Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Chad32 on June 12, 2008, 09:29:18 PM
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I checked the two pages, and didn't see a thread on the ending. I'd like to know what the general opinion of it.
I for one disliked it. Why did Applegate kill Rachel and Tom? Just to make a bittersweet ending? To make it more realistic. I know a happily ever after ending isn't realistic, but neither is the Animorphs series. Now I'll never know what Tom thought of Jake being an Animorph and never resuing him.
I blame Eric more than anyone else, since he powered down the pool ship's guns.
The series could have continued by having them go to the Hork-Bajir Homeworld. Maybe even the Yeerk Homeworld. Something other than that.
Also, I'm a little surprised Tobias didn't leave with Ax. Rachel was gone, but he went into hiding instead of going with Ax.
And what about this One thing that took over the ship? Was that the thing that banished Crayak? Maybe it was behind that wierd dream Jake had where the world was taken over by Yeerks and they were trying to convert the moon into a Kondrona Sun.
Discuss.
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i personally did not like the ending at the VERY end. i didn't like the whole thing with The One. I hate when books end in cliffhangers and dont continue them.
HOWEVER i really really liked that they killed rachel. i personally do not think that a novel that depicts war can be good, without a character you love dying. it happened in harry potter, and it happened in animorphs.
i think that anidragon said this on RAF classic, but they should have ended it with a convo between crayak and elimist
Crayak: Well, I'll take The One, you will have the animorphs
Elimist: You underestimate the power of the animorphs, they managed to defeat the yeerks
Crayak: Well, i believe that The One can beat them
Elimist: We shall see
Crayak: Shall we immerse?
Elimist: On the other side
Now that was something that i believe anidragon had said on the old RAF and i liked, i just wrote it by memory, so dont think that I wrote it
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All that is left is Cassie. Theoretically, she could dig up the Time Matrix and go back into the past. Though given her high moral code I doubt she would.
I think killing off the auxilary animorphs and having Jake labelled a war criminal would be enough without possibly killing everyone off but Cassie.
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Daphnes, any chance I know you from the ZU forums?
I was glancing through book 53 earlier and I noticed that Jake told General Doubleday that he'd only be sending a dozen or so auxiliaries with them to the battle with the Pool Ship. Shouldn't there have been survivors, then?
Anyways, I loved mostly everything about the ending. I don't think the Crayak/Ellimist thing is at all necessary, even though others here like it. We know that those two forces are at work; we don't need a reminder, really. And it's much more true to the spirit of the series to end with the Animorphs making perhaps the greatest of their many death-defying stunts, rather than showing a conversation between those cosmic forces. I also liked how Crayak's last appearance involved him cursing Rachel and the Ellimist's last appearance was his conversation with Rachel as she died.
I think KA needed to kill off Tom. It would have seemed a little cheap and unrealistic if both Tom and Marco's mom were saved in the end, given how much emotional investment there was in those storylines from the beginning and how impossible Jake and Marco's hopes often seemed. And if Tom had survived and been freed, KA would have had to awkwardly introduce a character in the final book, in a scene that would most likely come across as soft. There has to be a cost. Eva's freedom, after all, came at the expense of Nora.
Book 53 is brilliant as it is, I wouldn't want there to have been any significant changes to it. It's chilling when Jake says how he knows beyond any doubt that at least one person he loved would die. I definitely wanted to read a story with that sort of weight to it, not one that takes the easy way out and thus feels soft and unrealistic. Animorphs always had that weight to it, right from the beginning with the death of Elfangor and the casualty of Tobias. And the Chronicles never ever tied things up nicely with a bow. The ending as it was was appropriate to the dark, often tragic story we'd been following for years.
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No. I mostly liked #54. the only part I don't like is that cassie stayed on earth. other than that, pretty good book.
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I checked the two pages, and didn't see a thread on the ending. I'd like to know what the general opinion of it.
I for one disliked it. Why did Applegate kill Rachel and Tom? Just to make a bittersweet ending? To make it more realistic. I know a happily ever after ending isn't realistic, but neither is the Animorphs series. Now I'll never know what Tom thought of Jake being an Animorph and never resuing him.
I blame Eric more than anyone else, since he powered down the pool ship's guns.
The series could have continued by having them go to the Hork-Bajir Homeworld. Maybe even the Yeerk Homeworld. Something other than that.
Also, I'm a little surprised Tobias didn't leave with Ax. Rachel was gone, but he went into hiding instead of going with Ax.
And what about this One thing that took over the ship? Was that the thing that banished Crayak? Maybe it was behind that wierd dream Jake had where the world was taken over by Yeerks and they were trying to convert the moon into a Kondrona Sun.
Discuss.
Not just so that the ending would be bittersweet. K.A did it because... that was what would really happened. Not just, because it's realistic. If the entire book was just "realistic", the Animorphs had died long before, in about book 7. The only possible solution is that. "Jake" formed out the plan from A to Z... asking Rachel's permission indirectly, if she was okay to... die. So that's not writing off an life.
Erek only did what his programming told him. It was what would bring less killing. If Erek didn't drain it, Visser One might not just fire only the engines, but going into an entire shooting frenzy and kill Tom and Rachel in seconds... with everyone else in the Blade Ship.
I personally liked how it ended. The Animorphs had enough Yeerk battles. I just reread #31, a little about war. People after war get old souls. Jake also said in the book, that if someday, they would award heroes who fought the Yeerks with medals, he would hide them instead of being proud of them. The Animorphs just already had their fill of war. They don't need more. Plus, why do they need to fight with the Hork-Bajir? It's not their war anymore.
Tobias was just broken hearted. I think he didn't want anyone, including Ax with him after that. He went a bit emo-ish, i think.
I don't think the One was the one who made that weird dream. If he was THAT powerful like in 41, he would just have grabbed Jake, not wait for him holding Ax as hostage. I personally think The one was once "The Five", as mentioned in #25.
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No. I mostly liked #54. the only part I don't like is that cassie stayed on earth. other than that, pretty good book.
This.
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I liked book 54 up until the end. I was fine with Rachel dying(But if I had to chose, I would've had Ax die instead) but what I didn't like was that Jake and Cassie grew apart and Jake and Tobias were all depressed and sh[beep], I didn't like how Marco and Cassie were the only ones happy after the war, and I hated how all of them died at the end. I just like books to end happily like the Haryr Potter series. I know a happy ending is less realistic but come the f[beep] on, they secretly kept the world safe for 3 years and they were just teenagers they deserved a happy ending
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Well, War isn't like some Fairy Tale or Harry Potter book. In war, relationships get destroyed. People you love die. People who joined this war sometimes lose it, sometimes never recover. K.A even pointed out in one of her letters that the point of the Animorphs books were to show the effects of war. It was natural for Jake to become depressed, he had the guilt of killing 17,000+ innocent Yeerk lives, plus the death of Rachel and Tom was in his command. Not to mention the auxiliaries and the betraying of Erek.
Tobias, well... only Rachel really cared for him, and he had no one else to go to after the war except her. So, he decided to just lose his humanity at all and ran away.
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Well, War isn't like some Fairy Tale or Harry Potter book. In war, relationships get destroyed.
uhhh have you read harry potter?
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Yes, but only up to book 4.... i'm not really a big fan of HP. I just pointed it out because he was comparing Animorphs ending to HP ending. There was a thread like that here too... AFAIK.
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well there you go. after book 4, lots of people die, lots of relationships get torn, etc..
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well, someone died at book 4.... but i did not miss him the way I missed Rachel... I'll read the other books if I have the time (not to mention the extra money).
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yea because nobody cares about the character who died in 4, he was pretty much introduced in 4
but at the end of the series a major character dies, much like rachel
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Tobias, well... only Rachel really cared for him, and he had no one else to go to after the war except her. So, he decided to just lose his humanity at all and ran away.
Ax did, of course, which is why I kind of wonder why he didn't go with Ax. But then I've already mentioned that.
Though he did keep in touch with Cassie. She was the only one who knew where to find him.
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oh... now I wanna see who dies really badly... :-\ I wonder if there are any HP ebooks out there?
Anyway, Tobias could have joined Ax... and become a true Andalite. But I guess he preferred to live a life as a hawk, and he didn't probably want to pass on his grief to Ax. He much wanted to keep everything to himself.
And hey, who doesn't love Cassie? ;D
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I'm really good at putting my feelings and thoughts into words. I'd recently brought this topic up at the old forums last month. Basically I don't like the ending all that much. I don't mind realistic endings but this doesn't read as realistic to me one bit.
Just because it is war and people die doesn't mean that the death and other killings have to be so flat. Something about #54 plus most of the books after around #40~ish just feel rushed, and half-as$ed. I don't like the final ending one bit, the "cliffhanger" ending feels like a total cop-out and so different from most of the books before #40 or so. Maybe part of it is because I took a few weeks to finally read all of them to only feel like the series died off due to poor planning and quick writing. (my opinion only, of course.) I started reading the books when I was 14 yrs old so to finish reading them at 27 and to get smacked with a lame ending really irked me. Still does.
I don't know what is quite missing or wrong with it exactly, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it just didn't feel right. :(
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Well, about the dying part at the end of the book... K.A pretty much explained how and why it ended up that way. It wasn't just a rushed up Rachel dies part.
That's the point of cliffhanger endings... leaving you feeling all that...
And I beg to disagree. The ending wasn't lame at all.... I liked the ending (except the One part) very much. Although at first, I was in denial, just like you. I wished everything would have ended up like that and all of it. I guess I just learned to accept it maturely...
I completely disagree and think that books 53 and 54 were an entirely fitting ending to the series. Not in any way the product of laziness.
53 didn't have any big Harry Potter-style final battle, but it was better off without one. We've already read about the Animorphs fighting Visser Three/One in some crazy morph a million times. So KA made Tom into the central villain of the story, pushing Visser One off to the side to play the role of horrible twisted mass murderer. She uses Tom, the major villain, for the final battle and then kills him. There's even the nice imagery of Tom dying in the form of a snake.
KA keeps Visser One alive to explore whether there is a connection between him and Jake as war criminals. Instead of giving him the death sentence, she traps him as a blind, mute slug in a cage for the rest of his life. The whole series, right from the beginning, had brought up powerful themes and imagery involving cages, slavery, and the Animorphs fighting for freedom, so it is very appropriate and compelling to see Visser One, the enemy of freedom, forced into the cage that he had trapped so many others in. That's not laziness on KA's part.
Cassie and Jake part ways because Jake perceives an insurmountable wall between them. He had killed the seventeen-thousand Yeerks as a diversion, and that's why he feels like he can't be with Cassie. Throughout the series we'd seen that there was a conflict between taking the ruthless but effective course, the clear line leading from A to B, and the humane course that allowed the Animorphs to fight their enemies without becoming like them. KA followed through with that theme at the end of the series, and that's not lazy, tired writing.
Yeah, Tobias had his mom. But if you read the very end of 49, there's evidence that the bond between Tobias and his mom can't fill Rachel's void. And it's not like Tobias abandons everyone. He still has Cassie and the free Hork-Bajir. But Tobias is an extremely introspective character. Rachel is the one who had always helped him with his introspection. He could have gone around looking for friends to help him deal with his issues and work through the pain, but that's the exact role that Rachel had filled and Tobias doesn't want to relive that process with a different person. Tobias usually tended to be bitter about the circumstances of his life, and it's completely believable that Rachel's death brought back that bitterness. Tobias became hardened. He had had enough and he wanted to be left alone.
And then there's the One, who is also NOT lazy half-assed writing. He's a representation of everything the Animorphs had always been fighting against. He's a slave master, a cult leader. He steals bodies and keeps his victims trapped. He is one being with many forms. KA ends the series with the Animorphs confronting him to represent how these fictional heroes are always going to be fighting for freedom.
And "Ram the Blade Ship" is really the ultimate bad ass "Let's do it!" Xena Warrior Princess Animorphs strategy. I don't get the impression that they're about to die. Elfangor survived this move in a much weaker ship. And it's easy to believe that the Ellimist and Crayak are continuing their game, with the rule in place that there is always a way for the Animorphs. The Animorphs have always been doing death defying stunts, and I love that Jake recognizes this and smiles Rachel's smile as Tobias gets excited and Marco freaks out again. It's such an amazing, perfect ending.
You call that lazy writing? Would you have preferred, "Ax was happy to have avenged his brother by killing the Visser. Tobias was sad, but with his mom and his friends there for him, he was able to work his way through the pain. He led a human life and everyone idolized him. Jake and Cassie named their baby Rachel. All was well."
KA's endings and finales aren't always fulfilling, predictable, thrilling and satisfying, but they are always always always appropriate to the story she had been telling and the themes it contained. (potential SPOILERS) Everworld examines a bunch of issues such as the question of which life is preferable: A life of security and mundanity or a life lived to the extreme, with all its horrors, but with a sense of purpose? And the theme of divisions between people based on their races, orientations, and beliefs. Yes, there was more story to tell, but Everworld wasn't a hit and it was stressful to write. Even though she ended it early, she was able to give the story an awesome final battle/conflict and deal with its overarching themes.
Towards the end of Remnants is does seem a bit evident that KA was getting burnt out, but she is still able to provide an appropriate and thought=provoking ending. Remnants is about politics and abuse of government. Again and again we see all the members of a group fighting for control, and that's reflected in the second-to-last book of the series. And the final book hearkens back to the first book, in which the government withheld the information that the world was about to end. The series ends with the question of whether the Remnants have learned enough to avoid abusing their power and making that irresponsible decision a second time.
by someone in the old forums... Hylian Dan or something...
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Elfangor survived this move in a much weaker ship.
the difference is that elfangor was in a slower ship, giving soon-to-be-visser-3 a chance to run away. the ship the animorphs were in was much much faster (faster than a blade ship) so the yeerks might not have enough time to try to get away.
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But KA did say a year or so ago that she was open to the idea of writing books 55-60 if Scholastic gave her the opportunity, which I interpret as meaning there's a very very good chance the Animorphs didn't die.
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I got that impression too. The Animorphs were up against much, much, much more worse odds than just ramming the blade ship. Although Rachel might stay dead.... =(
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A continuation of the series wouldn't be the same without the "let's do it!" girl. I don't see Rachel coming back unless Cassie uses the Time Matrix.
I just recently had a thought. In the book where Jake has the dream and everyone's a controller, Tobias morphed Ax and stayed in morph to become a nothlit. I think that is part of what made me think he'd leave with Ax at the very end.
It would just seem much less sad if he went with Ax and became an andalite. Preferably using the frolis maneuver, instead of just becoming Ax's twin.
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Well, about the dying part at the end of the book... K.A pretty much explained how and why it ended up that way. It wasn't just a rushed up Rachel dies part.
That's the point of cliffhanger endings... leaving you feeling all that...
And I beg to disagree. The ending wasn't lame at all.... I liked the ending (except the One part) very much. Although at first, I was in denial, just like you. I wished everything would have ended up like that and all of it. I guess I just learned to accept it maturely...
I completely disagree and think that books 53 and 54 were an entirely fitting ending to the series. Not in any way the product of laziness.
53 didn't have any big Harry Potter-style final battle, but it was better off without one. We've already read about the Animorphs fighting Visser Three/One in some crazy morph a million times. So KA made Tom into the central villain of the story, pushing Visser One off to the side to play the role of horrible twisted mass murderer. She uses Tom, the major villain, for the final battle and then kills him. There's even the nice imagery of Tom dying in the form of a snake.
KA keeps Visser One alive to explore whether there is a connection between him and Jake as war criminals. Instead of giving him the death sentence, she traps him as a blind, mute slug in a cage for the rest of his life. The whole series, right from the beginning, had brought up powerful themes and imagery involving cages, slavery, and the Animorphs fighting for freedom, so it is very appropriate and compelling to see Visser One, the enemy of freedom, forced into the cage that he had trapped so many others in. That's not laziness on KA's part.
Cassie and Jake part ways because Jake perceives an insurmountable wall between them. He had killed the seventeen-thousand Yeerks as a diversion, and that's why he feels like he can't be with Cassie. Throughout the series we'd seen that there was a conflict between taking the ruthless but effective course, the clear line leading from A to B, and the humane course that allowed the Animorphs to fight their enemies without becoming like them. KA followed through with that theme at the end of the series, and that's not lazy, tired writing.
Yeah, Tobias had his mom. But if you read the very end of 49, there's evidence that the bond between Tobias and his mom can't fill Rachel's void. And it's not like Tobias abandons everyone. He still has Cassie and the free Hork-Bajir. But Tobias is an extremely introspective character. Rachel is the one who had always helped him with his introspection. He could have gone around looking for friends to help him deal with his issues and work through the pain, but that's the exact role that Rachel had filled and Tobias doesn't want to relive that process with a different person. Tobias usually tended to be bitter about the circumstances of his life, and it's completely believable that Rachel's death brought back that bitterness. Tobias became hardened. He had had enough and he wanted to be left alone.
And then there's the One, who is also NOT lazy half-assed writing. He's a representation of everything the Animorphs had always been fighting against. He's a slave master, a cult leader. He steals bodies and keeps his victims trapped. He is one being with many forms. KA ends the series with the Animorphs confronting him to represent how these fictional heroes are always going to be fighting for freedom.
And "Ram the Blade Ship" is really the ultimate bad ass "Let's do it!" Xena Warrior Princess Animorphs strategy. I don't get the impression that they're about to die. Elfangor survived this move in a much weaker ship. And it's easy to believe that the Ellimist and Crayak are continuing their game, with the rule in place that there is always a way for the Animorphs. The Animorphs have always been doing death defying stunts, and I love that Jake recognizes this and smiles Rachel's smile as Tobias gets excited and Marco freaks out again. It's such an amazing, perfect ending.
You call that lazy writing? Would you have preferred, "Ax was happy to have avenged his brother by killing the Visser. Tobias was sad, but with his mom and his friends there for him, he was able to work his way through the pain. He led a human life and everyone idolized him. Jake and Cassie named their baby Rachel. All was well."
KA's endings and finales aren't always fulfilling, predictable, thrilling and satisfying, but they are always always always appropriate to the story she had been telling and the themes it contained. (potential SPOILERS) Everworld examines a bunch of issues such as the question of which life is preferable: A life of security and mundanity or a life lived to the extreme, with all its horrors, but with a sense of purpose? And the theme of divisions between people based on their races, orientations, and beliefs. Yes, there was more story to tell, but Everworld wasn't a hit and it was stressful to write. Even though she ended it early, she was able to give the story an awesome final battle/conflict and deal with its overarching themes.
Towards the end of Remnants is does seem a bit evident that KA was getting burnt out, but she is still able to provide an appropriate and thought=provoking ending. Remnants is about politics and abuse of government. Again and again we see all the members of a group fighting for control, and that's reflected in the second-to-last book of the series. And the final book hearkens back to the first book, in which the government withheld the information that the world was about to end. The series ends with the question of whether the Remnants have learned enough to avoid abusing their power and making that irresponsible decision a second time.
by someone in the old forums... Hylian Dan or something...
Lol. I'm sorry, but doesnt that sounds like half-assed writing to u? It didnt have to be ridiculously useless. It didnt have to be a happy perky everything is well and perfect ending. In fact, i found that Harry Potter epilogue wasteful.
All im saying is that reading that whole book made it seem she got tired and rushed through it. I think she has a habit of doing that cause i noticed she did the same in Everworld and Remnants. But oh well.
Ram the blade ship is a cool way to go out, but i wish things would have been foreshadowed about this new villain. Tobias could have had his mom if she's gonna kill rachel, no buts. I think Marco would have been a much deeper guy than the superficial person we saw. Dont even try to deny that he was a bit over the top from his usual persona. It was like he had never got involved in the war.
And i know a lot of u thought it was justified, but Cassie and Jake needed to be together. Period. Thats my opinion and im sticking to it. Like i say, sometimes after a war, the only person who can help u get back to somewhat normalcy are the ones who were there WITH YOU THROUGH IT ALL.
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"Ax was happy to have avenged his brother by killing the Visser. Tobias was sad, but with his mom and his friends there for him, he was able to work his way through the pain. He led a human life and everyone idolized him. Jake and Cassie named their baby Rachel. All was well."
I actually wouldn't have minded an ending like that it's better then tht half assed "Ram the Bladeship" ending ;D
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"Ax was happy to have avenged his brother by killing the Visser. Tobias was sad, but with his mom and his friends there for him, he was able to work his way through the pain. He led a human life and everyone idolized him. Jake and Cassie named their baby Rachel. All was well."
I actually wouldn't have minded an ending like that it's better then tht half assed "Ram the Bladeship" ending ;D
No... that would have been TOO perfect for a war story... that would sound... um.... quarter-assed and even more rushed ending.
Unless... that is an expression of Sarcasm? I'm not very good at identifying human emotions and meanings without seing their hideous faces.... ;)
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It's not too perfect for a FICTIONAL war story. Like I said, this is a fantasy thing. KAA should have at least had Tobias leave with Ax, instead of flying off like that. It was pathetic on his part.
I know he's had a hard life, but I never thought of him as pathetic. However, leaving his best friend like that was nothing less than pathetic.
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It's not too perfect for a FICTIONAL war story. Like I said, this is a fantasy thing. KAA should have at least had Tobias leave with Ax, instead of flying off like that. It was pathetic on his part.
I know he's had a hard life, but I never thought of him as pathetic. However, leaving his best friend like that was nothing less than pathetic.
Well, no... I kind of understand how broken hearted he feels. He DOESN'T want to be comforted. I know its emoish and all, but its just like Tobias to be like that. He may be afraid that if he becomes happy, he might forget about Rachel... I guess that's why he made himself an outcast of the world.
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No... that would have been TOO perfect for a war story... that would sound... um.... quarter-assed and even more rushed ending.
Unless... that is an expression of Sarcasm? I'm not very good at identifying human emotions and meanings without seing their hideous faces....
Yeah, that alternate ending was me being sarcastic.
I think Marco would have been a much deeper guy than the superficial person we saw. Dont even try to deny that he was a bit over the top from his usual persona. It was like he had never got involved in the war.
I was really bothered when Marco decided to eat a cookie right after Rachel died.
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Maybe it should have been Jake in Rachel's place. I'm assuming he still had the Howler morph. It wouldn't matter how many there were, or what they started morphing. Jake as a Howler would be able to grab Tom, wreck the bladeship's controls, and get them both out with minimal risk.
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but...actually I'm not gonna say it for fear of debate starting...oh what the heck. but howlers are sentient creatures.
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but...actually I'm not gonna say it for fear of debate starting...oh what the heck. but howlers are sentient creatures.
