! If you want your people to survive, you will ?>
"Be quiet, Aldrea," Dak said.
He didn't shout. He said it calmly, in a low voice.
"These are my people who will die today. Be quiet, Andalite. Be quiet."
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Dang it, I STILL can't think of any. Well, Tobias saying "I love you" before Rachel died was pretty heart-wrenching for me, but I can't help but feel that at least he got to SAY it before she died; some people don't even get that much. Another sad moment for me, at least, might be the little five-year-old boy who was infested. I mean, it really showed that despite all of their wonderful shades of gray, what the Yeerks were doing was still evil, if not totally evil to the core, and I think I did cry a little when I first saw that. Imagine that being one of your kids. Totally sad.
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Dang it, I STILL can't think of any. Well, Tobias saying "I love you" before Rachel died was pretty heart-wrenching for me, but I can't help but feel that at least he got to SAY it before she died; some people don't even get that much. Another sad moment for me, at least, might be the little five-year-old boy who was infested. I mean, it really showed that despite all of their wonderful shades of gray, what the Yeerks were doing was still evil, if not totally evil to the core, and I think I did cry a little when I first saw that. Imagine that being one of your kids. Totally sad.
Yeah, that part made Rachel dying even sadder
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I have no order. :P
*When Marco's dad was totally lost to his depression in the first book(s?). That really made me hurt for Marco.
*The first human ever infested in Visser, and the woman that soon-to-be Visser One drowned in the pool while changing hosts.
* The destruction of the entire Pemalite race.
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* The destruction of the entire Pemalite race.
Agreed, that was really sad.
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I just wanna add...the death of the Yeerk in #6.
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I don't remember the exact quote, but I think my number 1 is when rachel is on the verge of dying and she asks herself why tobias is in his human morph, before realizing that its because hawks can't cry
that got me pretty teary eyed
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Come to think of it, Marco had a surprisingly large amount of sad scenes. First off there's the often-quoted "Cold, man" one that's a perfect balance between awesome and sad along with his entire arc involving Eva, but I thought the way he described Jake in the last book to be just as depressing too.
"He doesn't put flowers on her memorial or whatever, there's always lots of those. He goes when no one's around, late, after hours. The guys at the gate let him in. He parks and just kind of sits there like he's hanging out with her. I don't think he talks to her. Sad as it is to say, I wish he did. Talking to a dead person is better than not talking at all. He sits there for an hour, sometimes two, stares out at the ocean. Watches the sun go down. Then he leaves. Sometimes I think he's waiting there hoping Tobias will show up."
When I was first reading through the series I didn't think much of him because of his role as the joker in the group, but really... looking back on the series, he's probably the most fleshed-out character of the Animorphs. At the risk of sounding pretentious, Marco was actually prettay, prettay, prettaaaay deep.
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I don't think I can name 11 right now but here goes.
Being a new fan who just finished reading the series, the saddest ones for me are the freshest most recent ones with number 1 being:
1) Rachel's death and everything surrounding it. Her final moments with the Ellimist, "you were brave, you were strong, you were good, you mattered" :(
2) Her funeral (Her mother crying throughout the ceremony & Tobias carrying her urn away)
3)Jake visiting her funeral ground frequently
4) And Jake, Tobias and Marco naming the ship after her all made me cry. I never believed that the death of a fictional character could affect me that much, to be honest with you guys I'm still upset about it right now. And I know I'll never forgive K.A for killing her in a way that could have been prevented.
I guess reading 54 books consecutively made me feel like I atually knew the characters, like they were my friends, so when she died, It really felt like I'd lost a friend. Joining you guys on this board to talk about it, has helped me cope with it better, so I should say THANK YOU to you guys.
5) Also another scene still fresh in my memory is the first time the auxillary Animophs demorphed for the first time with only three of them becoming healed and the rest returning back to their previous state. The way the crawling and falling was described was beyond heartbreaking.
6) Tobias torture at the hands of Taylor.
7) the psychochological torture that the Crayak put Rachel through coupled with the scene of her looking at herself in the broken mirror and crying like a baby. The image of Rachel in the broken glass to me was a reflection of her psychological state *shakes fist* darn that Crayak.
I'll add more in later posts.
