What's the point of MM4?

[sherrilina]

Uhmm... actually, it wasn't clearly stated if the Ellimist stacked the deck or it was plain coincidence. Hahaha, i think he was just teasing the Drode on how the 6 of them ended up together. But still, the possibility that they were chosen is pretty large.

Well from TAC we know that the Ellimist at least knew that they would all come together, and stacked the deck as far as allowing Elfangor to return to where he was *supposed* to be so that he could later come to earth and help the Animorphs (and so that Ax would be born, since he knew he too would play a key role).  It's not that far of a stretch to say he engineered things given how he knew all of this....I always kind of assumed he had a hand in it after reading that chapter in TAC....

Anyone remember MM3 book opening? Very disturbing but interesting.

Holy crap yes!  I have never been sooo confused in my life while reading a book! :p  I remember thinking, "WTF Melissa?!" from page one, etc.  Now that was another cool AU....

[adamjared]

Hmm... yeah, I am pretty convinced right now that the Animorphs were chosen, but, its not that the Ellimist was bad at the game back then, its just that he always wants to play the underdog. You know, join the weaker and more likely to loose team and play his best.

Figures, he played chess with Crayak. Crayak had billions of Yeerks as his pieces, and Ellimist had none but 6.

OK GUYS. There is a timeline in the Ellimist Chronicles you must realize. When Ellimist makes his presence known to Crayak by moving the planet Earth, That was when Dinosaurs still walked the earth! Yes, he said the small warmblooded animals had a future, but who knows if he knew about the Animorphs back then. I think Ellimist and Crayak each chose a species. Crayak chose Yeerks, Ellimist chose ANDALITES. Humans weren't even at modern technology when the Yeerks were still living in their pools, before Seerow's Kindness. Seerow's Kindness also is a big part that makes you question who caused that? Cause that's the big change for the Yeerks. That would be Crayaks small part, EXCEPT that he didn't choose the Andalites, so he couldn't do that. I think Ellimist was foolish and gave the Yeerks the technology of spaceflight.

[dolphin4077]

I always thought MM4 was a response to the TV show episode with the same premise, a way for KA to say, "Now this is what really happens."

[Yarin]

no i think the episode came after the book

[Essam 293]

Nope. MM#4 came after 'Not My Problem'. It was the only book in the series that wasn't adapted by the TV show, because the TV show wrote the same story before K.A even announced it (I remember reading this on Morphz way back). K.A most likely didn't even know that the TV show had done an episode with a 'what if' story because her and Michael said that they had only watched the first two episodes of the TV show and then stopped.

Doing a 'what if' story in a series isn't exactly original anyway, no more than having an evil double twin (#32) or a team mate turned traitor (David), or even a befriending-a-bad-guy-while-trapped-in-an-isolated-location-to-better-understand-and-break-the-black-and-white-villain-stereotype story (Aftran, #19). A lot of it is pretty cliche stuff that has been done lots of times already on tv and film. Just be glad we didn't have a book that was focused as a court room drama.

Oh wait.

[wolfev]

Yea, it is pretty weird it worked out that way. She must've been pissed how close the episode was, cause they were really similar. That is to say in the way the show tended to screw up the books, if they were to screw up MM4 thats how I figure they would screw up MM4. Or maybe she mentioned it to the writers as a planned work and they ran with it. Now here is the big question, if the show lasted, how on earth would they have gotten through the rest of the series? They basically wrote themselves into corners a lot. I do know they probably would have done a David trilogy movie event. Of course it would have ended differently. Like the yeerks being the ones who trap him in the end because he went to their side.

[Essam 293]

Yea, it is pretty weird it worked out that way. She must've been pissed how close the episode was, cause they were really similar. That is to say in the way the show tended to screw up the books, if they were to screw up MM4 thats how I figure they would screw up MM4. Or maybe she mentioned it to the writers as a planned work and they ran with it. Now here is the big question, if the show lasted, how on earth would they have gotten through the rest of the series? They basically wrote themselves into corners a lot. I do know they probably would have done a David trilogy movie event. Of course it would have ended differently. Like the yeerks being the ones who trap him in the end because he went to their side.

Sorry, I must've missed something, but how did they write themselves into a corner? The final episode ended with the prom and was left pretty open.

[wolfev]

No I generally mean that with the changes in continuity they would write themselves into corners where they would be unable to do certain story lines without messing with their own continuity.

[Essam 293]

Again, I don't understand what you mean. Which storyline are you talking about specifically? They never killed off any of the characters early or left things unresolved any different than in the books. Everything seemed to generally be in proper continuity on the show, and if the show hadn't been canceled, then they would've had more than enough time to make sure that they followed the books continuity as well because the books would've been over before the TV show.

[Gafrash]

I have opinions similar to RYTX on this book.

The point of MM4 was simply to piss me off

It solidifies the whole 'Destiny' thing.

For me that makes it far worse than any filler story, ending or lack of plot advancement ever.

For me the whole thrill was "five random kids who happened to walk through a construction site" and then suddenly this book comes out and oh, surprise, the Ellimist planned this all along and if it hadn't happened they'd experience some weird transdimensional jumps that results in Armageddon?
No. Bad bad bad bad bad.
I like the book I like the story, up until that Ellimist appears I like it. But the idea of inescapable destiny is both disgusting and horrifying to me.
So yeah. MM4 is to make me go grr

Though I liked MM4 and DO think it was important, I can relate to this too.
Character descriptions aside, the idea that the Animorphs’ feelings and decisions are all part of some sort of ‘play moves’ in the Ellimist’s and Cryak’s conflict, is a bit ludicrous to me and ruins the whole idea we are all lead to believe in the beginning, that the 5 kids that walked through the construction site were all random average teenagers who coincidentally happened upon a crashing aliencraft.
Though I think the Ellimist was needed to put things back in place at the end there, I didn’t like his ‘stacking the deck’ stunt in it.

I know the Ellimist is a complex character. My worst read was possibly The Ellimist Chronicles.
MM4 was more for us readers to realize how life would have been for the Animorphs if they never met Elfangor. Plain and simple to me, we needed to be shown that independent to Jake's giving in there, the Yeerks were still invading and the Andalites would have still lost that battle above the Earth.
You can wish the specific problem to be removed from your life, but it doesn't mean it will disappear.
So you get this feeling of 'as bad as things are in the reality, things could be a looooooooot worse'.

I always thought MM4 was a response to the TV show episode with the same premise, a way for KA to say, "Now this is what really happens."

I too have wondered which execution of the Alternate Universe Idea came first. The MM4 Book or the Tv episode?