Are you talking about the rule of not morphing sentient creatures without permission? It's been broken before, I believe, and saving Tom without having someone wind up dead would justify morphing a Howler.
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I was replying to when you said it should've been jake instead of rachel on the blade ship in #54...
doesn't matter if it's been broken, it's still wrong. If there was no other way, sure, like in #21 or #46. there was no other choice. (well actually, that's not really true. there's always a choice, but you get my point)
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I was replying to when you said it should've been jake instead of rachel on the blade ship in #54...
doesn't matter if it's been broken, it's still wrong. If there was no other way, sure, like in #21 or #46. there was no other choice. (well actually, that's not really true. there's always a choice, but you get my point)
I'm actually not sure what you mean by that. I'm not trying to be stupid to stand by my point, though. I just don't quite understand that paragraph.
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Maybe it should have been Jake in Rachel's place. I'm assuming he still had the Howler morph. It wouldn't matter how many there were, or what they started morphing. Jake as a Howler would be able to grab Tom, wreck the bladeship's controls, and get them both out with minimal risk.
I was replying to this.
then I replied to this:
Are you talking about the rule of not morphing sentient creatures without permission? It's been broken before, I believe, and saving Tom without having someone wind up dead would justify morphing a Howler.
with this:doesn't matter if it's been broken, it's still wrong. If there was no other way, sure, like in #21 or #46. there was no other choice. (well actually, that's not really true. there's always a choice, but you get my point)
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From the start, the Animorphs have made this self-imposed rule(s):
1. Never morph Sentient creatures without permission.
2. Never write off an innocent life.
3. Fight the enemy, don't become them.
Although the Animorphs find it impractical to follow this rule, they still do, because they also believe that.
"We fight Yeerks, we don't become them".
Controlling other sentient beings' bodies is wrong. It is what a Yeerk would do.
Plus, Jake couldn't and wouldn't go... He was the one irreplaceable person to infiltrate the pool ship. He was the leader of the only Earth Resistance faction. Only he had the most influence to persuade the Andalites to give them the morphing cube. Plus, who would give orders in the battle inside the ship? Rachel? ;)
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In the end, it seems like they broke all three rules. Jake manipulated Eric, and killed 17,000 Yeerks. He also wrote off his own brother.
Someone else could have taken charge of the pool ship mission. Marco, perhaps. Or Ax. Jake was the only one with a morph that could take on a small army of morphers in the Blade Ship.
I always found the first rule kind of silly, anyway. The morph doesn't really have it's own thoughts, other than instincts. It's not like they morphed a sentient creature, and the creature started talking to them.
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*sigh*...this is why I didn't want to mention it. Because most fans really hate the no sentience rule.
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But if jake had been the one then he would have had to explain the entire plan to the other animorphs so that they could follow it, including telling them all that he would be sacraficing himself, which they wouldnt allow. nobody knew what rachel was doing, because jake knew they would try to stop it
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Going to the Blade Ship to morph a howler wouldn't be sacrificing himself. It would be a solid and near foolproof way of getting Tom out without having to kill him, as well as disabling the Blade Ship.
She could have brought some Alternamorphs with her, or actually used the dracon guns in the room instead of morphing bear. There were a lot of ways she could have lived, but Applegate just had to kill her and Tom off. To give a more realistic ending to a fictitious war. In a book series where the main audience is kids and teenagers.
And then she says how shocked she is so many fans didn't like it? Well, duh! Didn't know her fans very well, after all, did she?
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I loved it...
brought some alternamorphs? alternamorphs were those choose-your-own-story animorphs books.
not if jake howled. If jake howled, he could very likely kill everyone on the blade ship.
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Marco could lead? No way can he talk to the War-Prince that lead the Yeerk extermination on Earth seriously. I mean it. even if they won the battle, the Escafil device may not be shared and an Earth-Andalite peace movement whatever may not be established without Jake.
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I loved it...
brought some alternamorphs? alternamorphs were those choose-your-own-story animorphs books.
not if jake howled. If jake howled, he could very likely kill everyone on the blade ship.
There's more to Howlers than the howl. Besides, a short howl wouldn't kill anyone. Just a kind of concussion blast kind of thing. Sure, if he kept it up they would likely die. However, he'd use the howl at his discretion.
By alternamorphs, I meant to extra handicapped people that the Animorphs gave morphing power to. Auxilary Animorphs. That was the word I was thinking of.
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Actually, a howler would not be able to do much damage without the Howl. They used Dracons/shredders/flechettes/whatever in the battle against the Animorphs, right? Sure, they would not be able to kill the Howler, but how would the Howler kill without a howl? or a weapon? Punch the Polar bear to death? Tire Tom's snake in continuous biting? :)
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I wonder if howlers could be affected by the venom...
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haha, i always assumed they were immune from any poison... After all, they are Crayak's personal shock troops. :)
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Actually, a howler would not be able to do much damage without the Howl. They used Dracons/shredders/flechettes/whatever in the battle against the Animorphs, right? Sure, they would not be able to kill the Howler, but how would the Howler kill without a howl? or a weapon? Punch the Polar bear to death? Tire Tom's snake in continuous biting? :)
They have retractable claws, like Wolverine from X-Men. With that, short howls to stun the enemy, and quick healing Jake would win.
Besides, there were Dracon weapons in the room as stated during the battle.
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Yeah good point... plus the Yeerks inside weren't that good in a fight. I mean, Rachel took out the polar bear in seconds flat. ;D
But Jake could still not go. The plan was that he would pose as Earth's leader and as the leader of the only Earth Resistance faction to talk to the Andalites. To give them a morphing cube for the Taxxons. None of the other Animorphs could speak as a leader the way Jake could. Not Marco, Rachel, Ax, Tobias, and the rest.
Plus, if Jake wasn't there, Tom might get suspicious while they entered because the "leader" of the Animorphs wasn't present. All of the original Animorphs were supposed to be "eaten" by the Taxxon. Jake's absence would result to Tom's suspicion.
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None of the other Animorphs could speak as a leader the way Jake could. Not Marco, Rachel, Ax, Tobias, and the rest.
that was a little cold to cassie
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Grrr... he gave the morphing cube to the Yeerks.... that's why I have a decent hatred for her! >:(
Just joking... it was an error in my part... ;D
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I always assumed that The One was stronger than the Ellimist and Crayak. That just seems to be what KA was trying to say. She seemed to be trying to say "This is it. This is the most powerful evil in the known universe. This is stronger than anything you have ever faced, this is what has been monitoring you and everything for all time. This is the embodiment of pure evil.
I liked the way that The One was foreshadowed in some books..
Like, in #24, Ellimist mentions that Crayak was banished by a being stronger than both of them. Then Jake thinks "I wouldn't want to meet that guy.". I always assumed this to be a hint of "The One". I also considered "The Five" and the voice in Book #41 to both be hints of "The One".
IMO The One has been watching the Animorphs' journey forever. It chose to take Ax and lead the Animorphs to fighting it because it was toying with them.
Well, that's my opinion anyway. The One is the most powerful and unimaginable entity in the universe.
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The one is the most powerful and unimaginable piece of writing crap ive ever seen in the universe :p
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The One may have been a member of The Five? Do you think Crayak may have been one of them, and was expelled from the group.
I would give a lot for there to be a Crayak Chronicles. I wish there was a part of The Ellemist Chronicles that explained Crayak.
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I don't think the One isn't that powerful. If it wanted Jake from the start, it could just come to Jake, not wait for him in the Blade ship.
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i never though of The 5 as a race of 5 super powerful beings, I always just though of them as a race with a weird name
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CounterInstinct, I think he was playing games with Jake & crew. That's the impression I got.
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Well, if he was as powerful as the Ellimist... I think... he could have got a little more.... creative perhaps? I dunno.. maybe it was the lack of "special" effects that did it... plus, I think the One is more inclined to evil and stupidity (he talks like the former Visser 3)... and if he was more powerful than the Ellimist or crayak (which are already POWERful)... the world would probably be one piece of crap.
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I'm not saying there weren't flaws with The One. I just think that 'the most powerful entity' really seemed to be what KA was trying to say with The One.
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well...I was not happy either...I was actually crying...But I don't think there was a better way to show the love and affection the animorphs actually shared...in all the previous books....it was shown that Jake was fighting for his brother..which he was...everyone had their own reasons...but in the end...Katherine Applegate actually showed that they cared for each other.....and Jake had no more heart no more life in him....just because of a stupid war.....killing them showed that the animorphs didn't really fight for themselves but for the world too....no offence meant but thats my opinion...
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I think it's a cruel joke that Applegate brought Loren back to do almost nothing with her, and then kill Tom, who was a major part in the series as a whole.
Loren wasn't even mentioned in the ending. Tobias left, and it wasn't stated what Loren did. She could have gone with him, or tried to keep him with her. Tobias didn't even mention her in his narrative part.
What was the point of finding and saving her from being watched by the Yeerks, and then do nothing with her? Since she had morphing power, she might have helped in a few missions or something. But nothing.
One other thing. Shouldn't Eva have had some knowledge of ships that would help them bypass security? I'm a little surprised she didn't play a bigger part in ending the war on Earth.
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First of all, K.A could not possibly elaborate everything about the Animorphs' families and friends in every single way that would make the book as boring as hell. I can almost imagine the lines.
Loren came back to her old life with her dog. Eva and his husband became filthy rich due to Marco's donations. Rachel's mom forever feels guilty about letting her daughter fight that war. Etc etc. Sounds too much like a fanfic instead of the real thing. That's why the book is called "Animorphs". Not "Animorphs and their families and friends". Plus it leaves us, the readers, to think about it. Not everything can be learned from just reading. We have to figure it out by ourselves. Get that brain gears to work or something.
Jake would never let Loren join the war. Tobias losing Rachel was bad enough. Putting Loren in the danger was now beyond the line.
The Pool ship was designed specifically for Visser Three's use. No way Visser Three gives the former Visser One's blueprints of it.
Rachel died, isn't she a major part of the series? Visser one the Yeerk died too, but isn't she a big part of the series? So is Voldemort. I think it was already hinted in book 6 that Tom was going to die. By Jake's own command, thus destroying Jake as well.
Actually, the point of saving her... according to Jake, was no point at all. They just risked their lives for Tobias's personal sake.
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Well, I would have liked more elaboration to help wrap things up. That's part of what an ending is supposed to be. It's the resolution. Resolutions aren't supposed to be exciting, as they come after the climax. Resolutions are supposed to tie up the loose ends like a pretty little bow.
Yes Tom's yeerk played a big part, but he's a villian. Yes Rachel played a big part, but I've already expressed my distaste of her dying.
The ending sucked balls. I was just wondering why they put Loren back into the series for no apparent reason. I also think it's pathetic of Tobias to abandon his best friend and mother just because he lost someone. It's not like he lost everything.
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it was after the climax. the climax was in the first few chapters, the battle on the blade ship. then an ending. then another climax...
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it was after the climax. the climax was in the first few chapters, the battle on the blade ship. then an ending. then another climax...
Yeah. After Earth is saved, it would be ok to explain stuff like what the families did because it's the resolution. Climax is over.
Of course, then they have the Kelbrid and One, which is confusing to say the least.
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they explained what the animorphs did.
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they explained what the animorphs did.
Yeah, we all know that. I'd also like to know what Jake's parents thought of it all, and what happened to Loren, and if Peter got back with Eva, ect.
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No... K.A. didn't need to explain it all in words. I mean, most literature are praised for saying things without really saying it. In our literature class, we read very (and i mean very) vague stories and poetry... and that is most likely what K.A did too. Maybe it was hidden in context, OR, the more likely possibilty, that she left it out for us to think ourselves.
What did you think Jake's parents thought about it all? Personally, I think they felt sorry for Jake... what happened to Loren and Eva? I KNOW that you have an idea down there....
Plus, K.A might have thought that the lives of those major minor characters were for another story, another book, but discontinued it for some reason.
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No... K.A. didn't need to explain it all in words. I mean, most literature are praised for saying things without really saying it. In our literature class, we read very (and i mean very) vague stories and poetry... and that is most likely what K.A did too. Maybe it was hidden in context, OR, the more likely possibilty, that she left it out for us to think ourselves.
You can't end a series with a cliffhanger that introduces a brand new character in the process. If it was supposed to be that voice from #41 it was very badly implemented.
I hated the ending. When I finish a series, I want some form of conclusion. Animorphs didn't give me that, which is why I still think about it.
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look on the bright side, it leaves room for fanfic.
and what's with wrong with ending in a cliffhanger?
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look on the bright side, it leaves room for fanfic.
and what's with wrong with ending in a cliffhanger?
Have you seen most fanfic?
Most fanfiction is terrible. It is either badly-written with obvious Mary Sues/canon Sues or serves as an outlet for the sexual fantasies of the author. Often it's both.
With the exception of Augustine Quill's fic, I don't think I've ever seen a well-written attempt at explaining the ending of Animorphs. (I haven't read any of the fics on this forum, however.)
I think a cliffhanger is the worst way to end a series. I like endings that give you conclusion, not ones that make you wonder even more. The story doesn't have to end with everyone living happily ever after with their lives spelled out for them, but drastically changing the story in the last book and having an ending that made no sense within the context of the story is awful.
The ending was badly-implemented. Instead of finding a way for Rachel to solve her problem with violence she's just killed off - what's the point of exploring both sides of Rachel if the author is going to treat her one-dimensionally anyway? It sent the message across that people with any degree of mental illness can't recover.
I hate when people say that the Animorphs ending was "realistic". It's a science fiction kid series, and besides, you can write a "realistic" ending without cheating all of your characters out of a good futures. It was a miserable failure in terms of evoking sympathy for the characters - if I want to watch something sad I'll watch The English Patient. The ending just angered me because it was badly-written and rushed.
Was anyone else angered by the "message from the author" at the end when she asked us to check out Remnants? I felt like she was sick of writing Animorphs so she rushed through the ending and went off to write another series. Regardless of whether or not that was her intent, it certainly came off that way.
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look on the bright side, it leaves room for fanfic.
and what's with wrong with ending in a cliffhanger?
Have you seen most fanfic?
Most fanfiction is terrible. It is either badly-written with obvious Mary Sues/canon Sues or serves as an outlet for the sexual fantasies of the author. Often it's both.
With the exception of Augustine Quill's fic, I don't think I've ever seen a well-written attempt at explaining the ending of Animorphs. (I haven't read any of the fics on this forum, however.)
I think a cliffhanger is the worst way to end a series. I like endings that give you conclusion, not ones that make you wonder even more. The story doesn't have to end with everyone living happily ever after with their lives spelled out for them, but drastically changing the story in the last book and having an ending that made no sense within the context of the story is awful.
The ending was badly-implemented. Instead of finding a way for Rachel to solve her problem with violence she's just killed off - what's the point of exploring both sides of Rachel if the author is going to treat her one-dimensionally anyway? It sent the message across that people with any degree of mental illness can't recover.
I hate when people say that the Animorphs ending was "realistic". It's a science fiction kid series, and besides, you can write a "realistic" ending without cheating all of your characters out of a good futures. It was a miserable failure in terms of evoking sympathy for the characters - if I want to watch something sad I'll watch The English Patient. The ending just angered me because it was badly-written and rushed.
Was anyone else angered by the "message from the author" at the end when she asked us to check out Remnants? I felt like she was sick of writing Animorphs so she rushed through the ending and went off to write another series. Regardless of whether or not that was her intent, it certainly came off that way.
I agree with a lot of what you say. As for the message, reading the ending of Animorphs made me afraid to get into any other series written by her. I read some of Everworld, but that one only lasted two books.
An ending should be just that: an ending. Not a new beginning that will likely never be explained.
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I never said read someone else's fanfic, although that's not a bad idea. I meant come up with your own ending.
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The ending made you uneasy.... that doesn't mean it was bad.
Anyway, it was a science fiction book, but look at how detailed it was! I mean, there was Pepsi, Cinnabon, The Gap! The reason why we love the Animorphs because it was set in our world. OUR world. Unlike other science fictions where it takes place on some phony fairy land. That's why it HAS to be realistic. We love Animorphs because it's realistic.
And the ending, That is why the Ending is called "The Beginning". It is the beginning of something new, something unknown. If the book was named "The End" and ended as open, I would complain. But it was named the Beginning. You don't name something "the Beginning" for nothing.
Personally, I like the ending, unlike what most people say about it. I don't exactly enjoy Cinderella endings.... it's just to perfect, not how reality is supposed to be.
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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Personally, I like the ending, unlike what most people say about it. I don't exactly enjoy Cinderella endings.... it's just to perfect, not how reality is supposed to be.
I wouldn't say I completely agree. I really like the ending. but I don't mind cinderella endings that much, as long as they're used in the right place. you have a story like cinderella, use a cinderella ending. if you have a story like animorphs, use an animorphs ending. the only endings I don't like are horror endings. I don't care if they're used in horror stories, I don't like horror endings.
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Endings don't necessarily have to be endings, that's one of the reasons why I liked the ending. Things don't always end happily or even end on a definite conclusion. Sometimes a story ends by pressing the restart button. Sure it's going to make some fans upset. Whether that's laziness on the part of an author or just a creative decision depends on how well it's done. I think the idea of the ending and the shattered relationships after the war was all perfect, but you know, the whole last book felt really rushed. That's my only gripe about it.
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look on the bright side, it leaves room for fanfic.
and what's with wrong with ending in a cliffhanger?
Have you seen most fanfic?
Most fanfiction is terrible. It is either badly-written with obvious Mary Sues/canon Sues or serves as an outlet for the sexual fantasies of the author. Often it's both.
With the exception of Augustine Quill's fic, I don't think I've ever seen a well-written attempt at explaining the ending of Animorphs. (I haven't read any of the fics on this forum, however.)
I think a cliffhanger is the worst way to end a series. I like endings that give you conclusion, not ones that make you wonder even more. The story doesn't have to end with everyone living happily ever after with their lives spelled out for them, but drastically changing the story in the last book and having an ending that made no sense within the context of the story is awful.
The ending was badly-implemented. Instead of finding a way for Rachel to solve her problem with violence she's just killed off - what's the point of exploring both sides of Rachel if the author is going to treat her one-dimensionally anyway? It sent the message across that people with any degree of mental illness can't recover.
I hate when people say that the Animorphs ending was "realistic". It's a science fiction kid series, and besides, you can write a "realistic" ending without cheating all of your characters out of a good futures. It was a miserable failure in terms of evoking sympathy for the characters - if I want to watch something sad I'll watch The English Patient. The ending just angered me because it was badly-written and rushed.
Was anyone else angered by the "message from the author" at the end when she asked us to check out Remnants? I felt like she was sick of writing Animorphs so she rushed through the ending and went off to write another series. Regardless of whether or not that was her intent, it certainly came off that way.
I think I like you escafil.
*claps*
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The ending made you uneasy.... that doesn't mean it was bad.
Anyway, it was a science fiction book, but look at how detailed it was! I mean, there was Pepsi, Cinnabon, The Gap! The reason why we love the Animorphs because it was set in our world. OUR world. Unlike other science fictions where it takes place on some phony fairy land. That's why it HAS to be realistic. We love Animorphs because it's realistic.
And the ending, That is why the Ending is called "The Beginning". It is the beginning of something new, something unknown. If the book was named "The End" and ended as open, I would complain. But it was named the Beginning. You don't name something "the Beginning" for nothing.
Personally, I like the ending, unlike what most people say about it. I don't exactly enjoy Cinderella endings.... it's just to perfect, not how reality is supposed to be.
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
I don't really care about all that. I don't care if more realistic endings don't always end on a solid note. I just feel that when a person has control over how something ends, then it should be a more or less cinderella ending.
I never thought of it as a war story. Maybe if some animorphs started dying off earlier in the series, then I'd be ok. It sets that precedent.
I've read her note to the fanbase. If she wanted to end her series that way, then she should have written the other books differently. That way everyone would have expected a more traumatic ending. I also wouldn't mind her putting the Kelbrid and One in there, if I thought she'd start something else.
But she won't. She moved on to something else and decided to let the fans try to figure out what is going on with the mess she left us.
She built up Rachel as a two sided person, but in the end treated her like a one demensional character. She also made it out like Tobias lost everything when he lost Rachel, when he obviously didn't.
It makes me question the level of respect she really has for fans, even though she says she gave us that ending because she respects us.
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I never thought of it as a war story.
Erm...you're entitled to think that, but uh.....why?! It's a war story from the beginning, when a bunch of kids start turning into animals and ripping throats out of aliens in guerilla attacks... o.O; They become a part of an intergalactic war.
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I never thought of it as a war story.
Erm...you're entitled to think that, but uh.....why?! It's a war story from the beginning, when a bunch of kids start turning into animals and ripping throats out of aliens in guerilla attacks... o.O; They become a part of an intergalactic war.
It's kind of like when I watch Batman or Superman or something. They're fighting criminals, but I don't see it as like a war. Or like X-Men fighting humans.
Just your average people with superpowers fighting evil kind of thing.
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right...when was the last time anyone died in Batman or Superman?
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right...when was the last time anyone died in Batman or Superman?
EXACTLY!!
No animorph ever died in the series until Rachel. Random enemies perhaps, but no one really cares about those. Not in some book series, anyway.
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I wasn't asking just the heroes...I was asking since when did villians die?
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I wasn't asking just the heroes...I was asking since when did villians die?
I'm not sure. I guess animorphs is a tad more realistic than batman and superman. However, my point still stands. I don't recall any main character ever dying in animorphs before the last book.
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what about jake in MM#3? rachel died in that book too.
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what about jake in MM#3? rachel died in that book too.
Yeah, but they were brought back. They didn't stay dead.
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when did batman die and come back to life?
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when did batman die and come back to life?
That one episode where his allies used a time machine to go into the past and make it so he never died in the first place.
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ok...then i'm stumped. maybe someone else has something to argue with.
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I don't really care about all that. I don't care if more realistic endings don't always end on a solid note. I just feel that when a person has control over how something ends, then it should be a more or less cinderella ending.
I never thought of it as a war story. Maybe if some animorphs started dying off earlier in the series, then I'd be ok. It sets that precedent.
I've read her note to the fanbase. If she wanted to end her series that way, then she should have written the other books differently. That way everyone would have expected a more traumatic ending. I also wouldn't mind her putting the Kelbrid and One in there, if I thought she'd start something else.
But she won't. She moved on to something else and decided to let the fans try to figure out what is going on with the mess she left us.
She built up Rachel as a two sided person, but in the end treated her like a one demensional character. She also made it out like Tobias lost everything when he lost Rachel, when he obviously didn't.