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5) Also another scene still fresh in my memory is the first time the auxillary Animophs demorphed for the first time with only three of them becoming healed and the rest returning back to their previous state. The way the crawling and falling was described was beyond heartbreaking.
Yes! That scene really tore at my heartstrings (especially on a re-read when you know how unceremoniously they'll be killed off) ... poor guys must've entertained that fantasy of being physically whole again until they demorphed. And if I remember correctly, none of them were described to be crying/visibly upset (which somehow makes me feel even more bad: it's like they were grimly thinking "Yep... back to square one").
One more that I'd like to mention involving Jake just before the beginning of the countdown;
My father stood, walked to Jake's side, and put his hand on his shoulder. "I don't understand all of this, Jake. I don't really know what happened to your parents. But until they come back...or...well, I want you to consider yourself part of our family."
Jake's mouth went tight. Yes, he was going to cry. I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. If Jake lost it, I'd lose it. We'd all lose it. We'd all just break down into a sobbing, screaming, guilt-ridden terrified group. Kids. Adults. Hork-Bajir. Probably even Ax.
Hold on, I mentally willed Jake. Hold on.
I saw Rachel watching him, her blue eyes wide with concern. Even her mother, not Jake's biggest fan these days, seemed to be waiting for his reaction. The Hork-Bajir watched Toby. They would take their cue from her. But Toby's eyes were glued on Jake. Her massive lower jaw jutted forward. Jake was the center. If the center didn't hold...
It seemed like we waited for hours. But it was probably only thirty or forty seconds before Jake stood taller and expelled his breath in a long, steady stream. He met my eyes, then my dad's. When he spoke, his voice was clear and strong.
The way I see it, this was really the last time Jake was ever in on it with the entire group. This was the last personal and intimate moment he ever had with everyone participating in the war effort. After this, everyone became a means to an end of stopping the invasion. I remember when I first read this, to me it was - and forgive me for using a tvtropes term - a crowning moment of awesome. But in retrospective, it wasn't. He was no longer on equal ground with them. He wasn't just their leader anymore; he was in a league of his own. He was already a dead man walking.
It vaguely reminds me of Rachel in her final moments when she's talking about how she was already dead and mourning her life. Of course with her it was more passionate, and short. With Jake it was numb, and drawn-out.
It's the one difference you can make between Tobias and Jake post-war. Tobias suffered and lamented. Jake wandered aimlessly.
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I recently read The Conspiracy. Ax coming out after torturing Chapman and declaring that, and I paraphrase, "Though he may be many things, he is not a torturer." is way up there.
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1) Tobias becoming a nothlit
Honestly I'm surprised this one isn't higher on more lists. Its definitely implied that he did it on purpose, but in my mind that makes this moment more saddening, not less. One of the (many) things that kept me reading this series in the early going was that they didn't shy away from such a hard hitting event so early on in the game.
2) Arbon trapped as a Taxxon forever
Yeah, he was kind of a jerk, but this moment always stuck with me, particularly given his later role in the anti-Yeerk movement.
3) Pretty much the entire 3rd book (Tobias dealing with his new life as a hawk and struggling with interactions with the Animorphs)
People have already mentioned and talked about this one. There are any number of events within this book that could make the list on their own, but I'll lump it together for the sake of fitting more events. Some highlights:
*Tobias confessing to Rachel that he doesn't remember what he looked like
*Seeing the group nearly end up stuck as half-wolves, not only with the look of hatred Marco sends Tobias's way but also his reaction to their celebration of not being stuck
*Freaking out in the mall and nearly crashing into the window (saved by Marco's intervention)
4) Rachel's death
Honestly, this one SHOULD be number one, but for some reason the above events all had more of an impact.
5) Release of the quantum virus on the Hork Bajir home world
One of those moments (when the Hork Bajir is triumphantly holding the container with the virus and destroyed by it) that I have so clearly pictured in my head. Really tragic stuff, and really the first thing that made me really dislike the Andalites.
6) Elfangor's death
Only as low as this because the reader is processing so much other stuff at this stage in the book.
7) The moment when its revealed that most of the auxiliary Animorphs are not healed and really are being unfairly used
I saw someone else discuss this one. Ditto to what they said.
