Author Topic: The Animorphs and Gone: My (Work-in-Progress) Theory  (Read 698 times)

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Offline TobiasMasonPark

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The Animorphs and Gone: My (Work-in-Progress) Theory
« on: May 07, 2014, 10:52:32 PM »

     As I've said perhaps a million times this past week, I've finished Michael Grant's Gone series.

     First off: I really, really enjoyed it. I think it's about as great as the Animorphs. But while I was reading, I noticed that there were a lot of similarities between the Animorphs and Gone--which makes sense, since Michael Grant co-wrote the former with his wife. So I've been piecing together an imperfect theory:

     When Jake makes the call to ram the Blade Ship, the Ellimist won his game with Crayak (that match, at least). Crayak, being a sore loser, challenges the Ellimist to a new game: a game which takes place in Perdido beach, California, some years after the Animorphs finish their battle--but in another universe. The two beings choose their pieces--with Ellimist deciding to use the pieces he chose in the first round: The Animorphs.

     With Jake, Tobias, Marco, Ax, and the other crew of the Rachel dying in the collision with the One--which I believe was an illegal move made by Crayak--the Ellimist takes Cassie's being--brain, soul, essence, whatever you'd like to call it--along with the other Animorphs and places them into the new bodies of the good guys in the FAYZ.

     Jake=Sam Temple
     Rachel= Brianna/The Breeze
     Tobias=Edilio Escobar
     Cassie= Astrid Ellison
     Marco= Quinn Gaither
     Ax= Computer Jack
     Caine= David*

     The rest of the cast in the FAYZ are relatively new pieces used by the Ellimist and Crayak. Tom, Chapman, the Yeerks--Crayak doesn't reuse these pieces, nor does he rely on the Howlers, since it's a new game.

     Crayak, however, decides to take an active part in the game, by creating an avatar in the form of the Gaiaphage--perhaps even sharing the origins of the Gaiaphage.** The Ellimist, taking note of this, creates an avatar of his own: Little Pete.

     The result: Ellimist wins, as most of Crayak's pieces are gone, even though their avatars destroy each other.

     That's my imperfect theory. Thoughts?

*A throwaway piece used by Crayak; Ellimist sees potential in David/Caine.
**
That is, Crayak also began as a virus spread by a benevolent life-worshipping race, but encountered an anomaly that made him evil. I guess that would make Crayak his own grandpa...
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Offline DinosaurNothlit

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Re: The Animorphs and Gone: My (Work-in-Progress) Theory
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2014, 04:59:36 PM »
I like the general idea, and I can definitely see the Ellimist and Crayak having had a hand in the events of Gone.

That said, I think some of your character assessments are a bit off.  Sam = Jake, Rachel = Brianna, and Ax = Jack I can definitely see.  You've got your two reluctant leaders who won't step up to lead until they're needed, you've got your two psychotically brave girls with just a touch of "I'm better than you" arrogance (although, it's still worth noting that Brianna lacks the insecurities that Rachel keeps buried deep down below her mask; Brianna doesn't wear a mask, I think she's just psychotically brave), and you've got your two tech geeks who don't really understand the nuances of human society.  You're pretty spot-on with those.

That said, I pretty strongly disagree with the rest.  Tobias is not Edilio.  Edilio is a smart, practical, with-it kid who knows how to get what he wants even when other people try to hold him back.  He can look at a situation and know what to do.  If not for Sam and some of the other people with powers, he would very likely have become the leader of the FAYZ.  Tobias, as much as I love him, was FAR from being that gifted at dealing with what life handed him.  It took a war, and a higher cause beyond himself, for him to even try.

Cassie is not Astrid.  True, they share a certain smug superiority because of their respective moral beliefs.  But, where Cassie was only manipulative when she had to be and seemed to resist the idea of ever being ruthless, Astrid's default state seemed to be 'manipulative and ruthless.'  It wasn't until quite late in the series that she ever even developed qualms about being the person she is; something that would have happened MUCH sooner with Cassie.  She was also much smarter than Cassie, at least in terms of intelligence becoming part of her identity (at no point did Cassie ever consider herself a 'genius' the way Astrid was).

Marco is not Quinn.  They share a sort of goofball outlook on life in the beginnings of both their stories, but the similarity pretty well ends there.  Where one (Marco) rises up as sort of a strategic general, the other (Quinn) really just wants a simple life of fishing.  It takes Quinn until nearly the end of the series to finally realize that it is within his power to strategize and use his cleverness to his advantage against an enemy.  As such, it's pretty clear that he lacks Marco's innate ruthlessness.