It makes me question the level of respect she really has for fans, even though she says she gave us that ending because she respects us.
I agree.
Some of the books were serious, but there were significantly more light-hearted and humorous moments. I don't think it was written like a war series at all - if it were, not as many kids would have read it. The violent themes certainly weren't graphic. I don't know if anyone else picked up on this, but I noticed that the subject of the Animorphs killing their enemies isn't mentioned very often until the final story arc - it just says that they fought them.
It was inconsistent and I know this is a bit harsh, but I think it was a colossal dick move to end the story that way. Sad stories are supposed to be sad, not just piss people off. I finished the Animorphs series feeling pissed off.
Who else was disappointed by the lack of a big Ax/Visser Three showdown? He talked about having to avenge his brother's death in like every single one of his narratives but it's like KA forgot about it when she wrote the finale. The worse part was that I was expecting it. I actually had never read #53 so I was satisfied with the plotline with Tom, but I really would have preferred if he had lived. That was just personal preference - I do think Jake being depressed over Tom's death is much more realistic than every single one of them except Marco being a huge Debbie Downer.
And what was up with Cassie's new boyfriend? That really stuck it to every J/C fan out there.
I would've ended it with Rachel surviving and finding a way to handle her problem, Ax killing Visser One/Three and killing Alloran out of mercy, and Jake feeling guilty about flushing the Pool Ship. I also would've worked in Ellimist and Crayak somehow to tie it into #41 better - possibly ending the story with Crayak conceding defeat over that portion of the game and them planning the next portion of their game.
What bothered me the most about this ending was that it was my favorite book series by an author I thought was really talented, even though she was a bit disorganized. I would've been able to forget a crappy ending by any other author.
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I never really thought much about the lack of an Ax vs. Visser One battle. Might have been kind of cool to work one in right after they reentered the bridge.
Let's say the gang is heading back to the bridge. Ax just happens to get through the door first, and V1 charges in a blind rage. He doesn't try to morph anything, but just attacks.
It ends with Ax cutting off his tail blade and knocking him out. Allaron lives to help vouch for Ax when he challenges the other Andalite later.
It would have made a nice climactic battle, with Elfangor being avenged.
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uh...I'd be more please if he went to jail. sounds...ironic, I guess is the word. after all the evil he did, everyone expects him to die. no, he just ends up seving time in prison.
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uh...I'd be more please if he went to jail. sounds...ironic, I guess is the word. after all the evil he did, everyone expects him to die. no, he just ends up seving time in prison.
I don't personally agree with capital punishment - I know this isn't the place to discuss that, but I figured I should make that known - but I thought that Visser Three/One should've died. It just makes for such an anticlimatic ending for Visser Three/One to die in prison.
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Wars are never climactic. There is no final battle between good or evil. As Jake pointed out, at first people at war think of it as just a comic book battle or a chess game, where in the end, good triumphs over and evil bites the dust. There is a lot of high fives, celebration.... etc....
But in real war, as Jake points out, turns out to be the one who poison's people's lakes, burns farms... etc.
No clean climactic battle.
If there was ever a climactic battle in Animorphs, I'd hate K.A for making it ANOTHER video game war story.... where everything ends like cotton candy.
My grandfather was part of a war between Americans and the Japanese here in the Philippines. Part of the HUKs in case anybody knows about Philippine history (which I doubt). He lost a lot of friends/body parts of friends in that war, I believe, and I swear, he NEVER SPOKE again. One word, two words, no more than that.
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Wars are never climactic. There is no final battle between good or evil. As Jake pointed out, at first people at war think of it as just a comic book battle or a chess game, where in the end, good triumphs over and evil bites the dust. There is a lot of high fives, celebration.... etc....
But in real war, as Jake points out, turns out to be the one who poison's people's lakes, burns farms... etc.
No clean climactic battle.
If there was ever a climactic battle in Animorphs, I'd hate K.A for making it ANOTHER video game war story.... where everything ends like cotton candy.
My grandfather was part of a war between Americans and the Japanese here in the Philippines. Part of the HUKs in case anybody knows about Philippine history (which I doubt). He lost a lot of friends/body parts of friends in that war, I believe, and I swear, he NEVER SPOKE again. One word, two words, no more than that.
I'm not disagreeing with you about the nature of war. However, I think that K.A's way of making a "realistic ending" was badly-done.
A good writer can make a realistic war ending that doesn't make all of the characters dead or depressed. I wasn't expecting a big, exciting war scene, I was expecting a battle scene that didn't suck.
(On the other hand, it could be said that she didn't even need to make it realistic because of the nature of the series.)
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they're guerilla (ax was right about guerilla and gorilla) fighters. only about 20 fighters. how do you do a big war scene with like 20 fighters? maybe a battle like the one in matcom in book 10, but a big war scene? even if you add in the hork-bajir, they're less than a thousand. and taxxons aren't very good fighters.
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they're guerilla (ax was right about guerilla and gorilla) fighters. only about 20 fighters. how do you do a big war scene with like 20 fighters? maybe a battle like the one in matcom in book 10, but a big war scene? even if you add in the hork-bajir, they're less than a thousand. and taxxons aren't very good fighters.
She could have written something good for Doubleday's forces besides being sitting ducks for the sake of a diversion.
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there were only about a hundred...wait let me check...oh. no it's just less than a thousand. adding a total of a bit more than a thousand.
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they're guerilla (ax was right about guerilla and gorilla) fighters. only about 20 fighters. how do you do a big war scene with like 20 fighters? maybe a battle like the one in matcom in book 10, but a big war scene? even if you add in the hork-bajir, they're less than a thousand. and taxxons aren't very good fighters.
She could have written something good for Doubleday's forces besides being sitting ducks for the sake of a diversion.
And also, sending just Rachel in was pretty stupid.
You don't need everyone in a diversion. Jake should've sent in some Auxilary Animorphs to assist the Animorphs on the Pool Ship and sent in Ax with Rachel. Then Ax could've killed Visser Three.
And regardless of whether or not it was wise to just send in Rachel, I don't believe that she could've died so easily. Rachel kicked a lot of ass throughout the series, I just don't buy it.
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if you send in ax with rachel, how does he kill visser three? visser three's on the pool ship. ax is on the blade ship.
she was bit by a cobra. in the eyes. so she had to demorph. and as a human...well no match for a polar bear.
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if you send in ax with rachel, how does he kill visser three? visser three's on the pool ship. ax is on the blade ship.
she was bit by a cobra. in the eyes. so she had to demorph. and as a human...well no match for a polar bear.
I'm saying that she could've written it differently.
Rachel's past character leads me to doubt that she could've gone done so easily. She probably should've gone in as elephant.
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Rachel could have done the whole thing by herself. K.A. just needed to write in that the polar bear morpher died instead of just being wounded. Then Rachel takes down the buffalo by catching it by the horns, throwing it to the side, and ripping its throat out. Then take out the two lionesses. Also have Tom fall unconscious so he could be picked up and carried out later.
Or morph an elephant and crush them all.
There were multiple ways it could be believably written for her to survive.
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she didn't have time to kill all of them before tom morphed cobra. once he was in cobra, well it lead to rachel having to demorph. and unless they were all killed, rachel would not survive as a human.
as for elephant...I don't really have anything to use as a comparism. I guess she could handle both lionesses no prob. not sure about buffalo or polar bear yet.
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Like I said, it could have been written differently. Screw the spitting cobra, and just have Tom get knocked out.
It just seems wrong that someone with her experience didn't even kill any of them without help.
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how does tom get knocked out?
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how does tom get knocked out?
He could fail to dodge. Rachle smacks him good instead of missing or just kind of running into him.
Instead of putting in the line where she hits his back, it could say she hits his head. Thus rendering him unconscious.
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doesn't tom bite her eyes before rachel hits his back? and I doubt there would've been much force in that hit.
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doesn't tom bite her eyes before rachel hits his back? and I doubt there would've been much force in that hit.
No, she lays his back open (I think that's how the book puts it), and he starts turning into something reptilian. Later she feels something sprayed into her eyes and eventually feels him biting her face.
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what? hold on I'm looking that up.
ok... what happened was:
A flash of movement, so fast it was a blur.
Something in my eyes! Burning. I couldn't see.
That's okay, okay, bears can't see alt that well
anyway, I had . . . I had . . .
so Tom bit her eyes before she even touched tom. actually she never even touched tom until she was about to deliver the killing blow (or bite).
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She touched the human Tom, but still, morphing repairs all injuries. Only Rachel could be sent for Tom. Why? If Jake sent more Animorphs to the Blade ship, it would be sending those with Rachel to doom. I mean, better one death than mulitple deaths right?
Plus, If he asked Cassie or Tobias to come with Rachel, they would definitely not approve of this part of the plan, ruining it all. The diversion had to realistic too, to make Visser believe that it was a full force attack, not suspecting the Animorphs were already inside.
Rachel already did good. She HAD experience, so she got an almost par fight with 5 morph capable humans. 5 vs 1. There even was a polar bear there. Not even Rachel could defeat them all.
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The diversion had to realistic too, to make Visser believe that it was a full force attack, not suspecting the Animorphs were already inside.
Not that I don't support you, but they'll never buy that.
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Well, Jake admitted that "That" plan was not really a plan... but it miraculously worked out. :)
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Rachel already did good. She HAD experience, so she got an almost par fight with 5 morph capable humans. 5 vs 1. There even was a polar bear there. Not even Rachel could defeat them all.
After the Yeerks get the morphing power they mention a few times that many of them are obviously clueless about what to do. I'm not going to believe that someone with years of fighting experience can't take down 5 people who don't have that experience.
I also think going in as elephant would've been a smart thing to do.
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they didn't have experience as a human, but they were predator morphs. The Animals knew a lot about fighting. Lioness, yes. Polar bear, yes. Bull, oh yes. Snake? Not really, but it must be a no-brainer. Ax used it once and he found that it was easy to control. Same with Marco.
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i really liked the last book, but didn't like the cliffhanger.
the last chapter(s) was unneeded, the book was a bittersweet ending.
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ok i have been reading all these forums since i read everworld and got screwed out of another ending by this woman.Basiclly shes just not a good writer thats why there wont be anymore animorphs because shes a woman with good ideas who cant write.
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Whoa oh oh! Did you just say KA CANT WRITE?! :-\
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shes cant write she is not and will never be a writer shes just a wanna-be with some good ideas and i doubt she even thought of most of them if she couldnt think of an ending better than that.
i hate to burst bubbles but thats why there arent anymore animorphs despite the fact people are still talking about them.because scholastic knows she cant write they probaly have bags of hate mail because of this woman and than she tries to put the ending off on us saying its a war blah blah it aint suppose to be a happpy ending.NO its not is a SCIENCE FICTION SERIES for CHILDREN you stupid woman dont make up excuses because your lazy and childish for that matter excuses why you cant write is all they are she doesnt deserve a penny for all those books i would rob her if i knew how to find her.she owes an ending i read these books a long time and paid for the majority and i was ripped off.writers arent suppose to write books for them selves im a comedian and im not gonna tell jokes that just suit me and forget everyone else "i can" but I DONT GET PAID and neither should she. and as far as if you dont like the ending write it yourself i say we should find another K.A. from fanfics RAF can do ti see them do alot of things here,they really do. i can get scholastics mailing addresses and email and well bombard them until we get the animorphs back hell they can throw the stupid B**** name on there still i dont care as long as it has and ending where it ends or at least goes on through more books and it it too much to ask to make sense??? huh anyone with me on that.and im getting the addresses and anyone who will write or read fanfics to send in,write letters basiclly help me harrass them till we get what we want let me know cause im not takeing that and im send K.A. soooooooooooo much hate mail i dont need help with that lol
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shes cant write she is not and will never be a writer shes just a wanna-be with some good ideas and i doubt she even thought of most of them if she couldnt think of an ending better than that.
i hate to burst bubbles but thats why there arent anymore animorphs despite the fact people are still talking about them.because scholastic knows she cant write they probaly have bags of hate mail because of this woman and than she tries to put the ending off on us saying its a war blah blah it aint suppose to be a happpy ending.NO its not is a SCIENCE FICTION SERIES for CHILDREN you stupid woman dont make up excuses because your lazy and childish for that matter excuses why you cant write is all they are she doesnt deserve a penny for all those books i would rob her if i knew how to find her.she owes an ending i read these books a long time and paid for the majority and i was ripped off.writers arent suppose to write books for them selves im a comedian and im not gonna tell jokes that just suit me and forget everyone else "i can" but I DONT GET PAID and neither should she. and as far as if you dont like the ending write it yourself i say we should find another K.A. from fanfics RAF can do ti see them do alot of things here,they really do. i can get scholastics mailing addresses and email and well bombard them until we get the animorphs back hell they can throw the stupid B**** name on there still i dont care as long as it has and ending where it ends or at least goes on through more books and it it too much to ask to make sense??? huh anyone with me on that.and im getting the addresses and anyone who will write or read fanfics to send in,write letters basiclly help me harrass them till we get what we want let me know cause im not takeing that and im send K.A. soooooooooooo much hate mail i dont need help with that lol
...I'm not sure you'll make a lot of friends here...sure there are people who didn't like the ending, but I can't recall any who said/would say she couldn't write...
anyway, no I am not with you. I actually happen to like the ending very much, except that cassie didn't go with them in the end...but that's a different matter...
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Now don't say KA can't write. And please use paragraphs and better grammar, so we can more easily read what you say.
She was a great writer. She just can't make good endings. What she does is end a series when she gets tired of it, and the fact that she's tired of it is why her endings turn to crap. There is a minority of people who liked the Animorphs ending. Even I liked parts of the ending.
When she's into what she writes, she's excellent. When she isn't, she gets ghostwriters that screw some things up, and makes an ending that most of her fans hate. She can make excuses about it being a war, and it needs to be realistic, even though it's a fictional series directed at children. The fans that liked all or most of the ending can make excuses that the majority of her fans were not true fans, even though I'm one of the truest fans out here and I hated most of it.
Heck, I'll bet Harry Potter was directed at kids and most kids probably enjoyed the happy ending.
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shes cant write
Well now, ain't that the kettle calling the coffee black...or... something like that...yeah...
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I'm sorry, that who rant made me laugh.
I never got into her writings out of Animorphs, so I can't say about the other stuff but:
1-Animorphs was not poorly written (least not the stuff by her hand)
2-If she's so bad, why read her stuff, lord knows no one is forcing you
For this ending, I was one of those who hated it at first, though 5 rereads later, I see it as being more than what was on the paper. Either way it brings the story to a close, or allows fans to continue on as they please. Some of the best ff begin right after that last line
And it's not coming back because, first off Animorphs is time sensitive. Changes in technology, culture and events would bar it from now being what it was; plus have the appeal of the series is they were kids. Having it them now, with them as heroes in their 20's; the secerts out, it can be there whole lives, it's not that huge element of having to be a hero.
And what's more, is they are not bringing it back because....it's done. There is no need for it to come back. Of course you could; but why? It's like how Harry Potter is done, yes she can do more people are clammering for more, but who want's to read "Harry Potter and the Ministry Application Test"?
It didn't have to end, but it did, and like it or not, it works
And why would you deliberately try and annoy someone who provide you something to do for years, at only $4.99 a month? that's just bloody rude
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im just saying the whole one thing it was bull.she started another chapter and just left it.
and part of writng is the ending J.K. Rowling a worte the last chapter of the last book before she finished the 4th one.Im saying she cant write in the sense she like 9th grader who can write doing a fictional paper she should have known how to close it befoe she opened it.
and the reason i feel like doing that is i feel like they owe me an explanation K.A. said all that about it being about a war but she never explained why the hell she would write all that about the one and ax getting captured.
that book should have ended about halfway through even with everyone depressed,dead,or not around eachother anymore.could left off with a message as to why if thats what she wanted to get across to us.
i dont know i just feel cheated.animorphs was like a memory from my childhood,and 5 years later i pick up the books to finally read through to the end(and started back at #1 so i didnt forget)and BOOM flashback i wasnt at disney land it was just a parking lot with christmas lights.i wished i had never read them all i wish i could have stopped back at the ghost writers part they wrote.
o and ya im not trying to be rude thats just wat it would take. when they looked through that book and published those last couple pages that was pretty rude and inconsiderate to me and alot of other readers who followed the animorphs over the years and wondered what was gonna happen next waiting on the end and guess what theres not one.
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please, grammar and punctuation. I'm having a very hard time reading what you wrote. and I usually don't complain about someone's grammar...
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He's getting better, Morfowt. He's using the enter key more often now.
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true. I'll give him that. still hard to read though.
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Sorry,im not used to bothering with grammer on the internet.I forget not everyone here is from America(just so you know all americans will be speaking text message by 2010 lol).
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Even people from American can't stand ****ty typing...
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Yeah, I'm from America and didn't grow up using chatspeak on the internet. I guess it depends on the generation, though. I didn't even get into the internet until after the year 2000.
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Nohensen, the ONLY people I know of the actually uses chatspeak like that, are 13 year olds that want to be lazy, or being just joking around, trying to be funny and making fun of people that type like that, so the Generation has nothing to do with it. Just laziness.
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Sorry,im not used to bothering with grammer on the internet.I forget not everyone here is from America(just so you know all americans will be speaking text message by 2010 lol).
Er...what? I'm probably among the most grammatically fluent on any of the forums I visit... :-\
Anyhow, I disagree on your comments about her writings. Still, you are entitled to your opinion. I hope you didn't come here to just pick a fight, and hopefully you enjoy at least some literature?
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shes cant write she is not and will never be a writer shes just a wanna-be with some good ideas and i doubt she even thought of most of them if she couldnt think of an ending better than that.
i hate to burst bubbles but thats why there arent anymore animorphs despite the fact people are still talking about them.because scholastic knows she cant write they probaly have bags of hate mail because of this woman and than she tries to put the ending off on us saying its a war blah blah it aint suppose to be a happpy ending.NO its not is a SCIENCE FICTION SERIES for CHILDREN you stupid woman dont make up excuses because your lazy and childish for that matter excuses why you cant write is all they are she doesnt deserve a penny for all those books i would rob her if i knew how to find her.she owes an ending i read these books a long time and paid for the majority and i was ripped off.writers arent suppose to write books for them selves im a comedian and im not gonna tell jokes that just suit me and forget everyone else "i can" but I DONT GET PAID and neither should she. and as far as if you dont like the ending write it yourself i say we should find another K.A. from fanfics RAF can do ti see them do alot of things here,they really do. i can get scholastics mailing addresses and email and well bombard them until we get the animorphs back hell they can throw the stupid B**** name on there still i dont care as long as it has and ending where it ends or at least goes on through more books and it it too much to ask to make sense??? huh anyone with me on that.and im getting the addresses and anyone who will write or read fanfics to send in,write letters basiclly help me harrass them till we get what we want let me know cause im not takeing that and im send K.A. soooooooooooo much hate mail i dont need help with that lol
.......Are you on meds? Why in the hell are you here if you hate her so much?!
I, for one, dislike the ending (as you can read on almost any of my posts), but I STILL acknowledge KA as an incredible writer. I even liked the fillers (that she wrote), but her ghostwriters sucked (they turned Rachel into some kind of monster, and Marco lost all his muster).
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Sorry,im not used to bothering with grammer on the internet.I forget not everyone here is from America(just so you know all americans will be speaking text message by 2010 lol).
I may be living in china, but I'm more used to american life and the internet...(after all I lived in america for 7 years. china only 2)...
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But KA did say a year or so ago that she was open to the idea of writing books 55-60 if Scholastic gave her the opportunity, which I interpret as meaning there's a very very good chance the Animorphs didn't die.
Whoa! Wait, did she really say that?!
Do you have the interview where she said it? It's not that I dont believe you, but I just heard she said the exact opposite one time.
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shes cant write she is not and will never be a writer shes just a wanna-be with some good ideas and i doubt she even thought of most of them if she couldnt think of an ending better than that.
i hate to burst bubbles but thats why there arent anymore animorphs despite the fact people are still talking about them.because scholastic knows she cant write they probaly have bags of hate mail because of this woman and than she tries to put the ending off on us saying its a war blah blah it aint suppose to be a happpy ending.NO its not is a SCIENCE FICTION SERIES for CHILDREN you stupid woman dont make up excuses because your lazy and childish for that matter excuses why you cant write is all they are she doesnt deserve a penny for all those books i would rob her if i knew how to find her.she owes an ending i read these books a long time and paid for the majority and i was ripped off.writers arent suppose to write books for them selves im a comedian and im not gonna tell jokes that just suit me and forget everyone else "i can" but I DONT GET PAID and neither should she. and as far as if you dont like the ending write it yourself i say we should find another K.A. from fanfics RAF can do ti see them do alot of things here,they really do. i can get scholastics mailing addresses and email and well bombard them until we get the animorphs back hell they can throw the stupid B**** name on there still i dont care as long as it has and ending where it ends or at least goes on through more books and it it too much to ask to make sense??? huh anyone with me on that.and im getting the addresses and anyone who will write or read fanfics to send in,write letters basiclly help me harrass them till we get what we want let me know cause im not takeing that and im send K.A. soooooooooooo much hate mail i dont need help with that lol
.......Are you on meds? Why in the hell are you here if you hate her so much?!
I, for one, dislike the ending (as you can read on almost any of my posts), but I STILL acknowledge KA as an incredible writer. I even liked the fillers (that she wrote), but her ghostwriters sucked (they turned Rachel into some kind of monster, and Marco lost all his muster).
Someone needs to learn to use line breaks... xD
And I agree, the main thing I disliked about the ghostwriters was how they wrote Rachel (#37 being the most heinous example). Some of the ghostwritten books are actually quite good though.
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Plus+1s for all who stood up for KA and Animorphs! 8)
Huzzah! :)
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Thanks. I may not have liked the ending, but I never would have read 60 Animorph books if I didn't think she was a great writer.
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I always hated the ending honestly. Yes, the parts on the bladeship and pool ship were fine, but the whole future after that was crap. Tobias would have used the time matrix to save rachel as soon as he got back on earth if KA wasn't too busy killing the series.
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I wonder if anyone thinks it would be better if Tobais had died. He'd wind up being the first and last casualty of war.
It would be more ironic if Cassie somehow died on the bladeship, since that mission wouldn't have happened if she didn't let Tom's Yeerk escape with the box.
The more I think of it, the more I wonder why Rachel was the one. Especially since typically her kind are the ones who survive while Cassie's kind typically die.
Not that I ever wanted any of the main characters to die anyway. It wasn't needed.