8) David apparently killing Tobias and gloating about it
Yeah, he ended up fine in the end and David's belief that he was dead was ultimately his undoing, but unlike Jake's death in MM3, I really BELIEVED Tobias was dead at this moment.
9) Jake falling apart on the witness stand when accused of genocide
Probably saddening because the attorney was at least partially right. Wasn't this killing of defenseless Yeerks exactly what Elfangor so loathed about Prince Alloran in the Chronicles?
10) Tom trying to warn Jake about the sharing and Jake's realization that his brother really is a controller
11) The Chapman parents' futiley fighting their Yeerks when realizing their daughter may be in danger
The last two make the list because they are really are the first two instances in which we really understand the futility of being a controller. These moments were, in my mind, critical early-book moments for establishing the real emotional stakes of the war that was being fought.
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I don´t think I can get a top 11. But here´s what I´ve got so far.
3) Rachels deaths (and everything sorrounding it)
2) Tom´s death (Jake never got his brother back)
1) The series ending (it broke my hard even harder than Harry Potter did, and that´s saying an awful lot)
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this thread is reminding me of SO MANY SAD MOMENTS. :'( bawwww
one I don't see mentioned yet is the end of MM3. when john berryman tells them all about how he tormented the yeerk in his head, and then when he realizes what they're going to do to him and still tells them where his parents met because he knows it's for the greater good......;___;
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54:
I don't know where he found the strength to lift that urn but he did. He flew away, low at first but then catching a thermal, he bore the urn into the sky (cassie on rachel's funeral)
HBC:
Only a few of the monsters survived. But it didn't matter because we didn't need the monsters anymore. We'd become them (Dak hamee)
And I could see Aldrea now. Different now. Hork Bajir. But still Aldrea. I could see her. and that would be enough (dak hamee)
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Rachel's death. :( I almost stopped reading, it was so sad.
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I'm in the midst of re-reading the Animorphs. I might have forgotten some sad moments, but still.
#1: (I can't believe no one's picked this among their top 11 yet.)
<They're done for,> Cassie said.
<Hopefully, at least Visser One didn't escape,> Tobias said. <I'd like to think she is down there, trying to figure out how to hold her breath right about now.>
It was just the kind of thing I would have said.
Jake and Ax were silent. I knew Jake would tell Cassie now. If he didn't, Rachel would. They would all know. Jake and Rachel and Ax already knew.
They knew that my heart was ripping apart. They knew that I was crying. Or crying as well as any shark could.
I had lost my mother once. Not I'd lost her again...
I swear. Ms. A loves to torture Marco. As much as I know it's necessary, I dislike that he has to go through all this.
Come to think of it most of my moments are Marco moments. He's a strong character (and my favourite). He's a person forced to do what he has to do but will do what has to be done. And that makes all his sad moments even sadder.
#2:
Book 30, where he had to headbutt his mother off the cliff.
#3:
Book 35 in general, where he was dealing with a dad who didn't know his wife was dead. And Nora. Even though it was quite humourous, I still felt it was sad.
#4:
The entire scene with Aftran and the Animorphs in #19 where Cassie gives up everything and makes her sacrifice.
#5:
Tobias at Rachel's funeral and Jake at Rachel's grave in #54.
#6:
Watching the Auxiliary Animorphs die in #54. What, so they were brought in only to be used as a diversion?! That was where the Animorphs mood turned. Using disabled kids just showed how desperate they were.
#7:
The battle on board the aircraft carrier on #47. Humans and Animorphs fighting alongside eah other against the Yeerks. Ax threatening to drop the nuke on the city. A "floating island of death", I think the carrier was termed after the battle.
#8:
Temrash replaying Tom's pleas to Jake while in his head in #6. Temrash is sick, twisted and evil.
#9:
Erek's little VR show in the huge underground kennel in #10 displaying the destruction of the entire Pemalite race.
#10:
Rachel's and Ax's comments about never being able to get David out of their heads. and what they had to do to eliminate the threat. Somehow I just think it would have been less cruel to just kill him outright then and there once he was trapped.
#11:
Elfangor's murder. Enough said.
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The specific thing that was saddest to me about Rachel's death was the chapter of Tobias's, three years later. Living as a hawk, all along, loathing human company. Hiding from his emotions in his hawk body again, now with no one and nothing to connect him to humanity.
