A better ending for Rachel

[Withers95]

I started this series when I was seven. Now, at twenty-three, I have just finally finished the final book. It was heartbreaking reading about Rachel's death, and the collapsed relationship of Cassie, Jake, and the other Animorphs.

Rachel's death seemed strange and unnecessary, ultimately serving as not much more than a reminder about the devastation of war.

By the end of the series, Rachel had turned into a beast. She scared pretty much everybody around her, even her family, and would probably never be the same. I think Rachel should have won her fight. She should have gone on to slay Tom and the other controllermorphs on the ship. She should have lost a limb, an eye, gone down bleeding and scarred and cut open and passed out. But she should have survived as a nothlit, a permanent bear.

It would be tragic to see her as this monstrous creature, covered in scars, hobbling along and no longer able to fight properly. Cassie and her parents would have had to stitch her up and push her guts back in. The beautiful girl forever transformed into a disfigured grizzly bear, which by the end, probably better represented Rachel for what she was and had become.

Then, later, after a few years or so, Jake hears from Tobias. Rachel isn't doing too well. The Animorphs get back together and spend their last few moments with Rachel, who, tough as ever, then eventually lays her big head down on the ground to sleep forever. That's the ending she deserved.

[yrkd88]

I didn't have much problem with Rachel's death as it was, but I think I like your ending idea better. It's dark and tragic, crueler than the other. But also very symbolic of Rachel herself in the end, and a nice parallel to Tobias's own nothlit-ism.

[Dylan]

I think the death fits Rachel's character arc. She spiraled out of control at the end of the series (Book 48 basically being the end point of where her character was going), if she didn't die, there's no way she'd be able to fit back into normal society. She would have been an emotional, possibly abusive reck, to Tobias as well as everyone else. Also, her death is a quite literal interpretation of the "some people don't come back from war" theme set back up back in The Andalite Chronicles.

The bear idea is interesting (It kind of has a parallel to Taylor, them being beautiful girls ruined by bad choices and war and stuff like that), but I think the death idea fits the best.

[RYTX]

That is a really interesting idea, though I don't like the idea that Rachel had to have or deserved a tragic. I'm not a in the Rachel could never be normal camp, so I also don't think she had to die. I'm okay with that she did, though it could have gone better, but while the ending you propose is very appropriate, one of the merit's of Rachel's death is that it does come off as kinda pointless. And while that is a war is tragic message, it is also a it (death) isn't story book message. **** happens, people die, randomly, accidentally, in ways that in no way attest to the lives they lived. That's a very real aspect of life, and considering how the rest of the series avoided it adds some painful realism to the story that's lasting, if not fitting.
(Let's face it, half off conversations on this board are on how people aren't satisfied with Rachel's death, what would be said if it had all tied up cleanly?)

[JKosprey88]

I've been a soldier and I've seen some terrible things. I hated the "message" that Rachel could never be normal after having been a dedicated warrior. Personally, I think Rachel was the only one of them appropriately behaving as though she was in a WAR. If you're too squeamish to kill your enemy in a life-or-death fight, you're going to lose.

[Chad32]

Rachel, Tom, ect dying never sat well with me. You go 50 books without any named sympathetic character dying, outside of megamorphs or chronicles books, then suddenly people are dropping like flies, and we're expected to just nod our heads. That's what war is. Why choose then to jam extra realism into a series about shapeshifters fighting aliens? Why does Cassie let Tom's Yeerk get away with the escafil device, just because he had a dracon beam, when in the last book she narrated, she talked about how letting the Yeerks get the box would be the worst thing that could possibly happen? Why did Applegate title every book with the word The, and one other word, but pass on the obvious "The End"? I would have bet a hundred bucks that would be the title of the last book. Too obvious to go for, I guess.

The final arc wasn't done well. I don't think Applegate really mapped out everything from beginning to end, like some authors do. I really don't want to call her a bad writer, because she's good enough to convince me to buy a 54 book series plus megas and chronicles. She had some flaws, though, and I think the flaw with the last arc was trying to push a certain message at the expense of the characters.

It's been 20+ years, though. I shouldn't get riled up about an old series like this. Funny enough, my least favorite book isn't even in the final arc. It's 31. I'll cut it a little slack for that.

[andalite apologist]

I've been a soldier and I've seen some terrible things. I hated the "message" that Rachel could never be normal after having been a dedicated warrior. Personally, I think Rachel was the only one of them appropriately behaving as though she was in a WAR. If you're too squeamish to kill your enemy in a life-or-death fight, you're going to lose.

yeah I didn't like that they sold the "could never be normal", especially when Jake was the one that couldn't get over it.  unless.... that was the whole point  ?(°?°)?

[NothingFromSomething]

Kinda think you all might be looking too hard into the "could never be normal" thing, at least in relation to the point being "so she had to die" or whatever.  Seems more just a good way of Katherine/Michael showing that war changes people, in addition to Jake's state after the war and the Jake/Cassie romantic stuff evaporating etc.

She basically goes out with a sacrifice play to save Jake.  Because he's too important politically by then, only long-shot the humans have in dealing with the Andalite brass (Ax's whole 'prince' thing).  All the kids are important, but not all of them are necessarily vital to the aftermath of it the way Jake is.  If Rachel didn't volunteer, Jake probably would have gone and tried to do it himself, and no way Rachel was ever going to stand for that.

Couple it with the "who of the Animorphs (mentally, not combat ability) is going to actually be able to kill Tom?"  Ax obviously, Marco maybe might be able to pull the trigger.  Tobias...maybe, unlikely I think due to his empathy for Jake prior to the Rachel thing.   Cassie wouldn't.  But in terms of both drama and it being "fitting", Rachel or Jake are basically the candidates in a big finale like that.  The family link, the intensity of that, the themes of 'how much do you sacrifice to win?' etc.

It's a perfect Rachel ending, actually.  Selfless, brave, something that matters as the Ellimist conversation reinforces.  It's way less narratively poignant if she goes on the impossible mission and actually makes it out alive.