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shes cant write she is not and will never be a writer shes just a wanna-be with some good ideas and i doubt she even thought of most of them if she couldnt think of an ending better than that.
i hate to burst bubbles but thats why there arent anymore animorphs despite the fact people are still talking about them.because scholastic knows she cant write they probaly have bags of hate mail because of this woman and than she tries to put the ending off on us saying its a war blah blah it aint suppose to be a happpy ending.NO its not is a SCIENCE FICTION SERIES for CHILDREN you stupid woman dont make up excuses because your lazy and childish for that matter excuses why you cant write is all they are she doesnt deserve a penny for all those books i would rob her if i knew how to find her.she owes an ending i read these books a long time and paid for the majority and i was ripped off.writers arent suppose to write books for them selves im a comedian and im not gonna tell jokes that just suit me and forget everyone else "i can" but I DONT GET PAID and neither should she. and as far as if you dont like the ending write it yourself i say we should find another K.A. from fanfics RAF can do ti see them do alot of things here,they really do. i can get scholastics mailing addresses and email and well bombard them until we get the animorphs back hell they can throw the stupid B**** name on there still i dont care as long as it has and ending where it ends or at least goes on through more books and it it too much to ask to make sense??? huh anyone with me on that.and im getting the addresses and anyone who will write or read fanfics to send in,write letters basiclly help me harrass them till we get what we want let me know cause im not takeing that and im send K.A. soooooooooooo much hate mail i dont need help with that lol
.......Are you on meds? Why in the hell are you here if you hate her so much?!
I, for one, dislike the ending (as you can read on almost any of my posts), but I STILL acknowledge KA as an incredible writer. I even liked the fillers (that she wrote), but her ghostwriters sucked (they turned Rachel into some kind of monster, and Marco lost all his muster).
Someone needs to learn to use line breaks... xD
And I agree, the main thing I disliked about the ghostwriters was how they wrote Rachel (#37 being the most heinous example). Some of the ghostwritten books are actually quite good though.
Absolutely, I liked a lot of them too.
49 and 50, in particular were great, but 48...........not so much.
I wonder if anyone thinks it would be better if Tobais had died. He'd wind up being the first and last casualty of war.
It would be more ironic if Cassie somehow died on the bladeship, since that mission wouldn't have happened if she didn't let Tom's Yeerk escape with the box.
The more I think of it, the more I wonder why Rachel was the one. Especially since typically her kind are the ones who survive while Cassie's kind typically die.
Not that I ever wanted any of the main characters to die anyway. It wasn't needed.
Yeah, that's how I felt. Rachel's kind are the kind to survive and usually end up being heroes in the end.
One thing I did like though. Since the ghostwriters took over, they started painting Rachel to be some kind of inhumane monster, but in her dying moments, she seemed very human again. But, then again, that was probably KA's superb writing.
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Yeah, it was just the ghostwriters that wanted her to be some kind of twisted monster. KA wrote the last book, and Rachel turned back into the kind of person we came to love in the early/mid books. Someone with two sides, yes, but not someone who wouldn't be able to deal with peacetime. Not that there would be total world peace afterwards anyway.
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The ending.... I'm in the group who think that it should've been more than that.
But I'm ok about the deaths. If Applegate decided to stuck to the hard core reality, I suppose the Animorphs have been all dead earlier. I'm surprised they had managed only to lose one of them. Sometime throughout the series I felt weird that coincidences happen all that smooth. Everyone is alive and ok after some disastrous mission. I usually hide behind the plot device shield, and reassure myself that this was intended to be a children book so she could let some unexplainable facts go. It's almost relieving that one of the main chara dead (Rachel died as a human, fortunately). Tom's death was a horrible one, poor Tom, still had a Yeerk stuck in his head, but...
It's feasible. I can accept it. Sure there's many way to avoid both deaths but I won't complain about it.
I won't complain about their lives after the war either. It could go whatever way and the effect would still be the same. The kids saved their Earth, they're worthy of whatever life they could live after their struggle.
What's disturbing is their relationship. I, as many of the people in this forum, also couldn't believe that Tobias would leave Ax just like so only because he's depressed after Rachel's death. I find no logic in his action. He lost Rachel, yea, the one who care about him deepest, but he still have his friends. And Loren, if you want to count her. She may have no real bond between him but she's his own real mother for crying out loud. Is Tobias really that weak? I don't get it.
Jake and Cassie. I understand that the guilt-ridden Jake couldn't find his way around Cassie anymore, but what about vice-versa? After all they've been trough for like, forever, had their lives changed like, together, Cassie simply moved to another man? That's so wrong.
Then about them meeting The One.
Well, did all of them died fighting this creature? The probability is high, look at what it did to freaking Ax, that could fight best in his own Andalite body. What chance a bunch of morph-capable human and a hawk had? This bad assumption pissed me off. It's just... after the Animorphs completed their purpose on the series and survived, they're going to be killed and absorbed into some kind of evil enemy which we know nothing about?
Why, it was the freaking end of the book and Ax's final appearance was as an alien mutant driven by an unknown force worshiped by desperate Yeerks. Nooooooo.
*Sigh*
There's nothing I can do about it anyway, I'll have to accept it and move on. Sorry for my selfish rant, I really need to blurt it out.
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i hate da way Cassie & Jake broke up. Coulnt KA keep even one realationship going? everyone seemed sad in the end. i hated that. BTW, why r u all comparing Animorphs with Harry Potter? Animorphs can never be compared.
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A lot of people wanted the Animorphs ending to be happier, and a lot of people were put off by the happy ending in HP. Even though HP was geared towards kids, and I'll bet many kids anjoyed the ending.
They are very different, but people who are content with the Ani ending use it as a recent axample of a happy ending. That's all.
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KA did an interview one time in which she stated how everyone would live their lives after the war, and based on that interview, it sounded like they all lived.
Also, earlier, someone here said that KA said she would consider writing books 55-60 if Scholastic gave her the chance. But, then again, I'm sure they have already.
Maybe for the 10th anniversary of Animorphs ending?
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yeah, tobias's heart was broken. he was alone again...
anyway, did he hate jake? cassie said that he didn't, but when jake told him about the mission to save ax, tobias felt trapped again with jake. what was that mean?
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I doubt Tobias hates anyone, he just doesnt seem like the type to hate.
But, I think he was downright furious with him. Everytime he sees Jake, I'm sure he's reminded of Rachel.
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she definitely should have made the last book longer. the first book was of perfect length.
after, what, like 60 books..?, she rushed through the grand finale.
you should never see the phrase '# years later' in the last book of a series. that's just lazy. (and didn't she use it multiple times, too?)
i liked how she left them fighting, but [spoiler]rachel dying[/spoiler] should have happened sooner.
[spoiler]or maybe more could have died in previous books?[/spoiler]
not saying i don't like each of them, i just don't think it's realistic to have them all live through the series and then have one die at the end.
way too rushed. and why did she introduce the one at the very end? no material behind it, just left more questions.
i think the series would be better off had 54 been re-written.
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The Ellimist had always provided them with a way out, they just had to find it (as part of the rules of his game with Crayak).
I just think it wasn't right to kill Rachel (and judging by the outstanding number of fanfics in which she is brought back to life, I'd say most fans agree with me).
Tobias or Cassie dying would've been much more tragic.
Rachel's death just didn't feel right, imo. I mean, sure, it fit contextually, but it just felt........off. Not to mention all that could've been done with her post-war. I dont know about you guys, but I was dying to see how she would fare when there were no more fights to look forward to.
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Like I've said before, it wasn't just bad enough that she killed off a character. She let all the main characters live through the entire series, then killed one in the last book. If she wanted that kind of realism, she should have killed off one or two in different parts of the series, and replaced them via the box or other means. Killing off one at the end is actually quite unrealistic, especially since it's pointed out that the Ellemist always makes sure there's a way out. So killing off Rachel made the series even less realistic, according to the way the series worked..
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There was always a way out for them, except one (I believe this was said, I just cant remember where).
At first, it was Jake that Crayak hated, but somewhere around #48, it was hinted that he switched to hating Rachel. So, of course, he picked her to be killed.
Sure, technically it is unrealistic to have all of the live until the end, but if she went by realism, we wouldnt have a very long series.
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At first, it was Jake that Crayak hated, but somewhere around #48, it was hinted that he switched to hating Rachel. So, of course, he picked her to be killed.
i'm pretty sure KA didn't want to kill off jake. after all, she named her son jake. lol.
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Jake and Cassie. I understand that the guilt-ridden Jake couldn't find his way around Cassie anymore, but what about vice-versa? After all they've been trough for like, forever, had their lives changed like, together, Cassie simply moved to another man? That's so wrong.
I disliked Cassie going with another man but I could understand. I mean, remember in book 50? Cassie's last book, Rachel hadn't even died yet but Cassie was already saying that Jake wasn't "her Jake" anymore and that he was different. So it didn't happen all of the sudden or anything.
I also dislike but understand why Rachel was the one to die. I mean, how many times has one of the other characters or Rachel herself wondered what would happen to her if the way ended? And how many times did they say there was "something dark" inside of her? Yes, it's depressing and I hate it, but it makes sense ^^;;
I think Jake'd be more depressed if Cassie died :P Though the irony would be funny lol. And if Tobias died, well, Rachel would go ballistic on Jake and probably end up fighting him. Ax dying just... wouldn't make sense imo. Jake though would make sense. Him fighting to free his brother to the death. Marco... no, just no. lol, I don't want him to die XD
One thing I will mention that made me go WTF while reading the book was the fact that they put Visser three/one to court. I didn't even read that part, I just skipped over it. xP
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Jake and Cassie. I understand that the guilt-ridden Jake couldn't find his way around Cassie anymore, but what about vice-versa? After all they've been trough for like, forever, had their lives changed like, together, Cassie simply moved to another man? That's so wrong.
I disliked Cassie going with another man but I could understand. I mean, remember in book 50? Cassie's last book, Rachel hadn't even died yet but Cassie was already saying that Jake wasn't "her Jake" anymore and that he was different. So it didn't happen all of the sudden or anything.
I also dislike but understand why Rachel was the one to die. I mean, how many times has one of the other characters or Rachel herself wondered what would happen to her if the way ended? And how many times did they say there was "something dark" inside of her? Yes, it's depressing and I hate it, but it makes sense ^^;;
I think Jake'd be more depressed if Cassie died :P Though the irony would be funny lol. And if Tobias died, well, Rachel would go ballistic on Jake and probably end up fighting him. Ax dying just... wouldn't make sense imo. Jake though would make sense. Him fighting to free his brother to the death. Marco... no, just no. lol, I don't want him to die XD
One thing I will mention that made me go WTF while reading the book was the fact that they put Visser three/one to court. I didn't even read that part, I just skipped over it. xP
Now wouldn't that have been interesting?
I mean, Cassie's ending was 1000% predictable, but I'm still glad she made it. Everyone was wondering how Rachel would fare after the war, and this was our chance to finally find out.
It would've been a great chance to show how war can have an effect on people psychologically. I personally think Tobias should've been killed, and Rachel should have gone crazy or attacked Jake or something.
But, all in all, the ending wasn't bad, it just didn't feel.......complete .
I'd gladly shell out $30-$40 for a remake of the final book. But of course, for that amount of money, I want a book that ties up everything and goes deeper into the psyche of everyone. Plus, aa author's note from KA at the end of what she thought of Animorphs, it's success, andwhy she picked Rachel would be nice as well.
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shes cant write she is not and will never be a writer shes just a wanna-be with some good ideas and i doubt she even thought of most of them if she couldnt think of an ending better than that.
i hate to burst bubbles but thats why there arent anymore animorphs despite the fact people are still talking about them.because scholastic knows she cant write they probaly have bags of hate mail because of this woman and than she tries to put the ending off on us saying its a war blah blah it aint suppose to be a happpy ending.NO its not is a SCIENCE FICTION SERIES for CHILDREN you stupid woman dont make up excuses because your lazy and childish for that matter excuses why you cant write is all they are she doesnt deserve a penny for all those books i would rob her if i knew how to find her.she owes an ending i read these books a long time and paid for the majority and i was ripped off.writers arent suppose to write books for them selves im a comedian and im not gonna tell jokes that just suit me and forget everyone else "i can" but I DONT GET PAID and neither should she. and as far as if you dont like the ending write it yourself i say we should find another K.A. from fanfics RAF can do ti see them do alot of things here,they really do. i can get scholastics mailing addresses and email and well bombard them until we get the animorphs back hell they can throw the stupid B**** name on there still i dont care as long as it has and ending where it ends or at least goes on through more books and it it too much to ask to make sense??? huh anyone with me on that.and im getting the addresses and anyone who will write or read fanfics to send in,write letters basiclly help me harrass them till we get what we want let me know cause im not takeing that and im send K.A. soooooooooooo much hate mail i dont need help with that lol
Ok.. uh good luck with finding that address there buddy. I think i may be the only one on here who might even know that. And emailing scholastic won't do anything. KA and MG aren't even with them much anymore. Maybe Roscoe Riley Rules is published through Scholastic... i dunno. But i'm gonna stop here before i say something that would help this dude find them.
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That would be a good plan, EtI.
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Most of 54 makes sense. It's realistic, at least as far as the characters go. Or at least, as realistic and uncheapened as a sci-fi series like Animorphs could be.
It just wasn't complete. My mind said yes but my heart screamed no. And I think KA knew that. Maybe she left it that way on purpose for fan fic writers. Maybe she got to the end of the book and hit writers block. Maybe she just didn't care and wanted to move on to Remnants.
Either way, we'll probably never know.
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*snarl*
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It just wasn't complete. My mind said yes but my heart screamed no. And I think KA knew that. Maybe she left it that way on purpose for fan fic writers. Maybe she got to the end of the book and hit writers block. Maybe she just didn't care and wanted to move on to Remnants.
I firmly believe that even if she wanted to write more Animorphs schoolastic would raise a wary eyebrow to the idea just given the level of agression some fans have shown the final book.
I also suspect that she might have wanted to continue the series after 54, sort of an Animorphs II similar to what Kishimoto did with Naruto/Shippuden but probably got too ticked off at her fans or indeed couldn't get permission from the publisher, I was pretty surprised at how upset she seemed in her response to fan criticism, I can see her personally not wanting to continue the series after that alone.
But then again I also believe that Animorphs was as deserving of an EU as Star Wars, I guess that's where fan fiction comes into play but seeing some real books on shelves would have been amazing, how many ghost writers did she use that could have taken up the slack? Battletech had multiple writers in the same universe using the same rules and general storyline while each writer still managed to tell their own tale in an interesting way without stepping on anyone else's toes (Except at the very end when half of them quit) but meh.
We just have to enjoy what we've got and imo what we've got isn't anything to scoff at. Regardless of how you feel about the ending itself the series as a whole is fantastic.
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I agree, JF, I just still don't see why she was so surprised.
I mean, dont get me wrong, I'd probably be just as upset as she was (if not more so), but I'd have definitely seen it coming. I mean, she did end the series in a cliffhanger. EVERYONE hates cliffhangers, especially one that ends the series.
I'm sure she did have something planned (maybe still does), but we'll have to wait and see. I mean, she could've easily written and extra two or three pages and had all of them killed (except Cassie, but thank God she didn't).
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I can't say I sumpathise with her much for being angry with her fan's response. She seemed to have forgotten part of what made her series so popular early on.
I hope the main reason she didn't continue isn't because she was agry. That's no reason to not continue. She would just need to go back to doing it the way she started doing it. Add more comedy and non war related stuff to balance out the dark side of her series. And for goodness sake, give us some closure at the end, with the Anis coming out better off after the war. All of them. Not just the one character that represented herself.
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She seemed to have forgotten part of what made her series so popular early on.
What hooked readers early on was pretty cover illustrations of kids turning into animals. Don't kid yourself. A ten-year-old sees that in a library/bookstore when their parents/teachers are trying to get them to read something, of course they're going to be like "cool, this looks better than friggin' Babysitter's Club or whatever".
The initial hook was a gimmick. The series became more than that, by about book 5-6, when the story started falling into place. The invasion became more than just a plot gimmick to allow kids to turn into animals, and rather became something worthwhile and meaty in its own right.
She didn't forget anything, she was just a believer in natural progression.
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I got a little irritated with the way I saw people react to the ending of The Incredibles. As a refresher, the ending shows how the family of The Incredibles is getting along after the story's conflict, living out their everyday lives with renewed happiness and confidence. Then, a new villain known as the Underminer appears out of nowhere and delivers his monologue about how he's about to carry out some great evil plan. The Incredibles look at each other and grin as they put on their masks, and the movie ends.
And people seemed to be bothered by it, expecting that there had to be a sequel to resolve this ending. But that was an ending; it wasn't about what was going to happen next, it was about the tone that was being sent, emphasizing what the characters have been through and what they stand for.
Animorphs used the exact same ending format. The One is more or less the same as the Underminer, albeit with several more layers of meaning. The ending isn't about what's going to happen next, it's about who the characters are and what they stand for. Harry Potter got a softer ending because a major theme of that story was the significance of parenting, and the ending emphasized that theme. Animorphs was about "Live free or die." The ending was congruent with that.
K.A. gave Animorphs the ending that suited the series. Think about the experience of reading it: each chapter lasted only a few pages, and the vast majority of the chapters ended in a cliffhanger. Reading the books consisted of jumping from one cliffhanger to another. The dramatic cliffhanger was a staple of K.A.'s writing style. The ending was congruent with that.
The books were about the Animorphs being faced with some impossible situation, coming up with some insane plan, Rachel saying "Let's do it," and Marco saying "Are you INSANE?!!" The books end with the Animorphs aboard The Rachel, and Marco groaning as he recognizes Rachel's grin on Jake's face. The ending was congruent with the books that came before it.
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I got a little irritated with the way I saw people react to the ending of The Incredibles. As a refresher, the ending shows how the family of The Incredibles is getting along after the story's conflict, living out their everyday lives with renewed happiness and confidence. Then, a new villain known as the Underminer appears out of nowhere and delivers his monologue about how he's about to carry out some great evil plan. The Incredibles look at each other and grin as they put on their masks, and the movie ends.
And people seemed to be bothered by it, expecting that there had to be a sequel to resolve this ending. But that was an ending; it wasn't about what was going to happen next, it was about the tone that was being sent, emphasizing what the characters have been through and what they stand for.
Animorphs used the exact same ending format. The One is more or less the same as the Underminer, albeit with several more layers of meaning. The ending isn't about what's going to happen next, it's about who the characters are and what they stand for. Harry Potter got a softer ending because a major theme of that story was the significance of parenting, and the ending emphasized that theme. Animorphs was about "Live free or die." The ending was congruent with that.
K.A. gave Animorphs the ending that suited the series. Think about the experience of reading it: each chapter lasted only a few pages, and the vast majority of the chapters ended in a cliffhanger. Reading the books consisted of jumping from one cliffhanger to another. The dramatic cliffhanger was a staple of K.A.'s writing style. The ending was congruent with that.
The books were about the Animorphs being faced with some impossible situation, coming up with some insane plan, Rachel saying "Let's do it," and Marco saying "Are you INSANE?!!" The books end with the Animorphs aboard The Rachel, and Marco groaning as he recognizes Rachel's grin on Jake's face. The ending was congruent with the books that came before it.
easily one of the best posts ever...
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I was actually not bothered by the ending of The Incredibles. I didn't think of that as a cliffhanger. Now if the Underminer had grabbed one of the members of the family, and held him/her hostage as he threatened the city or whatever, then that would have bothered me.
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I don't know, I never felt like Incredibles had a cliff hanger ending, the Underminer didn't feel threatening, he seemed goofy, it'd be a waste to make a sequel on his account. Whereas The One had Ax, and could have been the set up for a great sequel.
And while you spend like an hour with the Incredible family (or . . . whatever their last names were, I forgot) before the end some people spent years with the Animorphs so you can't really blame them for being more emotional when Animorphs ended.
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I don't know, I never felt like Incredibles had a cliff hanger ending, the Underminer didn't feel threatening, he seemed goofy, it'd be a waste to make a sequel on his account. Whereas The One had Ax, and could have been the set up for a great sequel.
And while you spend like an hour with the Incredible family (or . . . whatever their last names were, I forgot) before the end some people spent years with the Animorphs so you can't really blame them for being more emotional when Animorphs ended.
I agree with this. The underminer seems like just a flunky type villain. Not a real threat to the world. Wheras the One has Ax, and the power to assimilate anyone it comes into contact with.
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I got a little irritated with the way I saw people react to the ending of The Incredibles. As a refresher, the ending shows how the family of The Incredibles is getting along after the story's conflict, living out their everyday lives with renewed happiness and confidence. Then, a new villain known as the Underminer appears out of nowhere and delivers his monologue about how he's about to carry out some great evil plan. The Incredibles look at each other and grin as they put on their masks, and the movie ends.
And people seemed to be bothered by it, expecting that there had to be a sequel to resolve this ending. But that was an ending; it wasn't about what was going to happen next, it was about the tone that was being sent, emphasizing what the characters have been through and what they stand for.
Animorphs used the exact same ending format. The One is more or less the same as the Underminer, albeit with several more layers of meaning. The ending isn't about what's going to happen next, it's about who the characters are and what they stand for. Harry Potter got a softer ending because a major theme of that story was the significance of parenting, and the ending emphasized that theme. Animorphs was about "Live free or die." The ending was congruent with that.
K.A. gave Animorphs the ending that suited the series. Think about the experience of reading it: each chapter lasted only a few pages, and the vast majority of the chapters ended in a cliffhanger. Reading the books consisted of jumping from one cliffhanger to another. The dramatic cliffhanger was a staple of K.A.'s writing style. The ending was congruent with that.
The books were about the Animorphs being faced with some impossible situation, coming up with some insane plan, Rachel saying "Let's do it," and Marco saying "Are you INSANE?!!" The books end with the Animorphs aboard The Rachel, and Marco groaning as he recognizes Rachel's grin on Jake's face. The ending was congruent with the books that came before it.
easily one of the best posts ever...
All of Hylian Dan's posts are the best ever. <3
He just needs to POST MORE...
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I don't know, I never felt like Incredibles had a cliff hanger ending, the Underminer didn't feel threatening, he seemed goofy, it'd be a waste to make a sequel on his account. Whereas The One had Ax, and could have been the set up for a great sequel.
And while you spend like an hour with the Incredible family (or . . . whatever their last names were, I forgot) before the end some people spent years with the Animorphs so you can't really blame them for being more emotional when Animorphs ended.