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For some reason, quotes are really strong in my head, so my Top 11 are mostly quotes and the circumstance they were spoken in.
1. "JAKE, STOP HER" - Tom/Tom's Yeerk to Jake before Rachel kills him
This is the last thing "Tom" ever says to Jake, and thinking about this while knowing how haunted Jake will be by sending his cousin to kill his brother in the post-war years is really heartbreaking. I can't help but think if Jake ever wondered whether or not a little part of those words was spoken from his brother as well as the Yeerk in his head. Did Jake wonder what if, moments before death, Tom even managed to gain control, and those three words were entirely his own?
2. "<You go Elfangor,> Arbron said gently. <Go save the galaxy.>
<Leave him,> Alloran said. <Aristh... I mean, Warrior Arbron is a casualty of war.>"
3. "Not to get all Prince of Egypt on you, but... Behold!" - Marco to Eva in #35, atop the mountain where he would later push her off
The later scene where Marco actually pushes Eva off the cliff is really sad too, but I know this quote will ruin me on every re-read. Marco knows what he's inevitably going to do, and even in all that dread, he manages to pull out a little bit of the humor his mother taught him to have in the hope that maybe, maybe Eva can recognize him.
4. "You know what Marco and I used to talk about? Whether Batman could beat Spiderman. Whether Sega was better than Nintendo. Whether some girl would rather go out with him or me. And now...
'What are we anymore, Marco? What has happened to us?'" - Jake to Marco
After so many battles, Jake has grown into a reluctant war general, and his best friend has become his T.O.
5. "He never knew that I was the tiger. He never knew how close I had come to freeing him." - Jake in #1
All the sadder considering that Tom does eventually find out, though he's never freed.
6. Tobias morphing to human to cry for Rachel before she dies
7. "This is low.... This is so far beneath you, Jake." - Erek to Jake in #53
8. Jake morphing in front of his infested family to give them hope
9. "It's a beautiful world... I'll miss it." - David in #48
10. "Cassie held my hand, and in the darkness where no one could see me, I cried." - Ax
11. You may now demorph.
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Another one worth mentioning was Erek arguing with Cassie and Jake right after Tom's assassination was pulled off. I guess this fits more in the 'Disturbing' category than 'Saddest,' but yeah. I don't know why it bothered me so much... it still tears me up that this is how his relationship with the crew ends, on such a bitter note when he used to be a constant, reliable ally. It's out-shadowed by the other heart-breaking events that happened before/followed that book, sure, but even to this day I always feel a pang in my chest every time I'm re-reading an earlier book featuring a brief appearance by Erek and remind myself that he never made up with them.
As for a more on-topic incident that happened around the same time, Cassie falling out of love with Jake when Marco got him to admit the satisfaction he felt flushing those 17 thousand Yeerks out into space really tore me up, too. The end of the war is when he needed you the most, Cassie! God damn you.
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I've been reading most of the books(that I have) of the series and alot of mine are of Tobias of course, Rachel dieing as well as Elfangor when he was taken away from Earth and taken back to the Andalite home world and back into the war, leaving Loren without ever a peep or that. Even though of course her memory was scrapped,it still would have been better if he could say good bye.
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Well I'm reading the series after a long time now and I haven't even finished it (no thanks for the spoilers here even though I knew Rachel dies!) but for me the saddest books on the whole from what I've read so far are (I've made it till #36)
1. The Andalite Chronicles
2. #30
3. Visser
4. Megamorphs #3
5. #3
6. #19, just the whole thing with Cassie being forced to split sides
7. #35
8. #31
I think this list will be complete once I'm done reading the series, and judging from the thread #54 will probably head it.
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1 ) the end of the series. dont understand why most people dont put it first.
2 ) elfangors death.
3 ) whats-his-name hork bajir with gills death
4 ) book 33, somewhere around the middle
5 ) marco's comment on the used car lot incident in book 3
6 ) marco's comment on what HE thinks the least of the worries are on what happened in, either book 15 or 16 with the rich guy and the fly zapper.
7 ) every moment marco breaths
8 ) the ratio of animorphs in the first book to animorphs in the last book
9 ) the fact that the new spaceship is named after...