David is not Caine.  Caine had a strong charisma about him that made people want to believe and follow him.  If David had had that, he wouldn't have had nearly as many problems with the other Animorphs as he did (might have even gotten away with some of the stuff he tried to pull on them).  And while they share at least a few of the same ruthless tendencies, I think that David was originally a good person who turned bad, as shown by the fact that he couldn't kill the Animorphs as humans, making up all that bull that it was okay if he killed them as animals.[spoiler]Caine was exactly the opposite; a bad person who turned good.  And he clearly had no such compunctions about killing humans.[/spoiler]

That said, I don't see why you're trying to shoehorn them into being the same people, anyway.  The Ellimist and Crayak have played loads of games, with loads of different pieces.  Who's to say this wasn't just the start of a new game, instead of a continuation of the old?

EDIT: I changed my mind, Ax is not Jack, either.  Ax has a strong (if occasionally misguided) moral center and a powerful sense of honor, in stark contrast with certain actions taken by Jack early in the series [spoiler]such as joining sides with Caine just to be able to feel special.[/spoiler]  Even later in the series, Jack is still a far cry from being the military-minded cadet that Ax is [spoiler]and even has to be forced to fight against his will.[/spoiler]  Where Jack is just a scared kid, Ax is a soldier.  Some of this is probably due to upbringing, but some of it has to be innate; I cannot see a person like Jack ever being able to become a person like Ax.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2014, 05:48:56 PM by DinosaurNothlit »

Offline TobiasMasonPark

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Re: The Animorphs and Gone: My (Work-in-Progress) Theory
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2014, 07:55:21 PM »

     I guess the theory does seem a tad forced :P I don't know, I guess I liked the idea of the Animorphs living on, you know? But mainly I just noticed some similarities. Also, I have a habit to make two or three similarities between two works and jump straight to theory building.

     I made the Cassie=Astrid comparison mainly because they both bug the crap out of me :P But I see your point. Would Marco be more like Dekka? I made a connection between Tobias and Edilio because they're both so damn loyal to Sam. Also, I made David Caine because I just didn't think the former was crazy enough to be Drake.

     Maybe alternate universe would be a better idea? Or maybe I should quit forcing it :P

     Also, I would have thought someone would have brought up Cassie being an anomaly, thus cutting my theory to shreds xD

     Thanks for responding, though, I appreciate it. RAF is like a ghost town lately.
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Offline DinosaurNothlit

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Re: The Animorphs and Gone: My (Work-in-Progress) Theory
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2014, 09:36:52 PM »
Yeah, I definitely understand wanting the Animorphs to live on.  All these years later, and I still can't come to terms with that damned ending.  :-\

That said . . . if you must find Gone-equivalents for the Animorphs, I'd probably put Tobias as Hunter.  Hunter being a bit of a loner who tries to fit in, and ends up being persecuted (they're both kinda bully-magnets, aren't they?) and becoming even more of a loner [spoiler]ending up living in the forest on whatever he can catch.[/spoiler]  Cassie might be Orsay, the girl who just wants to do the right thing and find beauty in dreams, but ends up manipulating everyone else [spoiler]ultimately letting the Darkness kill her, rather than face her own mistakes.[/spoiler]  I can see Marco as Dekka, but I think he'd actually be a better fit for Albert.  The smart businessman who knows what to do and can see the bigger picture to keep everyone alive.  While also manipulating the situation to his own benefit, of course.  David would be a good fit for either Bug or Howard, I think.  Doesn't really want to cause trouble, isn't really a 'bad guy,' but is definitely looking out for himself first and foremost.

Can't really think of a better fit for Ax than Jack, though.  Edilio, maybe?  They both have the 'outsider' thing going on, and they both have a very practical mentality.  And Edilio has a much stronger sense of honor than Jack does.

Lol, I agree with the comment about Cassie and Astrid both being annoying characters.  At least Astrid became much more tolerable in the last two books.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2014, 09:49:03 PM by DinosaurNothlit »

Offline Shenmue654

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Re: The Animorphs and Gone: My (Work-in-Progress) Theory
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2014, 01:48:21 PM »
The real reason for the links between the two series is because they were written "by the same guy"--- Gone's writing is strongly reminiscent of the good Animorphs books, although he doesn't have his wife's humor. Both authors seem drawn to teenage protagonists, although Everworld if anything showed how creepy Katherine could be....

But if the two series were linked in a more cosmological sense, it would make a kind of crazy sense. ;3