I agree. The ending of Animorphs was so much more intense, dramatic, meaningful, and emotional. Still, the format of the endings were the same: show how the characters handle the post-war/post-conflict period, then introduce a new threat and have the characters rise to the occasion. It's the same device, on a much, much grander scale.
The answer to the mystery of who/what The One is is that he's a literary device. The ending of Animorphs contains a lot of symbolism and allegory. Tom's voice is never heard, and his nameless, treacherous Yeerk dies in the form of a snake. Visser One, the slavemaster who worked to destroy freedom and free will, is left a blind, deaf slug in a small box. Cassie is freed from a life of war. Rachel never escapes the war. Ax, who called Jake "Prince" and tried to deny himself his vote, is assimilated - but with the potential of being freed by his friends. The renegade Yeerks, whose Empire had exploited the religious tendencies of humans, themselves become a disturbing cult. Their leader, The One, is described as every evil, every corruption. The nameless One is the anti-thesis of "Live free or die." The Animorphs, aboard The Rachel, are caught in an impossible situation, but instead of surrendering their selves, they pull a crazy, death-defying stunt.
The One and his capture of Ax is definitely a set up for a great sequel, much more so than the Underminer situation (which actually got its own video game (http://ps2.ign.com/objects/727/727612.html), which might say something). That's because K.A. treated her readers like students, not consumers. She anticipated that a number of her readers had also developed an interest in writing. As thematically conclusive as the ending was, it was also a fan fiction prompt.
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La la la The One wasn't a sequel set-up lala lality laaa...
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I don't know, I never felt like Incredibles had a cliff hanger ending, the Underminer didn't feel threatening, he seemed goofy, it'd be a waste to make a sequel on his account. Whereas The One had Ax, and could have been the set up for a great sequel.
And while you spend like an hour with the Incredible family (or . . . whatever their last names were, I forgot) before the end some people spent years with the Animorphs so you can't really blame them for being more emotional when Animorphs ended.
I agree. The ending of Animorphs was so much more intense, dramatic, meaningful, and emotional. Still, the format of the endings were the same: show how the characters handle the post-war/post-conflict period, then introduce a new threat and have the characters rise to the occasion. It's the same device, on a much, much grander scale.
The answer to the mystery of who/what The One is is that he's a literary device. The ending of Animorphs contains a lot of symbolism and allegory. Tom's voice is never heard, and his nameless, treacherous Yeerk dies in the form of a snake. Visser One, the slavemaster who worked to destroy freedom and free will, is left a blind, deaf slug in a small box. Cassie is freed from a life of war. Rachel never escapes the war. Ax, who called Jake "Prince" and tried to deny himself his vote, is assimilated - but with the potential of being freed by his friends. The renegade Yeerks, whose Empire had exploited the religious tendencies of humans, themselves become a disturbing cult. Their leader, The One, is described as every evil, every corruption. The nameless One is the anti-thesis of "Live free or die." The Animorphs, aboard The Rachel, are caught in an impossible situation, but instead of surrendering their selves, they pull a crazy, death-defying stunt.
The One and his capture of Ax is definitely a set up for a great sequel, much more so than the Underminer situation (which actually got its own video game (http://ps2.ign.com/objects/727/727612.html), which might say something). That's because K.A. treated her readers like students, not consumers. She anticipated that a number of her readers had also developed an interest in writing. As thematically conclusive as the ending was, it was also a fan fiction prompt.
Hm, that sounds about right. I mean, if she wasn't going to do a sequel, that was definitely her goal.
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Dahjo799: Can you tell us more about The One at the end of 54? Is it the voice in 41?
KA Applegate: You know what? I'm counting on all the Fan Fiction writers out there to figure that out. I wrote the cliffhanger ending because I wanted to show that Jake could only really find himself again when he stumbled back into a war.
KA Applegate: I wanted to show that one war often leads seamlessly into the next. But a part of me was thinking, "here's for the fan fiction writers.'
http://remnants.jay-eff.com/index.php?info-kaachat
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I don't think she should have done that for fanfic writers, because a lot of us aren't fanfic writers. And how dependant are fanfic writers on loose ends and cliffhangers for ideas anyway?
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Dahjo799: Can you tell us more about The One at the end of 54? Is it the voice in 41?
KA Applegate: You know what? I'm counting on all the Fan Fiction writers out there to figure that out. I wrote the cliffhanger ending because I wanted to show that Jake could only really find himself again when he stumbled back into a war.
KA Applegate: I wanted to show that one war often leads seamlessly into the next. But a part of me was thinking, "here's for the fan fiction writers.'
http://remnants.jay-eff.com/index.php?info-kaachat
That actually makes the authors sound kind of lazy in a "Here, you write this" way.
I can appreciate wanting the readers to take an active role, because we own the series as much as anyone. But still, I read because I want to find out.
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Dahjo799: Can you tell us more about The One at the end of 54? Is it the voice in 41?
KA Applegate: You know what? I'm counting on all the Fan Fiction writers out there to figure that out. I wrote the cliffhanger ending because I wanted to show that Jake could only really find himself again when he stumbled back into a war.
KA Applegate: I wanted to show that one war often leads seamlessly into the next. But a part of me was thinking, "here's for the fan fiction writers.'
http://remnants.jay-eff.com/index.php?info-kaachat
That actually makes the authors sound kind of lazy in a "Here, you write this" way.
That made me laugh right there. Nobody wants to read fanfics when they can have the real thing, because fanfics are notoriously convulted anyway. Though the real thing didn't do justice to the characters in many an opinion.
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I like some fanfics better than the real thing...although many of those are published and not crap (not that there aren't crap published fanfics).
And I don't think it's a lazy ending when it probably would have been easier to end #54 halfway through with "so the war ended and Marco got famous and Cassie saved the whales etc. etc."
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I agree, I do actually like the ending simply because the last character is irrelevant. Heck, to a certain extent the Yeerks were irrelevant, at least for me, it was all about the Animorphs. But I just think its strange with the whole "I'm done, your turn." type of deal. I don't necessarily dislike it, but being that involved in the series leaves a ton of questions.
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I don't know, it just didn't tie up enough loose ends for me, I thought a sequel was almost guaranteed at one point because of it.
One of the main things I used to think about was Rachel's family. I wonder how they made out afterwards? I imagine it'd be pretty hard for her mom to go back to being a lawyer with the amount of "fame" she would have for being the daughter of an Animorph. Who broke the news to her? How did Sarah and Jordan make out?
I think that would've been an excellent chance to show how war effects families as well.
I also always wondered what happened to Chapman. He played such a gigantic role for them throughout the season, I'd have at least liked to know what happened to him at the end.
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end #54 halfway through with "so the war ended and Marco got famous and Cassie saved the whales etc. etc."
AWESOMEZ.
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I don't know, it just didn't tie up enough loose ends for me, I thought a sequel was almost guaranteed at one point because of it.
One of the main things I used to think about was Rachel's family. I wonder how they made out afterwards? I imagine it'd be pretty hard for her mom to go back to being a lawyer with the amount of "fame" she would have for being the daughter of an Animorph. Who broke the news to her? How did Sarah and Jordan make out?
I think that would've been an excellent chance to show how war effects families as well.
I also always wondered what happened to Chapman. He played such a gigantic role for them throughout the season, I'd have at least liked to know what happened to him at the end.
At first that stuff bothered me too, but I've come to like that KA doesn't tell us exactly what happened to each and every character. For characters that don't have a part in the story after the war ends, I don't think it's that important and that readers can decide for themselves.
The only exception for me would be Loren. I think it's strange that Tobias would stay in contact with Cassie but not his mother.
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He probably knew Cassie a lot better than his mother, all in all. Plus I guess she was the last real remaining tie to Rachel.
Chapman was probably killed in the pool, no? I don't think he would have made it to the climax with the Pool Ship stuff. Either that, or he survived and the Yeerk surrendered himself with the others. He's really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I don't think they'd try him specifically in a court along with the Visser. V3 probably had a whole host of lieutenants, Chapman just being one.
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he did make sort of an appearence in book 53 I think...
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He was captured and held in the new hiding place in book 53. So I'd say chances are fair that he'd survive.
I suppose after being here awhile I do understand better why she did what she did. I don't have to agree with it, though.
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He was captured and held in the new hiding place in book 53. So I'd say chances are fair that he'd survive.
. . . what if they forgot to feed him?
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Why would they forget to feed him?
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In a word? Delegation. They were teenagers, teenagers delegate until it lands on someone who procrastinates, procrastination leads to things simply not getting done. :P
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I don't think Chapman could have starved to death from the time he was captured to the time the final battle was over. It takes days to starve to death. We are talking about the Human Chapman, right?
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no but he could die of thirst in just 3 days...
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The final battle didn't last days. That's my point.
Unless I'm wrong. I still doubt that they would have let him starve/dehydrate to death. especially since Erik would likely do whatever he could to ensure Chapman lived. Like call another Chee via Chee Net to ensure he lived.
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Feck Erek. :(
Jake's so awesome in the final arc. He's all like "you goddamned robot! AAAUURRGGHH!" *Schwarzenegger howl of anguish*
"AUUUURRRGHHH! Rubber baby buggy bumpers! Cybernetic organisms!"
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We are talking about the Human Chapman, right?
Actually no, I wasn't. I care about the Yeerk too, Iniss 226 was a principal character.
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well either way, if they were just left there and forgotten for three days, both human and yeerk would die...
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We are talking about the Human Chapman, right?
Actually no, I wasn't. I care about the Yeerk too, Iniss 226 was a principal character.
Oh, ok. Well, either Erik would take precautions, or he would go the same way all Yeerks go when captured by the free Hork-Bajir. Death.
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Being here on this board, talking to people, has helped me understand KA Applegate better. I know I butt heads with people who enjoyed the ending, and I hope I didn't make too many of you bust a blood vessel because of it.
KA had a message, and that message has become increasingly clear since I came here. In the end, she chose that message over her readers. It has occured to me that there is a theme to some other children series, like in Mulan. That's and excellent example. The theme is staying true to one's heart, and that's what KA did. And because other people have encouraged this theme in children, then we can only respect her for that.
Does this mean I like the ending now? No. I'm just kind of apologizing for rubbing people wrong, and saying that I have always, and will always, respect KA as a writer. We have different opinions about her series. How it was done, how it should have been done, and how it could have been done. And though we may butt heads again in the future, we will always have respect for KA Applegate.
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/agreed.
I, for one, agree with your opinion on the ending. I might not change it like you would but I don't exactly like how it went.
And about rubbing people wrong, lol.
If you were polite about expressing yourself I don't know why people would be all that mad at you. :-\
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I can sort of relate. I used to hate the ending to the series, which is one of the reasons I started writing my fic. However, over time I've come to realise that there probably wasn't a better way of ending the series, or if there is I haven't heard it.
Even if I did still hate the ending, it would never make me lose respect for KA. She's been one of my biggest inspirations and she got me interested in being an author and working with animals.
Anyway, as Russell already said, if you're polite and respectful in the way you express your opinions, then you have nothing to apologise for.
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I may be the only person I know of that always liked the ending. I get how some people can feel disappointed by it as it can easily be seen as a downer ending, but I guess I've always seen it differently.
Although maybe I'm just insane. :P
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Go talk to Morfowt. He's always liked the ending. I know Chimichangachupacab ra likes it, and may have always liked it. I'm not sure, though.
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Ah well don't worry too much. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. It's not like you're the only one who expresses it. XD
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True, though my insanity argument is pretty strong. ;D
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*stern look*
No insanity allowed.
;)
But seriously, if you feel like people are treating you unfairly because you don't like then end. Hit me up.
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Wha'?! No insanity allowed? *lost*
As another person-of-vehement-opinions, Nohensen, I respect you and your views. As a discussion board, RAF is the place to make those opinions known. If anyone hashes you over them, it's their problem and not yours. Even so, well done with this peace-making thread. I commend you. :)
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Wha'?! No insanity allowed? *lost*
We shall discuss this in my office.
*waves inside*
:P
Trying to administer against insanity on RAF is insanity.
Therefor it would be against that rule.
Which makes...
Nvm.
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Yea I get her message, there a were a bunch of better ways she coulda ended the series but I do get her message
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i hated the ending just because of the way she left it with such a cliff hanger, i hate those. i also felt robbed, cuz she had me hooked for 5 yrs, and then she threw together a sloppy ending just to be done with it. so ya, i guess i see her point, but that doesnt mean i will like it, nor ever read any of her other books again. i am done with her books :-\
but its always good to see im not the only 1 who hated the ending
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i hated the ending just because of the way she left it with such a cliff hanger, i hate those. i also felt robbed, cuz she had me hooked for 5 yrs, and then she threw together a sloppy ending just to be done with it. so ya, i guess i see her point, but that doesnt mean i will like it, nor ever read any of her other books again. i am done with her books :-\
LOL yea she mentioned starting a new book series(I think it's called Everworld) durring her little farewell letter in the last book(which was written better than the book itself LOL) but I really never planned on reading it nor do I still plan on doing so. I've never rlly been a fan of KA unless she was writing something Animorphs related
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Actually, it was Remnants. When I came here, I was actually surprised at the number of people that liked the ending. I figured I'd find some, but not this many.
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um, i was mostly sad that the series was ending. it was rather abrupt.
i didn't like the whole book, not just the ending itself. a cliffhanger was needed, i just don't think that was the right approach.
Actually, it was Remnants. When I came here, I was actually surprised at the number of people that liked the ending. I figured I'd find some, but not this many.
i never liked remnants.
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I hated the ending for my own selfish reasons, but I totally understand why she did it.
And I don't like her other series...es.... either.
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KA had a message, and that message has become increasingly clear since I came here. In the end, she chose that message over her readers.
You know, just throwing this out there, maybe she hoped she didn't have to choose? That her readers would get it?
All in all, I think she probably just thought too highly of her audience. And it was a mistake, as shown by the decade-long moaning and groaning.
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To be fair, even if you hated the ending you have to admit there wasn't really a better way of doing it. Besides, it is pretty damn difficult to write a so called "proper" ending to a series. A lot of them end up being dull (eg. happily ever after) or incredibly depressing (eg. everyone dies).
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like ive said b4, if she wanted to show that war sucked, and everybody dies, fine. that woulda still left me upset, but i wouldnt hate it, cuz at least she wouldn't leave lose story lines. but to not only leave loose ends, but start a whole new story at the end, and then shamelessly tell every1 to go read her next series? that really pissed me off
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The thing that annoys me the most is just the fact that so many people insist on making unrealistic sequel's to book 54. I've seen maybe one or two people do well, but the rest fail miserably.
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She didn't start a new story. She introduced another crazy badass omnipotent being and showed Jake rounding up the ol' gunslingers and taking them down fighting. That's not a new story, that's just a fitting final hurrah. That entire book builds up to Jake needing to fight the good fight, it's become a part of him. Tobias has nothing else to live for, and Marco's bored out of his brain.
That was all totally in-character and fitting with the way the books had presented themselves all along. There's nothing you need to know about The One and the Kelbrid aside from "Jake's not going to go down without putting up a fight". That's it. That's all there is, and all there really needs to be.
It also serves as an unbelievably awesome parallel to Rachel, which was established a few times in the books prior. Jake has a reckless side, it just doesn't rear its ugly head as often as Rachel let it do with herself.
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This isn't a discuss the end of animorphs thread, we've got like 10 of those.
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You know, just throwing this out there, maybe she hoped she didn't have to choose? That her readers would get it?
All in all, I think she probably just thought too highly of her audience. And it was a mistake, as shown by the decade-long moaning and groaning.
That's a poor presumption about those who did not like the ending >:( ! Are you really implying that those who did not like the ending are immature or stupid? It's not simply a matter of "getting it", since there are many legitimate reasons for disliking (or liking) the ending in other threads. Besides, The One is an interpretation, so ultimately it's a matter of opinion anyways.
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You know, just throwing this out there, maybe she hoped she didn't have to choose? That her readers would get it?
All in all, I think she probably just thought too highly of her audience. And it was a mistake, as shown by the decade-long moaning and groaning.
That's a poor presumption about those who did not like the ending >:( ! Are you really implying that those who did not like the ending are immature or stupid? It's not simply a matter of "getting it", since there are many legitimate reasons for disliking (or liking) the ending in other threads. Besides, The One is an interpretation, so ultimately it's a matter of opinion anyways.
While I might agree, we should discuss the ending in the threads for it.
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ya i didnt want to start a discussion! i was just sayin i agree with nohensen
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I can't say I loved the ending, but I clearly didn't hate it. I accepted it, I accepted the death of Rachel and all the bad stuff. I'd prefer if Katherine wrote a longer ending, explaining more about what happened after the end of the war... But I always accepted her choices.
I think writing the end of a novel or a serie is the hardest thing, because there'll be somebody, at least one person, who will totally disagree with it. But what you said is right, Nohensen: she stayed true with her heart ^^
Same for Remnants' end. The saddest is that wouldn't be true for Everworld, if she stopped because it wasn't a big success, as I heard...
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To be fair, even if you hated the ending you have to admit there wasn't really a better way of doing it. Besides, it is pretty damn difficult to write a so called "proper" ending to a series. A lot of them end up being dull (eg. happily ever after) or incredibly depressing (eg. everyone dies).
true. i mean, we'd be a lot angrier if she just didn't ever right #54.
she could have come up with a better title though. (well, i didn't like it)
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This isn't a discuss the end of animorphs thread
Actually, it pretty much is. See the original post. ;)
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Oh, then its locked cause we have one already.
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bump.
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thanks for the bump. may i suggest we merge the two threads rather than just locking the other one?
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No, that'll just turn it into a big jumbled cluster****.
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No, that'll just turn it into a big jumbled cluster****.
not really, all the posts in the other thread were made after feb. 28th. it'll just place it at the end.
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Please continue with the topic that was being discussed. And try and be nice.
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Being here on this board, talking to people, has helped me understand KA Applegate better. I know I butt heads with people who enjoyed the ending, and I hope I didn't make too many of you bust a blood vessel because of it.
KA had a message, and that message has become increasingly clear since I came here. In the end, she chose that message over her readers. It has occured to me that there is a theme to some other children series, like in Mulan. That's and excellent example. The theme is staying true to one's heart, and that's what KA did. And because other people have encouraged this theme in children, then we can only respect her for that.
Does this mean I like the ending now? No. I'm just kind of apologizing for rubbing people wrong, and saying that I have always, and will always, respect KA as a writer. We have different opinions about her series. How it was done, how it should have been done, and how it could have been done. And though we may butt heads again in the future, we will always have respect for KA Applegate.
I enjoy these conversations. I think The Beginning is an incredible ending. It's not exactly an enjoyable read, and aspects of it can be frustrating as hell, but it is very, very moving and powerful. I don't set out to make people who hated it like it, but I will defend it from attacks. I hate when people gloss over Animorphs as fun trashy kids' books, and I hate when people gloss over the ending and go on about how terrible it is and what a hack KA is.
It happens a lot on random internet places. Someone will go, "Oh wow, I remember Animorphs! How did that end?" "Rachel kills Tom and then she dies and later all the Animorphs die and there's a cliffhanger." "Wow what a crappy ending lol."
I appreciate that 54 was a painful read. KA said that one of the big things Animorphs was about was transitions, and book 54 is another difficult transition. The magic is drained from the series and the characters go their separate ways as they move into adult life. As a kid, it was really hard to read that the group didn't stick together after the war, but as I've grown I've found that that's true to the way life works. There's the argument that Animorphs doesn't need to reflect reality and should simply function as entertainment, but that's one of the stances I wholeheartedly disagree with.
Uh, I think I'll start a new thread about that.
In summary, I love the ending, and it has a ton of valuable artistic merit that I don't think people should be so quick to dismiss.
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I hate when people gloss over Animorphs as fun trashy kids' books, and I hate when people gloss over the ending and go on about how terrible it is and what a hack KA is.
Bingo! Exactly. Now, sure, Animorphs isn't exactly high literature, I don't think any of us defending it as "more than just a kid's series" are saying that. However, I do think people fail to realize just how incredible it is that this series even exists. We're privileged to have grown up reading something so much more thought-provoking than the majority of children's books, something deeper, something more plausible.
Point being, right from the beginning Animorphs pushed boundaries, for what was deemed appropriate for a "Scholastic book". It seems incongruous that people would expect it to end the same way as others, being that it was never like the others. A major component of the series was always the "gray-area" idea, the lack of winners & losers, right & wrong, success & failure. And doesn't the ending reflect that? And reflect that exceptionally?
It's just a point to think about, for the detractors. Yes, yes, it would be nice for Jake and Cassie to settle down together, Rachel to come out of the war and go straight into the army, Tobias to become human and be gifted by Toomin again with the morphing power, Marco to live out his entire life cracking jokes with Letterman, Ax becoming the manager of the first homeworld Cinnabon.
It really would. But that, see, isn't Animorphs.
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Lol at the homeworld Cinnabon. And don't forget television. He would find a way to broadcast These Messages and Saturday morning cartoons to the homeworld.
I didn't really mean for my thread to get merged with the ending thread. I meant to more of a statement that I do have fun here, and I am learning new things. That kind of stuff. But whatever.
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Stop being so reasonable. :) That's not how this place works.
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Lol. You want me to parody that one guy that called KA a bad writer?
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Well, hey, it'd give me ammunition. :P >:D
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She is so bad. Pushing her stupid phylisophical message on people that just want to read a book. If she's not pushing a message, she's going on and on for the millionth time on morphing descriptions.
We get the gist of how morphing a bird is, already. That's an obvious sign that she's just trying to make the books longer without having to think of new ideas. Total lapses in imagination and creativity. And what's with the ghostwriters? Not only does she have so many ghostwritten books, but she doesn't even remember enough about what she wrote to keep the GWs from screwing up the series even more than she already had.
And her aliens are totally uncreative. Ooh, a blue centaur. Ooh, a giant centipede. Ooh, a walking reptile with blades. Like the Lizard Man idea hasn't been done enough.
And...and...um...wh y did the two biggest villains of the series, Visser Three and Crayak, have to be so one dimensional? With all the work she put into her protagonists, you think she's work harder with her antagonists.
That's all the nitpicks for now. Have fun Chimi.
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See, look, I will hit you. I'll reach through your computer monitor and flatten your nose with an angry knuckle of fist-y doom.
:D Kapeesh?
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And the only good ones in the series were the Helmacron books like Magic School Bus, Atlantis, Australia, and the one with Buffa-Human. All the others suck.
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And the only good ones in the series were the Helmacron books like Magic School Bus, Atlantis, Australia, and the one with Buffa-Human. All the others suck.
those are the good ones? but didn't you once say you hated the australia book? or was that another person who didn't like cassie?
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He'snotentirelyserious . *groans*
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Psst...I'm lying. Joking around because Chimichanga wanted me to be less reasonable. Don't tell him, though. It's part of the game. I hope no one smites me for those last two posts.
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oh... ignore what I said then...
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Now I demand that you put forth some justification for the single demensionalism of V3 and Crayak, Chimi. Actually, that might be a legitimate question. I never thought too much about it, but she didn't really develop V3 beyond the Chronicle books.
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Single-dimensionalism? You're saying you didn't think they were developed enough, or you're talking more literally in the dimensions the characters operate within?
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I'm pretty sure he meant not developed enough...
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I don't think V3 was as developed as the main characters. Normally this never bothered me, but since I'm in overdramatic mode I'd like to talk about that.
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I think in a lot of ways that was due to the limitations they had to work within, for a kid's series. V3 filled that "moustache-twirling" inept overdramatic one-dimensional role, because the rest of the series was so damn serious, y'know? They kind of needed someone to lay all that "har har, bad guy outsmarted by a bunch of kids and dunked in grape juice" stuff on.
In HBC he's a totally different guy. Sure, it would have been nice to see more of that. But I get the feeling that if the Esplin was written the same way he was in HBC throughout, our favorite little animal-changelings would be all different kinds of dead.
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It's true. There has to be a certain amount of ineptitude in the enemy for an outnumbered and outgunned group of heroes to survive.
What else can I nitpick about? Um...I'll have to think some more.
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It's just Stormtrooper Syndrome, man. V3 and like 10 armed Hork-Bajir should have easily been able to massacre the Animorphs into little smoldering chunks of dracon-cooked meat.
But then we wouldn't have a story. :)
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I don't know if it's been said before, but does anyoen else think it's ironic that they wondered what Rachel would do if she lived through the war, but it was Jake that couldn't move on afterwards? Applegate played it out to where Jake wasn't his old self again until he found something else to fight.
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Yeah, always loved that. More of the parallels between the two characters.
Personally, though, I've always figured Rachel would have moved on after the war, especially with Tobias for support. She'd still be able to morph obviously, providing a lot of that thrill-quota. Plus she'd probably just join some elite special forces squad or whatever. Or, hell, the X-Games or something.
Jake always seemed like he'd have all the baggage. To paraphrase Rachel with the David resolution, "you guys go, this will bother you, it won't bother me". Isn't that Rachel in a nutshell? It always seemed she'd be able to move past the war stuff, just need to replace the dangerous infiltration missions with something else adrenaline-based.
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Now that's something we both agree on. If anyone, I worried more about Jake, since he has the burden of being the leader. I always figured, though, that Cassie would be there and Tom would probably be there too. Marco and Ax's endings, up until the lobster morph inducing boredom and assimilation, was what I totally expected from them.
Cassie I figured would do what she talked about doing at the start of the series. She would make an awesome zoologist with her morphing powers.
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ya they put too much emphasis on "oh rachel wouldn't have made it anyways, so lets just kill her off and make it easier" but really not enough was placed on jake. i mean, after all, he IS the one who had to make all the horrible decisions no1 else would
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I think a lot of that comes from people mistakenly seeing Rachel as some two-dimensional psycho-killer, though. Seriously, Rachel was never half as messed up as a lot of the community seems to make her out to be.
Being reckless and thoughtlessly brave is a totally different beast to enjoying hurting people. It was never the fighting that Rachel craved, she said it herself a million times she just enjoyed being a part of something important, bigger than what she'd be able to experience as a typical Californian mallrat teenager. As for the thrills, she got that as much from flying around in eagle morph as she did from cutting up Hork-Bajir.
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i totally agree. they turned rachel into this psychotic person that was not like her at all. it was stupid. my take is they did that just to have an excuse to kill someone in the end
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"They"? Not the writers, at least not K.A. One or two of the ghostwriters didn't get Rachel, and the fanbase took that train of thought and started pulling characterization out of their asses. Like #48. Sure, there is a book with Rachel as a power-hungry psycho, but it was ghost-written, during a period of sucky ghostwritten books, and Rachel in that book doesn't mesh at all with the Rachel of the established K.A.-written books. So, pretty much, it's not a good example of Rachel.
Look at Rachel in say 1-20. Look at Rachel in her final scenes in 53/54. That's not a bloodthirsty Viking killer chick, that's a decent & wholesome average suburban kid with a pretty significant assertive streak to her personality. Sure, she's sarcastic, sure, she's not tolerant of a lot of BS. But this "Rachel was at risk of turning into a crazy warrior woman with no empathyyy!" is sooo dumb. She never straddled that line at all.
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by they i mean ghost writer, but also KA. there is no way she was completely oblivious to what the ghost writers were doing. you mean to tell me that she wouldn't read what the ghost writers wrote before it went to print? I can't believe that
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Of course she would. And the editors, and whoever supervises the marketing, etc. My point was that the majority of the ghostwriters, especially whoever wrote #48 The Return, wrote Rachel in a much more simplistic "black & white" way than Katherine did herself. It seems the "Rachel as unstable sociopath" perception arose from this period in the books, as opposed to her less extreme portrayal throughout the vast majority of the series.
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ya but i include ka in the blae process along with the ghost writers cuz if she didnt like what the ghosties were doin with the character, she shoulda said sumthing, insteada allowing all those books with the wrong depiction go to print
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ya but i include ka in the blae process along with the ghost writers cuz if she didnt like what the ghosties were doin with the character, she shoulda said sumthing, insteada allowing all those books with the wrong depiction go to print
You're right, and the fact that the planned all the plots for the ghost written books.
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exactly ^-^
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Didn't she just look over them once they were completed? There probably wasn't time to revise them that extensively. Besides, if she had enough time to fix every single thing the ghosts got wrong, she may as well have just written the books herself. xD
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No no no no noooo, kablaah. Not what I'm saying.
K.A. supposedly gave the ghosties an outline, a basic plot, and they could run with it from there. It's pretty obvious from reading the books itself that a lot of the specific dialogue etc wasn't written by Katherine or Michael. The general plot? Sure. But a lot of the characterization, the tone etc, was a little "off" under the ghostwriters. Rachel being a major one, even Marco to an extent. It always seemed most of K.A.'s writing toadies didn't quite grasp that balance with those characters that was evident in the books written by the two authors themselves. Rachel turned into a blunt unsympathetic & dangerous wildchild, Marco just being a clown.
That's not to say the general ideas for the books didn't come from Katherine/Michael, they did. But that's not my point.
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K.A. supposedly gave the ghosties an outline, a basic plot, and they could run with it from there. It's pretty obvious from reading the books itself that a lot of the specific dialogue etc wasn't written by Katherine or Michael. The general plot? Sure. But a lot of the characterization, the tone etc, was a little "off" under the ghostwriters. Rachel being a major one, even Marco to an extent. It always seemed most of K.A.'s writing toadies didn't quite grasp that balance with those characters that was evident in the books written by the two authors themselves. Rachel turned into a blunt unsympathetic & dangerous wildchild, Marco just being a clown.
That's not to say the general ideas for the books didn't come from Katherine/Michael, they did. But that's not my point.
I'd like to... add to / contradict this a little bit. I have no idea if the MorphZ board still stands, but somewhere buried within a thread over there, someone posted the entirety of a KAA-written outline for a Remnants book. And these outlines were long. And very detailed. Like 30 pages describing everything that happened, chapter-to-chapter, whether two characters had a conversation, the general idea of what that conversation would be about... I mean, they were pretty intense. So I would say they were a little more involved than just giving the "general idea".
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i never saw any of KA's outline for animorphs, but i don't see how she wouldnt give a detailed outline to the ghostie. of course she would have. so for rachel's character to deviate as much as it did from the original, then that means that either a)the ghostie completely ignored where KA described rachel's character for that book or b) KA herself forgot where exactly she was goin with rachel's character
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30 pages? an animorphs book is about 150 so compressed to about a fifth of the book... not a lot of room for character personality (in my opinion) other than basic or important ones. I think she'd mostly write actions the characters do, and basic (like he/she felt happy) or important (like the feeling is COMPLETELY important in the climax) feelings, and not write down every single detail about the balance of rachel's personality...
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well, i mean, character development and motivations are often implied by the actions that characters take and the way they interact with others, you know? so of course there was probably a somewhat skeletal description of rachel as a character in #48 (for example), but she had still scripted specific things like "rachel becomes enormous due to the power of crayak and experiences an intense bloodlust with crayak urging her on", which i think was the main issue everyone found with that book in terms of being true to rachel's character. so i agree that the tone being a little off was totally the fault of the ghostwriters, but the things the outline specified rachel do and say in the book probably led the ghostwriter to logically extrapolate her personality from these OOC things written in the outline.
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Is it me or does Jakes final plan of sending Rachel seem really pointless? I'm all for killing members of the series because at least it leaves a better feel to the story, one in which we are not treated like wee children. But expecting a grizzly to go up against at least ten morph capable people and wreck the inside of a ship is asking a bit much. And why didn't they just expect to use the Pool ships cannons, or tell the Andalites the blade ship was coming their way. Yeah Andalites might die, but who cares? They were cruel in their own right.
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He wanted to make sure Tom didn't become the next Eva. Free or die, and all that. It was a very risky mission, but not really suicidal. There were ways to get her out. I'm not sure why the Andalites didn't chase it down.
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I don't think its about free or die, because he would have just killed Tom from the start if that were what it was all about. He wanted to make sure the war was done, all wrapped up, but it just seemed kind of pointless.
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He wanted to rescue his brother from the beginning, but at that point he was just hoping to end Tom's suffering.
Besides, the Yeerk would have destroyed the pool ship if not for Rachel. The other Anis are lucky the other Yeerks didn't open fire.
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Hmmm, true, that still seems like a pretty big task for one person. Interesting, never thought of that.
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Tom wanted to kill Visser One and the Animorphs before taking off for the rest of the galaxy. The rest of the Yeerks didn't care. The Andalites would be too difficult to convince to help, seeing as how they were planning to destroy the planet. The Pool ship was supposed to disable the Blade ship so that Tom would be captured, but Erek drained their weapons. Rachel was the last resort. She only needed to kill Tom because he was the one who cared about revenge. His other Yeerks just wanted to escape.
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i always saw the sending of rachel as yet another sloppy finish. there were so many different possibilities that would have been more pheasable. and what about the new anis, charging at full out open gunfire as rhinos or whatever just for a distraction? it was stupid and pointless, just a quick way to finish them off without having to explain what happens to them after the war
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Agreed. Jakes big plan seemed like the time when he made the most random and arbitrary decisions of the war. Some pieces just didnt connect fully, because he kept a group of six alive for 3 years against an army. All of a sudden he abandons morals and flushes yeerks. There are alot of ways to make a distraction without sacrificing every pawn you have.
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ya i repeat, the ending was too sloppy
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I still stand by that she was just done with the series.
She hadn't really wrote a couple of the books in a while and probably became disenchanted with the series, and was just ready to tie it up.
I'm STILL waiting on an announcement of a movie though...
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lol. You might be waiting for a long time unless its something fan-made.
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All of a sudden he abandons morals
Yeah, never happened.
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A little butt-in here, but I have to say I absolutely loved the ending.
I feel like those that died did so because they had to- they were all affected permanently by war. That is, assuming Jake, Marco, and Tobias are dead. Cassie lived because she could get past everything. But even Marco, who seemed unaffected, was changed by the war.
The character development in these books was astonishing- and while the ghostwriters did ruin a bit with their dialogue, I still found the characters beautifully original in each of their books as well.
Easily the best ending to a series that I've ever read.
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I really doubt Cassie wasn't affected by the war just as much as anyone else. Tobias was done because Rachel was done. Marco wasn't changed insomuch as to affect his functionality, he was just wiser. I def concede Jake tho, but I think saying they were unrecoverable is a gross generalization.
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I find it impossible to believe that teenagers that have their whole lives ahead of them could be irreparably altered by war. Like saying rachel would never get past it if she lived. She would have had decades and decades to cope and move on. Same with Jake, who was made out like he could only be himself again when another adventure came his way. These are young people we're talking about here.
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I find it impossible to believe that teenagers that have their whole lives ahead of them could be irreparably altered by war. Like saying rachel would never get past it if she lived. She would have had decades and decades to cope and move on. Same with Jake, who was made out like he could only be himself again when another adventure came his way. These are young people we're talking about here.
i agree. many soldiers are able to come back from war and continue their lives. staying alive wasnt a hinderence to them,
why do you think there were so many baby boomers after WWII? the soldiers that returned home alive were able to go forth with their lives., so there4 i don't believe a group of teens wouldn't be able to themselves
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I find it impossible to believe that teenagers that have their whole lives ahead of them could be irreparably altered by war. Like saying rachel would never get past it if she lived. She would have had decades and decades to cope and move on. Same with Jake, who was made out like he could only be himself again when another adventure came his way. These are young people we're talking about here.
There are very young people that are forever affected by much less. War changes people- KA clearly made that a theme of the books. Cassie was able to live on because she found a way to nurture the change from the war. Marco couldn't- he wasn't living a completely hopeless life, but he was (as he admits) living a tired a life- boring, easy. For one who complained constantly during the war that he wanted everything to be normal, he sure does accept going back to war without much argument.
Tobias, of course, is gone when Rachel is gone. I was a little disappointed to not see much of him in the last book, but it would mostly have been him moping around anyway.
And Jake was gradual- much like Rachel.
I like how Ax wasn't so much affected by the war, as he was by his exposure to humans. His need to explain things to his inferiors, his human expressions, and his knowledge of humans. All great.
If anything, I think the last book was brilliant, but far too short. The entire series could do with some serious cropping- adding pieces where information is left out, and taking out things that aren't needed. However, as a whole, I loved it.
Or so, that is how I interpreted everything. You may disagree =]
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I find it impossible to believe that teenagers that have their whole lives ahead of them could be irreparably altered by war. Like saying rachel would never get past it if she lived. She would have had decades and decades to cope and move on. Same with Jake, who was made out like he could only be himself again when another adventure came his way. These are young people we're talking about here.
i agree. many soldiers are able to come back from war and continue their lives. staying alive wasnt a hinderence to them,
why do you think there were so many baby boomers after WWII? the soldiers that returned home alive were able to go forth with their lives., so there4 i don't believe a group of teens wouldn't be able to themselves
And yet the soldiers who saw the worst of it? I don't remember who says it- it might have been Jake- but he does point out that he has fought in more battles than any soldier in any war.
We have soldiers coming back from Iraq right now with PTSD- that is very real. And what they are experiencing in Iraq is nothing close to what a three year long war with aliens would be.
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But not everyone is affected by it so drastically. Rachel was made out to be a fiend, which I refuse to accept after the fine character development in the first half of the series. She could be normal again. Marco may be bored, but he's not forever altered to the point where hes not functional. Jake I can't see being entirely functional, because he was the one ultimately deciding who lived and died. Tobias couldn't live with himself before the war and was always mechanical during the war, very I'll do this, and follow this and save them. He would have been better off after the war because at least people respected him. Cassie was just perfect at everything.
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But not everyone is affected by it so drastically. Rachel was made out to be a fiend, which I refuse to accept after the fine character development in the first half of the series. She could be normal again. Marco may be bored, but he's not forever altered to the point where hes not functional. Jake I can't see being entirely functional, because he was the one ultimately deciding who lived and died. Tobias couldn't live with himself before the war and was always mechanical during the war, very I'll do this, and follow this and save them. He would have been better off after the war because at least people respected him. Cassie was just perfect at everything.
On the flipside, I would think it to be very easy to be affected so drastically by something as dramatic as an intergalactic war. Rachel is made out to be a fiend at certain points, and admittedly jumped in and out of character when the ghostwriters were presenting her, but I have absolutely no problem seeing someone like her- vivacious and belligerent as she was from the beginning, transformed into someone more war-driven and ruthless by the end. I believe it would be more out of frustration than anything else- I think Rachel was so caught up in fighting and winning this war because she had so much to protect (family, friends, humanity), that it changed her.
So perhaps it isn't the circumstance that changes a person, but rather that person's reaction to the circumstance so that they in turn change themselves. Reaction out of necessity- the need to adapt to survive.
It is pointed out numerous times that Jake has mentally aged considerably since the beginning of the war. That is a drastic change, and one very obviously pointed out by the author. Such a change would be so apparent in his character anyway that I can only assume she points this out so as to invite her readers to examine the changes in others. That is character development, which KA presents beautifully.
I think the point the author(s) were trying to across was that Rachel was war-driven, excited by the adventure, and so energetic, that the thought of living a normal life would become boring for her. Or, the way I favor to look at it, she developed a slight twinge of insanity. Easily an acceptable fate for her. I do love that she died, as horrible as it is. I do also think her death could have been more necessary, but KA killed off characters who would not or could not have progressed further with their lives beyond the war. I trust her judgement on that- she knows her characters best, as she wrote them.
And I must argue that Cassie was not perfect at everything. Cassie played the part of the introvert- and she played that part well. Struggling with the same difficulties someone like her would go through. There was a lot of mistrust directed at Cassie throughout the entire series, between her decision to help Aftran, to her pointing out reasons why the Yeerks deserved a better life, up to when she allows Tom to take the morphing cube. Cassie makes a lot of necessary mistakes (even though the last is arguably not so much a mistake as it is a flash of instinct, but I'll let that one slide) in order to win the war. She was the one who refused to kill or get involved if she believe the mission was immoral- remaining the most peaceful and thus most unaffected member of the Animorphs. Her ability to see that level of morality at such a young age makes her more immune to the effects of war than it would for the others.
As for Marco, while a bounce back would be possible for him, as I explained earlier, I would think he would be too bored without the fighting. When you live with that level of purpose, going back to a "normal life" would be depressing.
May I point out another popular book where the main characters remained mentally wounded after the war- as I do believe the is why Frodo, Bilbo, and Gandolf set sail to the Undying Lands at the end of LOTR? And while Frodo and Bilbo could surely have only been affected by the ring, Gandolf travels with them as well, suggesting that it is not only the power of the ring, but as the power and affects of war that sets them apart from the others.
Most of it has to do with stable personalities as well, but I won't get in to all that. I feel like I've gone on long enough to make my point. =]
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There are lots of people who face what the Animorphs have faced, life and death decisions, leading countries, militaries, fighting social injustice, but they didn't go absolutely crazy when they won.
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There are lots of people who face what the Animorphs have faced, life and death decisions, leading countries, militaries, fighting social injustice, but they didn't go absolutely crazy when they won.
Exactly how many teenagers have had to fight the invasion of an entire alien race? Secretly? Without support of parents? And then made decisions that resulted in the death of hundreds, and thousands, of sentient creatures?
Not many.
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Do you think when a general has to send the men he or she knows and respects, people who trust him, into battle and get killed, they don't feel enormous guilt? And while some Flag Officers have committed suicide, the majority continued to function after the war while shouldering the knowledge that their word was the reason for the deaths of thousands of people. How many people can say that they understand what that feels like?
Not many.
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Do you think when a general has to send the men he or she knows and respects, people who trust him, into battle and get killed, they don't feel enormous guilt? And while some Flag Officers have committed suicide, the majority continued to function after the war while shouldering the knowledge that their word was the reason for the deaths of thousands of people. How many people can say that they understand what that feels like?
Not many.
Function, yes. But are they happy? Were they children having to make these decisions? Your argument, while valid in some respects, doesn't make sense when applied to the issue we are discussing here- whether or not it is possible for several young teenagers to be mentally affected by war. A Flag Officer is trained. Guided. Briefed. Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias were thrown headfirst into a war, all while having to learn from experience, with very little help. The two aren't comparable.
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But KA did say a year or so ago that she was open to the idea of writing books 55-60 if Scholastic gave her the opportunity, which I interpret as meaning there's a very very good chance the Animorphs didn't die.
That would be awesome though it wouldn't be the same without Aximili or Racher.
just the way Ax died was just to .... WHAT???? to me when I read it.
but if it continues i think there might be some Time matrix use in some way
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There are lots of people who face what the Animorphs have faced, life and death decisions, leading countries, militaries, fighting social injustice, but they didn't go absolutely crazy when they won.
Jake was incapacitated by depression for three or so years after massacring the 17000 Yeerks and allowing Rachel and Tom's deaths. But then he starts getting his act back together, writing a book and teaching anti-terrorism forces.
Cassie makes peace with what she's done in the war and moves on with her life.
Marco tries to live it up but finds that he's grown detached.
Ax becomes a wise leader and Tobias is unbearably heartbroken.
All of this seems very logical.
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Function, yes. But are they happy? Were they children having to make these decisions? Your argument, while valid in some respects, doesn't make sense when applied to the issue we are discussing here- whether or not it is possible for several young teenagers to be mentally affected by war. A Flag Officer is trained. Guided. Briefed. Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias were thrown headfirst into a war, all while having to learn from experience, with very little help. The two aren't comparable.
There are a lot of people who are severely depressed, fighting wars or not. Does that mean they deserve to die? And I seriously doubt anything can prepare you for war, no amount of training can mentally save you. And for a group that wasn't mentally trained, briefed, and guided, they did better than almost any military leader I have ever heard of. But he's depressed because he made the large majority of decisions correctly and thus doesn't deserve to live I guess.
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Function, yes. But are they happy? Were they children having to make these decisions? Your argument, while valid in some respects, doesn't make sense when applied to the issue we are discussing here- whether or not it is possible for several young teenagers to be mentally affected by war. A Flag Officer is trained. Guided. Briefed. Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias were thrown headfirst into a war, all while having to learn from experience, with very little help. The two aren't comparable.
There are a lot of people who are severely depressed, fighting wars or not. Does that mean they deserve to die? And I seriously doubt anything can prepare you for war, no amount of training can mentally save you. And for a group that wasn't mentally trained, briefed, and guided, they did better than almost any military leader I have ever heard of. But he's depressed because he made the large majority of decisions correctly and thus doesn't deserve to live I guess.
This entire time, I've been wondering exactly what it is we are debating here- now I realize, you completely misunderstood what I first said.
Allow me to clarify the difference between my saying that they "had to die" with they "deserve to die".
From a simple literary analysis, my absolute favorite endings are the ones that are, perhaps, least often seen. True tragedies- the antagonist either lives or dies, but the protagonist must suffer a tragic death. KA is the only author that I have read that not only had the courage to do that to her characters, she also does it within reason.
Obviously the most basic story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A story is not truly over until the conflict has been resolved. The conflict cannot be resolved if characters are still dwelling on the past.
Look at it this way:
If Rachel has survived the war, she would have come out of it broken. Perhaps not permanently, but her insanity was accentuated for a reason. Or rather, more than reason. Without Rachel, it would have been impossible for Jake to kill Tom. As Jake points out, Marco and Cassie would have refused. Ax and Tobias were needed. Rachel was war-crazy enough to do the job. She loved the battle- and they worried what would happen to her when the battle ended. So in a kind of "deus ex machina" way, that problem is solved when Rachel and Tom kill each other.
Had Rachel survived, Tom would have survived. Tom's yeerk would have survived. The yeerk's plan would have succeeded. Jake and the other Animorphs would have even more to deal with. And even if they won that particular battle, and Rachel survived, the conflict would never truly be over because Rachel would miss the fight. Perhaps she would find an outlet- as is human nature, she might pick fights just for the fun of it. But as is an even stronger human nature- we just don't let things go!
Tobias, one of my favorite characters, is stuck with an even more unusual situation- know he doesn't belong anywhere. Without Rachel, he is lost. He has no true family. His alien family is dead. His human disappeared. (Does anyone ever wonder what happened to his cat, Dude?). He could possibly trap himself in human morph again, but then would he be a human, stuck as a hawk, stuck as a human? And to have all that power taken from you- it is perhaps like seeing, then becoming blind. Like being able to walk, and suddenly you are immobile. That is something you would dwell on. A lost love, a lost power, a lost family. There was way too much for Tobias to deal with for him to not dwell on the past.
Marco, another favorite of mine, has almost the same problem as Rachel. He has few broken family ties, despite having his mother enslaved by Visser One for so many years. And yet, as Hylian Dan states- he finds himself completely detached. Bored. Tactically, he has nothing to do. A simple war would seem simple- and since his main skill was thinking logically, there are few things that someone with that much logical experience can do. Extreme intelligence from any angle is difficult to live with- Marco had an overdeveloped ability to think logically. And logic, when overused, will drive a person mad. IE: He was bored, and would always be looking for "one more adventure".
And Jake. Oh Jake. It took me several days to get over Jake. Jake, the thirteen to sixteen-year-old kid who has to make all the tough decisions- including the decision to kill the brother he had been fighting to save for three years. Jake, who never even gets to speak to said brother before his death. Jake, who knows the only way to stop his brother's yeerk is by sacrificing his own cousin. Oh the brilliance! When I realized what KA was going to do with him- well, I got very excited indeed ;D .
You see, so few authors have the ability to write a true final ending. Some don't wrap up enough, while others wrap up too much. KA knew her characters well. She knew who would endure the war and come out okay. Though I can't exactly explain why she chose to kill Ax- perhaps it was out of convenience, or I simply don't understand enough about Ax's character to realize what the reason might be. However, I do know that out of the six, Cassie was the one person who would hold on to nothing. Cassie would forgive and forget. She would be willing to co-exist with yeerks if she needed to. She would get past the war.
This is what I mean when I say they needed to die. For the series to truly be over, the characters had to let go of the conflict. Some of KA's characters were so strong, so determined, that they would never let it go. Others lost too much to forget. Oh brilliance. I was thrilled to finally read a book from an author who knew how to end a series.
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Hmm that makes sense, and I agree to a major extent. Devil's advocate, conflicts are never truly resolved anyhow, as can be seen after the war, because each conflict has an effect.
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Agreed. Jakes big plan seemed like the time when he made the most random and arbitrary decisions of the war. Some pieces just didnt connect fully, because he kept a group of six alive for 3 years against an army. All of a sudden he abandons morals and flushes yeerks. There are alot of ways to make a distraction without sacrificing every pawn you have.
i agree.
to me, the ending seemed rushed.
oh, and fiction: very nice post. +1
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the ending was rushed! its like all of a sudden she needs to finish, so she threw a plot together, killed off the auxillaries to not have to explain them in the dumbest way possible and so on. instead of wasting books with the likes of #44, she coulda started the ending sooner and had a better ending
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the ending was rushed! its like all of a sudden she needs to finish, so she threw a plot together, killed off the auxillaries to not have to explain them in the dumbest way possible and so on. instead of wasting books with the likes of #44, she coulda started the ending sooner and had a better ending
Rushed or not, I maintain it was still a good ending. If anything was rushed, Scholastic would be to blame, as they set the length of the book that she is required to write.
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I really wish the last book was a straight up megamorph length and format. It kinda was, but not in length.
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I also wish it was a full out Megamorph book, all the way through. I'd like to see what the others were thinking during the actual final battle. But since KA was obviously ready for it to just be over with, she wasn't going to put that much effort into it.
Whether or not we like the ending, we can all agree that KA was ready to put the series to rest once and for all.
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Yeah she was done with it forever, you can tell from her ending.
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schoolastic may set a limit on # of books, but she can write them as she wishes. I still maintain she coulda started ending it earlier and not wasted time with all those filler books
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schoolastic may set a limit on # of books, but she can write them as she wishes. I still maintain she coulda started ending it earlier and not wasted time with all those filler books
I agree to that. Not that I hate fillers, but the last half seemed like mostly filler with a sprinkling of plot significant material here and there.
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The ghostwriting kind of depresses me in that the series started out so strong. I wish that the authors just pushed and wrote them all. Yes, it would take some time, but if you've put this much time into something, do it well.
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One of the things that confuses me is the character changes. Did the characters change because that's how KA wanted it, or just because the ghostwriters didn't understand them well enough? Was it character development, or character derailment? I'd prefer to think of it as derailment.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDerailment
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDevelopment
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i agree, i woulda been willing to wait for a book straight from KA. some of the filler books were just beyond ridiculous.
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What books did you think were just ridiculous? For me i wasn't a big fan of 28, 36 and 48 Were the ones that bumbed me out... But i never really thought and still don't think that after a point they got really bad... I do think that that instead of 44 they should of got the aux animorphs in because they were to short lived.
I liked the ending although Rachel was one of my Favourite characters... It just sucked with the massive cliff-hanger and nothing new at all for the what is it 8 years now? Because i don't think the Animorphs are dead.
Plus did anyone else get worked up in the letters to the fans where is says 5 megamorphs.
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I recently have re-read the entire series (thanks to the E-Book section of this site :)), and it was even better than I remembered it. I started reading around book 7 when they were first being published, all the way till the end and I always really liked the final arc and ending.
Until reading the comments here, I had no idea there was so much hate for the final book, and Rachel's death. I thought the series had a perfect ending, with the active Animorphs launching one of their classic near suicidal attacks.
For me at least, Rachel's death was really what finally beat the Animorphs. The team fell apart, and had she not died, everyone would still be together. I loved how they could save the universe, but only at the cost of their own happiness. In a nutshell, I always felt KAA was trying to tell us that in war they could save everyone but themselves.
Does anyone feel the same as me on this? I'd also be interested in why some didn't like the ending, and what you thought the ideal ending should have been
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i was only upset because they couldn't kill off someone else.
like cassie.
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Personally, I loved the ending, too. :)
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I liked the book a lot. I liked that Rachel died - it made sense. It would have also made sense to kill her a long time ago, concidering her penchant for being a crazy berserker, but concidering the missions and the fighting, anyone could have died. But leaving that until the last book really made it hit home. I also appreciate the way it was treated - I liked the last Rachel chapter, her unfinished thought. Maybe I don't mind that they killed her because she's probably my least favorite character, aside from Marco.
I liked the chapters that followed, and I really liked that Tobias' chapter wasn't until years after Rachel's death, which I've seen people grumble about. It left one to wonder, and fill that part in them selves. I think the reader can go to some pretty dark places for his character that might not have been appropriate for a "kid's book" (I use that loosely).
I guess the only thing I didn't like was... either it was a cliff-hanger, or that it ended with that book. I don't like the idea of Ax just being... what, nothing? What the hell is with that about? And I always wanted to see Tom be saved. On the other hand, I do like that with one swift blow both Jake's cousin and brother bit it - I don't know who hated Jake more, Applegate or Cryak.
Anyway, I don't hate the book. It's one of my favorites.
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i might've liked it if she had spread the book out more (like the chronicles/megamorphs).
it felt a bit rushed, jumping here and there.
rachel dying at the ending was upsetting, not just because of the obvious; i didn't like it how she kept them all alive JUST until the ending.
if they were going to die, they should have done it throughout the series.
welcome to the forum, by the way. make sure to post in the intro/departure section!
also, anybody mind if i merge this thread in here? (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=2849.0)
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it wasn't the book that I hated per se, just the overall execution of the book. Like Goom said earlier it felt waaaaay rushed and if it were up to me, Rachel would have been the only ani who died and Tom would live long enough to have one of those heartfelt talks with his baby bro before bear rachel chomps down on him
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Exactly what Goom said. in about 150 pages or so, they went from Rachel dying, defeating the Yeerk Empire (how?) to establishing contact with Andalites, getting mega-rich, all getting super-famous, then the suddenly out of the blue pretty much started the whole series again, what with the Kelbrid, strange alien ship, The One and all. I hope the series is continued after the re-release this year.
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Before coming here I didn't know so many people would actually like the ending. Although most fans really hated it. I hated almost the entire thing, except that Marco and Ax got what they always wanted.
It left over a dozen or so loose ends dangling, they killed off a character for no good reason in a contrived way, left Tobias unhappy because somehow he deserves to be unhappy (seriously, KA said Tobias remained unhappy because that's just how it should be), we get a big cliffhanger just so she can show conflict never ends, which is BS. It was short, rushed, and wrong, and somehow people think the ending would either be this or the other extreme where everyone high fives each other and they all live happily ever after.
Judging from her own narrations, I don't believe Rachel was a psycho, so I do think she'd be able to cope. If you're going to kill people off, don't wait until the end to do it.
It reminds me of the James Patterson books I used to read that ticked me off because he'd kill someone off near the end just to have a bittersweet ending.
I'll never understand why people like the ending, but I guess I'm a little happy that some people are content with it. If you like the ending, good for you. I just don't.
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I liked 54 a lot. I liked the ending, and pretty much everything, although I do understand people's frustration with the jumping around and out-of-the-blue villain. The rushing around I attribute to the limited page count, and I think KAA covers the essentials and I don't mind filling in the blanks myself. The One, now, I'm not so sure about. I likehow it ends with Jake's order to ram the ship, and how they went off on this new adventure, and how it's open to interpretation. But The One, itself? Ehh.
I disagree that Rachel should have died sooner. As the books get progressively darker throughout the series, it makes sense for one of the protagonists to die in the end. Masterz1337 mentions the team falling apart after her death and the end of the war, and think about it, if Rachel died sooner, Tobias would have called it quits, and I'm not sure how Jake would have coped. I don't mind that she died for apparently no reason, either. She still fulfills her role as being the ruthless warrior in killing Tom--Jake couldn't have asked anyone else to do this--and hey, even the grandest plans go awry. I mean, it wouldn't be an Animorphs mission if something didn't go horribly wrong. As the Ellimist tells her, she still mattered.
I wouldn't have minded if Tom lived. Or maybe I'd have just been fine if we saw something from his perspective just once. I really want to know what he thought when he found out about Jake because the idea just warms my heart.
About Tobias being unhappy--I'm with KAA on this. I don't think Tobias has much of a will to be happy after Rachel's death--contentment with a simple existence, maybe, but happiness is a human thing, isn't it? And he doesn't want anything to do with human society after the war. So yes, in a sense, he deserves to be unhappy because he's making himself out to be. Jake is pretty much the same until he starts to get his **** together, and even then he's still obviously damaged (how much do I love his conversation with Marco about redeeming himself and Marco calling him on his issues? So much.)
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merging threads, both deal with (relatively) the same subject.
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i was only upset because they couldn't kill off someone else.
like cassie.
i love you patty!
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i was only upset because they couldn't kill off someone else.
like cassie.
i love you patty!
Me too!
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I really wish they had named 54 The End. That seems like the perfect title for a book series where the titles for the main books are always the word The, and then one other word. Now I know they didn't title the first book The Beginning, but I just thought the title for the last book would be The End. Did anyone else think that before the book actually came out?
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I kind of expected that too. But I guess Scholastic thought that it would be too obvious.
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Why didn't the others have PTSD? The amount of bloody hand to hand (or paw to hand haha) combat and death they saw in those three years was enough to mess anyone up. They literally clawed and bit probably 100's of sentient creatures to death.
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Some of them probably did have PTSD, but maybe some had strong psychological resistance, because not all war veterans are haunted by war for the rest of their life.
I liked "The Beginning" as the title, it seemed more poetic and meaningful- the beginning of a new Earth where now there is an alliance with Andalites and the universe is opened up to us, like a new era of peace.
What I didn't like is that Cassie and Jake didn't get married or anything, they just kinda forgot about each other, and that Tobias stayed in hawk form just because he couldn't get over Rachel. I mean, come on, it was sad that she was gone, but move on and be human again! It was fine that Rachel died, not that I ever had anything against her, but why this with Cassie and Tobias!? Come on!
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Also I wonder what happened to Tobias's mom? Did he stop talking to her?
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couldnt agree with Patty more. why not cassie?her constant whining should have seen her off
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I really liked The Beginning as a title, though I was completely unsurprised by it. It's cliche, but it does fit and they made it work.
I agree with Visser19 about PTSD and everyone having varying reactions. This also goes back to what I said about wanting to be happy vs. making yourself unhappy. Jake dwells so much on his mistakes and "failures," he can't get past that unless he's trying to redeem himself, so yeah he's more messed up than the others in the end. Cassie, though, wants to move on. She wants to help usher in this new era, and maybe that's her own way of coping. So she heals. It probably takes a while, and that's why I think she doesn't really help Jake until later, when she's dealt with her own issues first. She knows she can't magically fix him, and as I've explained elsewhere it makes sense to me that they don't end up together. I don't think they just forget about each other at all, though. They simply walk different paths.
You have to remember Tobias spent the whole series struggling with his hawk vs. human dilemma and leaning towards the hawk side. He was always so uncomfortable in human morph. After the war, he might have finally become fully human again for Rachel, but without her? How exactly do you expect him to move on? He'd need a major push, from someone with a whole lot of dedication, and no one else is capable of giving him that until Ax goes missing.
I always thought Tobias' sudden fixation and then apparent disinterest in Loren was weird. The way I make sense of it, he was more focused on the concept of family than on Loren herself. The idea of a mother who cared about him got to him, kind of like the idea of a cousin who cared did. But he didn't exactly have a lot of time to bond with Loren before Rachel died, and I can see him turning away from Loren after that because she wasn't really important enough to be able to help him. I don't think she would know how. And Tobias already had issues with forming personal bonds with people, after losing Rachel I can see him resisting close ties with others.
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Your idea of Tobias becoming a nothlit with Rachel is a beautiful one. I am not sure if he would have done it, but it would have been the ultimate act of love.
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i actually lost track of the series as a kid and left off somewhere in the 30's. just finished in now that i'm 24. wow, crazy ending....i really didnt like rachel being the one to go. i kind of liked her "do anything for the mission" attitude. she knew she wasnt coming back from the last mission but she went and did it anyway. wound up saving everyone. personally i would have much rather seen cassie or jake go, but it's a good ending.
the "the one" part i didnt like just because i hate cliffhanger endings.....i much prefer something that wraps up. it'd be nice if they could pull off a #55 one day
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How exactly do you expect him to move on? He'd need a major push, from someone with a whole lot of dedication, and no one else is capable of giving him that until Ax goes missing.
Wait, what happened to Ax? He went missing? What? I thought he went with Jake, Marco and Tobias out to meet The One...
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No. He got captured by the One, and the others had gone to rescue him. His capture was the reason they left earth.
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Oh yeah, that's right. It's been a long time...
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I really, really didn't like the ending. So many things felt wrong with it...
First, Rachel's death. That was nothing short of stunning, even though it was logical. Sure, the other Animorphs had wondered what she would do once the war ended and there was no more of the fighting she was addicted to. Sure, she might have gone back to a "normal" life, but I seriously doubt that.
Killing her, though, was so not the right thing to do... especially the circumstances. Jake sending his cousin to kill his brother, and probably be killed by Tom's forces in exchange. Bizarre. The timing - having her die to end the war - was terrible too. Surely, after all the battles she went through, she deserved to live to see the end...
Her death sent Tobias into complete seclusion, which doesn't feel right either. He should have been celebrating the victory with her, not mourning her death.
The last straw was this "The One" alien; it apparently destroyed Ax, and 3 of the final 4 Animorphs (Jake, Marco, and Tobias) almost certainly died in the collision between the Yeerk fighter and the Blade ship.
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my thoughts exactly! why kill her now, at the end? when they had escaped so many for sure should have died situations?
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I just finished my reread about a week ago, so I actually feel I can talk about the ending now.
I still did not like it, but I'm finding it easier to accept than the first time. At least it's not going to turn me off to the concept of Animorphs for nine years this time around. It didn't feel right, but I'm not so sure anymore what exactly it was that didn't feel right. I think it might just be related to the ghostwriters' smashing of the characters to one dimension. In the last two books, for example, Rachel almost started to seem like Rachel again- brave, brutal and dark, but still human, possibly with an actual three-dimensional character hiding somewhere in there... and then, it's all snatched away... after all the chaos and the inconsistent characterizations and the uninteresting books... I'm given one more taste of why I fell in love with the series, just as everything goes to hell and everyone gets screwed over...
I don't agree with you guys who are saying it was a remarkably fitting ending. It really sounds like you're just grasping for patterns. It was a bit of a messy ending, and it was supposed to be. Well done, in my opinion, all things considered. I'd still prefer an ending that's more in line with the somewhat unrealistic "survival and hope" message of the rest of the series, but as long as that was being dropped, the Aniending was actually quite good.
As for the post-plot with The One and The Search For Ax... I was actually fairly indifferent. It's no longer the adventure I'd been reading about for the last 64 books, so there's this disconnect there. I liked that the series ends with the beginning of a new adventure... and a world of possibilities...
Side note; does anybody realize that Erek's draining of the Pool Ship's weapons was one of the most illogical things he could have done, based on his programming? Did he know Jake's plan to pit the Pool Ship against the Blade Ship? If he did, he'd realize that a Pool Ship being blown to smithereens would result in a few more casualties than a Blade Ship, even if he believed Jake would vaporize the Blade Ship. Even if he didn't know the Yeerk-against-Yeerk part of the plan, he still knew that the overall plan was for Jake to take control of the ship- would he honestly believe strongly enough that Jake would go around frying every Yeerk on the planet that he'd put the effort into draining the weapons? Even if Jake did fry all the Yeerks, wouldn't that save a far greater number of humans (and dogs), especially now that open war's broken out? Erek's actions sound like he was being resentful and immature, but his programming shouldn't allow that...
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no, the erek thing is just another sloppy storyline KA threw into the ending
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...Even if Jake did fry all the Yeerks, wouldn't that save a far greater number of humans (and dogs), especially now that open war's broken out?...
LMAO, we're all so cynical when it comes to Erek aren't we? ::)
aaaanyway
After reading the posts on this thread, obviously everyone has their own opinions on whether the ending was right, and whether any of the Ani's should have died - and if so, who?
While I've seen a lot of opinion on who should have died, it seems to always boil down to: Rachel, Jake, Tobias or Cassie.
So: why not Marco or Ax? What in particular is it about these characters that results in no-one thinking it plausible to kill them off? (and I don't just mean sending them in Rachel's place - most re-writes with different story lines also seem to have these two guys surviving)
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The Erek thing was totally ridiculous. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that he was indirectly responsible for Rachel's death, Ax's death (remember, had the Blade ship been gunned down, The One alien wouldn't have been able to take over the ship, so Ax wouldn't have gone to investigate the ship and been killed), the likely deaths of Jake, Marco, and Tobias (I doubt they could have survived a ship-to-ship collision), and perhaps the deaths of some Controllers. There would probably have been fewer lives lost had the Pool ship successfully destroyed the Blade ship. Quite ironic, given that the Chee were hardwired to be nonviolent.
One other thing that occurred to me was a twist in Rachel's last mission. Her mission was almost guaranteed to be suicide; there was only one way out, and the odds couldn't have been worse for that.
* The Pool ship fires on and hits the Blade ship - Rachel dies in the explosion. She wouldn't have had time to morph to eagle or roach.
* The Pool ship misses the Blade ship - Rachel is called on to destroy Tom. Given his ability - and his allies' ability - to morph, Rachel was guaranteed to die.
* The Pool ship misses the Blade ship, Rachel decides to leave Tom alive - when the Blade ship went into space, Rachel would have eventually A. died from starvation or B. been caught and killed.
The only way out for Rachel would have been Tom's surrender, and, given Tom's perceived combat advantage, I doubt he would have surrendered unless the entire Andalite fleet suddenly showed up.
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I think I had the idea at one time where Alloran pulls the bladeship into the pool ship with the tractor beam. The Yeerks onboard agree to surrender and exchange all hosts for their lives. That's one way for Rachel and Tom to survive. Also Rachel and maybe a few auxilaries could commandeer the bridge of the ship and keep the enemy at bay until the Pool ship moves in to capture the bladeship.
Of course these ideas hinge on the Yeerks not just killing rachel out of spite, but then Rachel shouldn't have even been on the ship anyway. I understand that jake didn't want Tom to be the next Eva, but if so he should have rescued Tom when he had the chances. And I do say chances, because there were multiple.
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The Erek thing was totally ridiculous. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that he was indirectly responsible for Rachel's death, Ax's death (remember, had the Blade ship been gunned down, The One alien wouldn't have been able to take over the ship, so Ax wouldn't have gone to investigate the ship and been killed), the likely deaths of Jake, Marco, and Tobias (I doubt they could have survived a ship-to-ship collision), and perhaps the deaths of some Controllers. There would probably have been fewer lives lost had the Pool ship successfully destroyed the Blade ship. Quite ironic, given that the Chee were hardwired to be nonviolent.
One other thing that occurred to me was a twist in Rachel's last mission. Her mission was almost guaranteed to be suicide; there was only one way out, and the odds couldn't have been worse for that.
* The Pool ship fires on and hits the Blade ship - Rachel dies in the explosion. She wouldn't have had time to morph to eagle or roach.
* The Pool ship misses the Blade ship - Rachel is called on to destroy Tom. Given his ability - and his allies' ability - to morph, Rachel was guaranteed to die.
* The Pool ship misses the Blade ship, Rachel decides to leave Tom alive - when the Blade ship went into space, Rachel would have eventually A. died from starvation or B. been caught and killed.
The only way out for Rachel would have been Tom's surrender, and, given Tom's perceived combat advantage, I doubt he would have surrendered unless the entire Andalite fleet suddenly showed up.
i agree on the erek thing, he is by far the 2nd most annoying character in the series (behind only cassie) also on the rachel thing it was a suicide mission and i believe at various points in the story both jake and rachel acknowledge this. they knew what was going to happen. thats why her decision to do it was very powerful, actively deciding to die for your friends
on chads post, remember the important part of her mission on the blade ship wasnt to kill tom, she had to destroy the weapons console so that the blade ship didnt kill the pool ship and everyone else. thats why the blade ship fled, because it was defenseless. had her mission just been killing, she may have actually had a chance by killing most of them in mid morph.
i think ax dying would have been an ok end, but she wanted the cost to be human so she had to kill one of the kids off. Jake sacrificing himself would have been another fitting end. the captain going down with his ship so to speak.
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The fact that everyone's so affected that Rachel died means that this was a good ending.
C'mon, if Cassie died, everyone would just shrug it off. FAIL.
With Rachel dying, everyone is now a war casualty. A "Andalite-Human-Animorph-Yeerk war" casualty. Yeah, even YOU. That's what makes the ending so good. It affects us so much.
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Definitely. I guess the reason majority of people don't like the ending is the same as the reason they hate Cassie. All action and glory without the morality and reality stuff.
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The fact that everyone's so affected that Rachel died means that this was a good ending.
C'mon, if Cassie died, everyone would just shrug it off. FAIL.
With Rachel dying, everyone is now a war casualty. A "Andalite-Human-Animorph-Yeerk war" casualty. Yeah, even YOU. That's what makes the ending so good. It affects us so much.
Dead on.
I just finished reading a Neomorphs book where Cassie died in battle; her battle was as hopeless as Rachel's, her fight was as brave as Rachel's, and she received a final tribute similar to Rachel's (Guraff 427, the Yeerk who killed Cassie, said "You aren't a warrior, yet you died like one" as she was dying), yet I didn't feel badly at all when she died. Rachel's death, on the other hand, sent me into a deep depression I'm still not entirely out of. I also shed a few tears while I was reading #54 - a very unusual occurrence.
I don't know if Rachel's death makes everyone a war casualty, but I reckon it might make everyone an indirect war casualty, much like family members react when one of them dies in a war. I think we all got emotionally attached to Rachel during the series, especially since her internal battle against her dark side is something we can all relate to. I don't think that kind of attachment formed with Cassie, which explains why our heartstrings get yanked when Rachel dies but not when Cassie does.
Post Merged: May 22, 2010, 11:38:56 PM
One more thing just occurred to me.
Why the heck was Rachel the only Animorph on that Blade ship???
Seriously.
It wasn't numbers (e.g. "The other Animorphs all had places they absolutely had to be"), because some of the auxiliaries could have gone. It's not like they were doing anything particularly helpful anyway; they were all doomed to die. I'm sure a couple of them would have jumped at the chance to live, regardless of how small that chance would be. Even Loren could have gone (and would probably have been happy to do so).
The odds of a victory become significantly (even exponentially?) greater when more good guys pile in, and Jake must have known that. Send 4-5 people instead of 1, and a suicide mission suddenly becomes an even battle. If Rachel alone had a chance (she did, during the first few moments of the battle), 4-5 people could absolutely have kicked Yeerk butt.
Sending Rachel alone was absolutely idiotic.
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Why the heck was Rachel the only Animorph on that Blade ship???
Seriously.
It wasn't numbers (e.g. "The other Animorphs all had places they absolutely had to be"), because some of the auxiliaries could have gone. It's not like they were doing anything particularly helpful anyway; they were all doomed to die. I'm sure a couple of them would have jumped at the chance to live, regardless of how small that chance would be. Even Loren could have gone (and would probably have been happy to do so).
The odds of a victory become significantly (even exponentially?) greater when more good guys pile in, and Jake must have known that. Send 4-5 people instead of 1, and a suicide mission suddenly becomes an even battle. If Rachel alone had a chance (she did, during the first few moments of the battle), 4-5 people could absolutely have kicked Yeerk butt.
Sending Rachel alone was absolutely idiotic.
K.A. needed somebody to die at the end, and i guess that was the easiest way to do it.
my thoughts, as i've echoed before, are:
- if she was going for realism, more would have died (and be replaced?) gradually throughout the series
- since she apparently wasn't, why kill one off at the very end? too cliche for my liking.
it was stupid to send all of the auxiliary etc. out to die.
i sure know jake was kicking himself for that -.-
even ignoring this all of the other rushed parts, the biggest slap in the face (to me) was in her final letter. (see: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4664)
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K.A. needed somebody to die at the end, and i guess that was the easiest way to do it.
<grumbling>
I know, it's a plot device, but she picked the wrong person to kill in the wrong situation, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time. For crying out loud, Rachel fought the hardest. If K.A. was going to kill her, the middle of the series would have worked just fine. There was even a "good" situation: a battle in which Jake had to leave her and Marco. The timing would have been good, and the series flow natural. Killing her at the end of the series was just wrong...
</grumbling>
my thoughts, as i've echoed before, are:
- if she was going for realism, more would have died (and be replaced?) gradually throughout the series
- since she apparently wasn't, why kill one off at the very end? too cliche for my liking.
Agreed.
it was stupid to send all of the auxiliary etc. out to die.
i sure know jake was kicking himself for that -.-
I'm sure he was. That was probably worse than Rachel in his mind, because at least she had a fighting chance. The auxiliaries never even got to fight for their lives.
even ignoring this all of the other rushed parts, the biggest slap in the face (to me) was in her final letter. (see: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4664)
Totally agree with the OP there.
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For one thing I didn't like Neomorphs because it became too Star Trekky. It deviated from the point that "kids in POV of animals" that was the point of the book.
Why the heck was Rachel the only Animorph on that Blade ship???
Seriously.
It wasn't numbers (e.g. "The other Animorphs all had places they absolutely had to be"), because some of the auxiliaries could have gone. It's not like they were doing anything particularly helpful anyway; they were all doomed to die. I'm sure a couple of them would have jumped at the chance to live, regardless of how small that chance would be. Even Loren could have gone (and would probably have been happy to do so).
The odds of a victory become significantly (even exponentially?) greater when more good guys pile in, and Jake must have known that. Send 4-5 people instead of 1, and a suicide mission suddenly becomes an even battle. If Rachel alone had a chance (she did, during the first few moments of the battle), 4-5 people could absolutely have kicked Yeerk butt.
Sending Rachel alone was absolutely idiotic.
K.A. needed somebody to die at the end, and i guess that was the easiest way to do it.
my thoughts, as i've echoed before, are:
- if she was going for realism, more would have died (and be replaced?) gradually throughout the series
- since she apparently wasn't, why kill one off at the very end? too cliche for my liking.
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it was stupid to send all of the auxiliary etc. out to die.
i sure know jake was kicking himself for that -.-
even ignoring this all of the other rushed parts, the biggest slap in the face (to me) was in her final letter. (see: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4664)
Well, everyone living at the end and having a cup of tea would be more of a cliche to me.
Even "The Simpsons" did a joke on Harry Potter ending being "what ending do you like, little girl?".
About Jake's decisions, not sending anyone with Rachel was one of the reasons Jake was killing himself at the ending.
Jake knew he made a lot of stupid decisions (sleeping on it, letting Rachel go alone, flushing the yeerks) and yeah, I guess it's pretty self explanatory.
Plus, I know everyone's expecting a sorta reward for the Animorphs' bravery, but I guess, even if you look outside, those who deserve that medal just don't get it.
Hey, again, it's the same reason you probably hate Cassie books too.
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I know, it's a plot device, but she picked the wrong person to kill in the wrong situation, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time. For crying out loud, Rachel fought the hardest. If K.A. was going to kill her, the middle of the series would have worked just fine. There was even a "good" situation: a battle in which Jake had to leave her and Marco. The timing would have been good, and the series flow natural. Killing her at the end of the series was just wrong...
I very much disagree. It was better to have everyone get super attached to Rachel (let's face it, she was the most interesting character, the easiest one to feel for) and rip out everyone's hearts at the very end of the series. Killing her in the middle of the series would not have been "just fine", it would have been about the most "meh" thing that could have happened.
Also, I've seen some other posts about it making more sense to kill off and replace people throughout the series...but how would that have made sense? The entire series is about following this one group of kids, with their struggles and emotions. It makes for a much deeper story than would have otherwise been possible if you're replacing people every couple of books.
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What we're trying to say is that if she wanted to go for realism, she should have killed off people from the start. The books aren't about these five kids and their alien friend, it's about Animorphs. Kids turning into animals to fight Yeerks. Even if the series ended with completely different characters than it started out with, it would still be Animorphs. It would still be a story about people turning into animals to fight an alien invasion. The premise would be the same.
Having it established that none of them will die because the big guy Ellemist always makes sure there's a way out, then killing off Rachel and saying it was for realism because KA and others think the ending would either be on one extreme or the other on the sliding scale of idealism and cynicism is just wrong.
Killing Rachel at the end is actually less realistic given the universe they are in. It isn't consistent with the universe, and consistency is what all fictional universes need. This isn't a realistic book series, and it doesn't have to be, but it should always be consistent. If it isn't, it shatters our willing suspension of disbelief and you get fan backlash.
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What we're trying to say is that if she wanted to go for realism, she should have killed off people from the start. The books aren't about these five kids and their alien friend, it's about Animorphs. Kids turning into animals to fight Yeerks. Even if the series ended with completely different characters than it started out with, it would still be Animorphs. It would still be a story about people turning into animals to fight an alien invasion. The premise would be the same.
Having it established that none of them will die because the big guy Ellemist always makes sure there's a way out, then killing off Rachel and saying it was for realism because KA and others think the ending would either be on one extreme or the other on the sliding scale of idealism and cynicism is just wrong.
Killing Rachel at the end is actually less realistic given the universe they are in. It isn't consistent with the universe, and consistency is what all fictional universes need. This isn't a realistic book series, and it doesn't have to be, but it should always be consistent. If it isn't, it shatters our willing suspension of disbelief and you get fan backlash.
The book is BOTH realistic and non-realistic. If it was completely realistic, let's face it, it would be more boring than University Physics by Freedman. Yeah, it would.
It's not completely for the sake of realism, but THAT is what the characters would have done.
The ending was what the message of the author was. Wars just plain suck. And us kids, the good guys, should learn from it and avoid it. Without a death, it wouldn't seem possible.
Plus, from your post, i can see that you are really affected by the ending. An ending that affects and changes us, last time i checked, was good.
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Not if it's in a negative way.
And how would realism be boring? Was Saving private Ryan boring?
Like I said, it's inconsistent with the rest of the series. Rachel only died because the author wanted her to die, and it was done poorly.
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I've gotta back Chad on this one, for the most part. I feel the ending was relatively well done if you look at it alone, but looking at it with the rest of the series, it absolutely does not fit. You can't deny that Animorphs really changed direction over the course of the series, with the overall message going from one of <Hope...> to one of "war sucks!" Honestly, the former is something I don't feel we see enough today, and the first 30 or so books (which were also more character-driven than the later books) are far more appealing to me than the war-driven latter half of the series. Whatever else you can say about the ending, it will never really feel like Animorphs to me.
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You can't deny that Animorphs really changed direction over the course of the series, with the overall message going from one of <Hope...> to one of "war sucks!"
I felt that too; the series grew very, very dark as it progressed. However, I think that's actually realistic. In the first few books, the Animorphs were new to the war and still hopeful. Later, as the bitter truth set in, they became hard and bitter themselves.
The only inconsistency is that Elfangor was as young and inexperienced as the Animorphs at the beginning, and faced many of the same horrors they did, yet he never succumbed to bitterness. (Although, he also never entered a Yeerk pool afaik; there's a reason the Anis describe it as "**** on earth", and it's likely that scarred them more than any battles ever did)
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Incoming wall of text
[spoiler]I have to say having given this subject quite a bit of thought, I was deeply disappointed with the ending. I can fully sympathise that to draw the series to a satisfying conclusion is a very tricky task. Unlike some, I don't view KA as a bad writer in light of this; I think she should be commended for creating such an enjoyable universe with characters that the reader can empathise with. I do however think KA stumbled at the final hurdle, and that the ending seems rushed and not particularly logical.
Whilst it is indeed KA's universe and she can write how she sees fit, readers are not forced to accept an author's vision of a universe. At any time readers can refuse to accept the terms and reject something as part of the canon. However a well-written universe persuades the reader to accept this view. If KA kills a character, I don't accept it because she - the author - tells me to. I accept it because through the narrative she has constructed, she convinces me it is the logical thing to happen in the universe, and ultimately this universe is one I find entertaining.
To that end, I personally reject The Beginning as part of the series canon, and I will explain why. I do however respect KA's own vision, and those that agree with her vision, but it is not one I share based on the universe she has established over the course of the series.
My rejection of the canonicity is certainly not merely because KA kills Rachel; characters have died in many of the works I have come to enjoy over the years and I have accepted them, even if I find them sad, simply because they follow the continuity and established logic of the universe. For example, Dumbledore's death in HP follows on logically. I might not like it, but I readily accept it as part of the canon of the HP universe because it follows. It makes perfect sense.
This doesn't follow with Rachel's death, because it was entirely avoidable by half-decent planning. Something Jake managed to show for 52 books, during which he took part in countless battles. Whilst it would be entirely unrealistic if Animorphs was real, this was part of the suspension of disbelief. Like the morphing technology, readers accept the - at times improbable - repeated survival of the major characters whilst many others die around them because the series has always been focused on these characters, their goals, motivations, actions, and thoughts.
The reader has to implicitly accept this as part of reading the series; if they didn't, they'd simply stop reading. This is part of the terms of the suspension of disbelief. Killing such a character at the final hurdle violates the terms of this, unless the author is able to convincingly justify the decision. This is before we even consider the manner in which this occurred.
The main themes behind the characters are at the core of the Animorphs series, and used to explore the human condition. Winning the war was secondary to the reader; it was this exploration and interaction of the characters that was at the heart of the books; the war was simply a backdrop to do this. Killing off a character because "war is nasty" does not follow from these themes; it is a non sequitur.
KA also attacks strawmen in her justification on the ending, arguing that readers wanted a perfect fairy-tale ending. Whilst some undoubtedly did want this, I feel it is fair to say that the vast majority were not asking for such an ending, and it would have been deeply unsatisfying. I personally would have had Tom killed off for that bittersweet ending. I would have had Jake break down after the immense psychological trauma, now the situation is finally over. I would have had him struggle to reconcile with Cassie afterwards in response.
I would juxtapose this against Rachel and Tobias's relationship by having Tobias successfully help Rachel come to terms with the end of the war, and the changes that had occurred to her during it. It wouldn't have been a fairy-tale ending where everyone walks off smiling in to the sunset. It would show the cost the war had on the characters, and it would give a chance to explore the recovery. In a series filled with destruction, blood, sweat, and tears, there is absolutely no need to destroy one of the few positive things merely for the sake of pointing out that war is horrible and has costs. There certainly isn't a need to do so when by doing this you then destroy the motifs behind an entire series of books.
One should also consider that there are survivors of wars. There are men and women who have suffered immensely, but they do recover. It takes strength of character, and support, but these brave men and women succeed. The Animorphs ending conversely does not show this, at odds with the strength characters have displayed for 53 books. Would this not be a far better and consistent theme to end on?
The state of the characters after the war is not encouraging. The one person who gains the most and suffered the least goes on to live a dull existence. Everyone else loses something. There is no struggle to rebuild. No themes of love and friendship allowing terrible situations to be overcome, which is at the very core of the books. It's simply a tale of needless destruction and misery, and the sole justification is a point that could be readily achieved in other ways, already features in any case, and because KA wanted to get across a very bleak message. It is the very antithesis of the core themes in the Animophs series.
KA's other justification for Rachel's death is that Tobius must remain sad. He's always been unhappy and this must remain the status quo. What kind of message is this to send? That those that suffer immense hardship should just give up because they will never be happy and it is pointless to try? This is not only repulsive, but again, the antithesis of the themes of love, friendship, and hope that drive the series.
And what of the other Animorphs? One can presume that James acts as KA's mouthpiece when he rightly declares that their lives have value too despite their disabilities, yet KA kills them off by sending them off on a suicidal death charge, with barely anyone noticing. Ironically KA only succeeds in getting the message across that such people are disposable and unimportant here, at odds with the message earlier on in the series.
There's also the finale itself. This comes almost out of nowhere and is essentially deus ex machina, a second fight to end on as a cliff-hanger, and a very cheap and unsatisfying reason to bring characters back together after destroying their relationships. This is deeply unsatisfying as a plot device, and feels very rushed.
This issue is very polarising. Whatever view you personally hold, I respect your right to feel that way, and at the end of the day, I feel this is an issue that everyone has to decide for themselves. Hopefully this has been useful for those of the opposite view to understand the rationale behind those of us that disagree with the ending.[/spoiler]
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I agree with everything. KA is not a bad writer. She just isn't good at ending a series once she's moved onto the next big thing. I said this before when someone actually said she was a horrible writer. she is a really good writer, but she lost interest in the series before she ended it, and it suffered for it.
Yes killing Rachel went against what was established in the series, and she began attacking strawmen after most fans hated it.
Personally I wouldn't kill Tom off, but I would have him be upset that Jake didn't save him for three years. We never got anything on Tom's views late in the series, especially after he finds out Jake knew the whole time.
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Exactly. It might be a decent read as a standalone story, but after (52 regular series + 4 MegaMorphs + 4 Chronicles = 60) books, it is most certainly not Animorphs as we've come to know it. Granted, I tend to be pretty harsh on the ghostwritten books in particular (my standard comment is that I started to lose interest in the series "somewhere in the thirties," and honestly, I don't feel any part of the last half of the series can touch the quality of the first half), but, biases aside, the disconnect between the ending and the rest of the series should be fairly evident, even to those who appreciated it more than I did.
There's a limit to our ability to "reject the canonicity" of the ending, though, because that is what was written. It's what was put down by the author. It's the only ending that the majority of the fanbase will ever know. It is, effectively, what really happened, and like it or not, you've still got to accept it to that degree.
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Well it IS the canon ending. There's really no denying it, especially since it wasn't ghostwritten. We just don't have to like it. I kind of wish it was ghostwritten, because then the majority could hold onto that and justifyably call discontinuity. However it just hurts all the more that it isn't ghostwritten. The same person that wrote the first 24 books also wrote the last two, and we find it hard to understand what happened. If anything else, I think the series was too long for its own good.
On the other hand Everworld was only 12 books long, give or take, and she still had ghostwriters do some of them.
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Thanks for the comments :)
Personally I wouldn't kill Tom off, but I would have him be upset that Jake didn't save him for three years. We never got anything on Tom's views late in the series, especially after he finds out Jake knew the whole time.
I think the series probably would have been more powerful with Tom dying because of the opportunities this would present, but that is of course my personal opinion. It would have been interesting to get some insight into his thoughts though, I agree.
There's a limit to our ability to "reject the canonicity" of the ending, though, because that is what was written. It's what was put down by the author. It's the only ending that the majority of the fanbase will ever know. It is, effectively, what really happened, and like it or not, you've still got to accept it to that degree.
There's really no denying it, especially since it wasn't ghostwritten
I disagree here; people can reject things that are set in stone, so to speak. Authors can as well actually; there are many well known examples of something being set in writing only to be retconned in later works, or even later versions of that work. For example, Tolkien changed the story behind the ring in the original version of The Hobbit. Authors can make mistakes, or change things. And similarly, sometimes readers may refuse to accept those changes when retcons do occur.
As I said, if you write a universe, I am not forced to accept it in any way just because it's what you wrote. When you write a book, you can think of it as an invitation to believe the story being presented, which I do in exchange for entertainment. I can stop this at any time I want if I feel it has become too illogical. It is perfectly possible to accept part of a story whilst rejecting other parts, unless there is an inconsistency in what you accept verses what you reject.
For example, if at the end of the series I said "hang on, that guy turns into a snake, that's just stupid", then this would be nonsensical, since to get to that point I would have had to accept this kind of stuff happening a lot! You can't rationally reject the concept of morphing at that stage because you already have accepted it for a long time. That would be inconsistent with the suspension of disbelief.
However, if KA declared in the final passage of the book that "Jake was actually a magical piece of talking furniture", no one is forced to accept this because it's written down on paper. Readers could rightly argue that "hang on, that is just silly", and refuse to accept that Jake is actually a piece of furniture, whilst accepting everything else up until that point. So whilst KA might assert that in her vision, Jake is an inanimate object, no one is required to take this seriously because it doesn't follow from what is already accepted in the story. The fact that KA said it, and it's actually in the book is irrelevant; people are still not forced to accept it.
Like many things in life though, people can reject something for good or bad reasons. A good reason in this case would be the dramatic discontinuities and large plot holes. A bad reason would be "Rachel died and I don't like this so I'm going to magically believe she's still alive". Compare that to "I refuse to accept Rachel's death because the state of events allows her to achieve her goal with a far lesser risk of death, and Jake acts in a completely different manner by making nonsensical strategic decisions, at complete odds with his competence in earlier books".
The first one is just childish wishful thinking. The second one is a rejection because things don't add up.
I'll also point out that if there is a contradiction in something, then this is a mistake on the part of the author. This isn't to say author's can't change their minds on things either, but if you do want to change your mind you either need to retcon earlier work, or you gradually evolve the story to meet the new vision. But you can't just dramatically change something, or have someone act completely differently and force anyone to accept it.
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Yeah, that is a good point about accepting or rejecting things the author writes down.
I mainly say I want Tom to live because just about everyone got what they wanted to achieve in the end. Even Rachel, who accomplished her original goal even if she died.
Rachel got to save the Human race, Cassie got to save the planet, Marco saved his mom and reunited his family, Ax became a hero and Prince before being assimilated by The One. Tobias got to be important and make a difference in his life. even though he ended up cutting himself off from humanity because in KA's eyes he is destined to be unhappy.
Everyone but Jake got what they originally wanted, even though Ax ran into trouble and Tobias didn't stay with Ax or Loren for no easily understood reason. That's what hurts the most about Tom's death.
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You don't have to reject the ending, characters have died only to be brought back more than once. There is no reason the elimmist couldn't have just brought her back to life, or take her on as an apprentice ala the drode to crayak. Heck, the crayak could have brought her back too, I think there was a fanfic about that. So yeah, take it as written, but assme the elimmist did something afterwards, there had to be a reason he told her his entire life story. With him doing that, theres even an out for the full ending, Rachel saves them all.