10 ) basically everything in the series, its goal, its tragedy, the fact that it exists at all, the fact that it is called a childrens book series just to lure in those who are unprepared and get them attached to a character so well written they seem like a real person and then tear them out of it abruptly, basically... everything in, around, about, of, or related to, everything in the entire collection.
slight exagerations may be present, and this may reduce the accuracy of my opinions. its a good book series, but everyone needs to rant occasionally.
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10. Rachel waiting for David to be trapped in morph, having to listen to his pleas and knowing he can't be set free.
9. The ellimist telling Tobias he will give him what he wants most, then giving his morphing power back instead of making him human. That he doesn't want to be human; he wants to fight along side his friends. I don't know if it's sad, but it's powerful.
8. When Visser 3 leaves Alloron. He tries to kill himself but he's too weak, and then asks Ax to do it.
7. Cassie getting trapped in her morph. Later we find out she isn't, but at the time it's sad.
6. Tobias's flashbacks to his Aunt and Uncle when he's being tortured.
5. Arbron being trapped as a Taxxon.
4. Elfangor choosing to return to the war minutes before finding out he has a son.
3. Marco getting his mother back in Visser, but having to let the yeerk back into her and losing her again.
2. Jake being the one who loses his family. I guess I was prepared for Marco to lose his mom, but him getting his mom back made it harder when Jake loses everything. His reaction to it too, becoming a shell of what he was when it ended. I honestly think he only held it together because he was the leader and he had to. In book 16 he says he's the leader, he isn't allowed to show fear, or sadness or be hurt. He has to always look strong for his troops. That really hit home. As soon as it's over, he breaks down.
1. The way Rachel dies. Not stopping Tom's yeerk, but when she's talking to the ellimist.
"Answer this, Ellimist: Did I . . . did I make a
difference? My life, and my . . . my death . . .
was I worth it? Did my life really matter?"
"Yes," he said. "You were brave. You were
strong. You were good. You mattered."
"Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then."
I wondered if —
It just stopping there. In the middle. She's gone.
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Not rescuing Tom from the Yeerk Pool always stuck out to me. Still does. I'm only a few books through my reread, so I don't have much to work with yet, but also the whole Melissa Chapman situation. The Ketrans being nearly exterminated by the Capasins and then that sea creature finishing off the rest of the species except for the Ellimist.
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One I didn't see in this thread:
When the ellimist gets the last of his people killed when they go to the planet with the "father" creature.
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This isn't in order
1. Melissa crying when she thinks her dad doesn't love her
2. Jara dying
3 Arbron getting trapped in taxxon morph
4.Erik reprogramming himself and then crying
5. Elfangor leaving before meeting his son
6.jake losing his family
7. Marco having to let his mum go back to being a yeerk
8. Rachael listening to David asking her to kill him
9. When classiest dad asks her about the dusabled kids
10. The rash in jakes head telling him about tom
11. The ending
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I liked Jara a much as the next character, but I was a bit too stunned that Rachel and Tom died to really feel for the guy dying. I will always remember his answer to Tobias or Ax asking how they can be sure he doesn't have a Yeerk in his head.
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The saddest part about Jara's death is, to me, simply the fact that it's just thrown in there for no reason and with little consequence or feeling. He was a great character, one that everyone could side with, and in the end K.A. is just like, "Oh and that guy died. Moving on...". That, and the character wasn't really utilised as much as he could be.
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Yeah, that's just insulting. He's barely a character after book 13, and then he's just discarded because KA wasn't done telling us how many people she decided to kill off in the last book. I don't know why she decided that suddenly killing a bunch of sympathetic characters in the last book or two would make it more realistic. All it does is break willing suspension of disbelief.
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Rachel's funeral would rank pretty high for me. And before you ask, I know this is an old topic.
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That just made me mad, more than anything. I am not happy with a main character being killed off in the last book of a series where this kind of thing never happened before. Jake dying temproarily doesn't count, for reasons that should be obvious.
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The battle scene... I didn't feel a thing, as textual depictions of violence don't get to me.
Page 24 (in case you're wondering, that's where the Ellimist Chronicles canonically fits)... My brain crashed from the magnitude of it fitting together.
The funeral... MAI FEELS :cry: